BY ROSEMARY NWAEBUNI
The reasons many students join secret cults in tertiary institutions are multifarious. High levels of unemployment, poverty, and inequality in Nigeria leave many young people vulnerable to negative influences, including cultism. With limited legitimate means of livelihood, some see cultism as a pathway to financial security through illegal activities like armed robbery, kidnapping, or drug trafficking.
Other reasons include search for identity and sense of belonging; protection from bullies, cult members or perceived threats from lecturers. Some students struggling academically may decide to join a cult, hoping to get assistance in passing their courses, including through unethical means.
The continuous decline in moral values and increasing tolerance for deviant behaviour in society can equally contribute to a culture where cultism is more readily accepted or even encouraged. Some students join cults in search of power and influence that come from membership in such cults, believing it will elevate their status on campus.
Students from poor homes may be lured by the false promise of financial gain or opportunities that secret cults offer. In some cases, some students may be influenced by their parents, particularly if the parents were previously involved in cultism themselves.
Also, students who lack a sense of direction and feel frustrated with their academic or social lives may seek solace in the support offered by secret cults.
Cult activities have severe negative impacts on the individual cultist, families, community and society as a whole. Cultism leads to violence and crimes; a decline in academic performance as a result of missing classes, losing focus, and ultimately dropping out of school.
Other impacts of cultism are psychological trauma; loss of individual identity and autonomy, as members are expected to conform to the cult’s ideology and rules; erosion of social order; disobedience to constituted authority; family breakdown because cultists prioritize their loyalty to the cult over their families; moral decadence – cultism promotes immoral activities, which undermine the moral values of society, leading to decline in ethical standards. Cult activities also cause disruption to academic activities, leading to frequent closures of schools.
Cultism is a monstrous menace that should be tackled headlong and from all fronts. Government, university authorities, parents and the Civil Society should combine their efforts towards effectively reducing the involvement of young people and creating safer environments for them.
Government efforts to curb youth involvement in cultism would require a multipronged approach, including taking cult membership deterrent measures, disruption of cult activities and offering alternatives to youths.
Although the Federal and State governments have already taken some steps in these directions through the enactment of cultism-related laws, enhancement of education, putting security measures in place, and promoting various youth empowerment programmes, a lot still needs to be done.
Beyond enacting laws, governments at different levels should ensure the laws that proscribe cultism and impose penalties for membership and cult-related activities are strictly enforced by prosecuting offenders and implementing strict measures within the school environment without fear or favour.
Governments should collaborate with School authorities, not only to ensure increased police presence and surveillance on campuses, but also to provide them with adequate logistics for effective performance.
As a way of further discouraging cultism in tertiary institutions, the government should also ensure that enough decent and suitable hotels are built on the campuses, while the school’s management ensures that students are dissuaded from staying off campus to enable effective monitoring of their activities. Government at all levels should equally provide support and rehabilitation programs for young people who have renounced cultism, so they can be successfully reintegrated into society.
On the part of Civil Society and other Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), enlightenment and awareness campaigns can be organised across campuses to educate students on the dangers of cultism, including the consequences of joining and participating in violent activities.
They can also leverage their platforms to create opportunities for youths to be engaged in positive activities, such as sports, arts, and community development, to divert them from cultism.
Parental engagement is essential in the efforts to combat the cultism menace in Nigeria. The fundamental role of parents in shaping the early life of their children cannot be overemphasised.
Unfortunately, many parents have failed abysmally in their God-given responsibility to their children, with dire consequences for the family and society in general. Most parents these days have outsourced their parental roles to others as a result of their busy schedules and lacklustre attitude towards parenting.
Parents should therefore up their game by ensuring they play active role in their children’s upbringing by providing them with the necessary support, engaging them to know the challenges they face both in school and the larger society, sharing in their worries, showing empathy, showing them love, avoid putting them under pressure by comparing them with their mates, and giving them valuable advice. These will go a long way to prevent them from being lured into secret cults.
Parents and guardians should also admonish their children and wards to imbibe the fear of God and respect for the sanctity of human life, which is irreplaceable; teach those moral values and the dangers of joining deviant groups, including secret cults.
This will go a long way to discourage them from being manipulated by unscrupulous persons, who will want to manipulate and lure them into cultism.
On the part of students and other youths out there, they should know that cultism does not pay. It has nothing good in stock for them. Rather, it would lead to shattered dreams, societal stigma, shame to the family, regrets, gnashing of teeth, tears, blood and death. Cultism presents a mirage in the form of an attractive way of life that may seem appealing, but the end thereof is destruction.
