HOW TO ERADICATE CULTISM FROM OUR TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS

 HOW TO ERADICATE CULTISM FROM OUR TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS

Written by Mbibi Longinus Chinagorom/ mbibilonginuschinagorom@gmail.com

Cultism cannot just be eradicated easily but it can be minimized. A lot of factors need to be put under control for the successful eradication of cultism in secondary and tertiary institutions. All hands must be on deck if we actually want to eradicate cultism in our tertiary institutions.

Let us look into some barriers that hinder the successful eradication of cultism in our tertiary institutions. They are; School Authority, Police Force and Government. All these bodies knowingly or unknowingly, directly or indirectly encourage cultism in tertiary institutions. Let us take a look at them one after the other and see how or ways by which they encourage cultism in tertiary institutions.

The School Authority: Admission into tertiary institutions today, is no longer on merit. People, who couldn't pass Jamb, bribe their ways into school. Even with the introduction of post utme by the school authorities is not even helping matters at all. A person that bribed or bought admission into tertiary institution may not know the purpose why he/she came into school and might continue to live rough life believing that even as he bribed his way into school, he could also bribe his way through, until even his graduation. Such people always end up in cult and will continue to disturb the peace of those who know the purpose of which they came to school.

Secondly, today in tertiary institutions, lecturers are members of one cult group or the other. Some of these lecturers got involved in cultism during their years as students, in tertiary institutions and even when they become lecturers they continue to be respectable members of that cult group. They will be highly respected by the cult group and the cult will be using them  to settle their academic problems. The lecturers, in return, will be using the boys to fight their enemies on campus, be they fellow lecturers or anybody at all. They use cult boys to terminate the lives of such persons or deal with them brutally.

Today, in our tertiary institutions, some Vice Chancellors and rectors or provosts are members of one cult or the other, both on campus and outside the campus. And they make use of these boys to terminate the life of any body who tries to step on their toes or disagree with their decisions.

And such a cult group, knowing very well that the Head (Vice Chancellor or Rector or Provost) of the institution is identified with them, capitalizes on that to terrorize the campus.

Believing that nothing (in terms of rustication or expulsion) can happen to them. In such campuses the Vice Chancellor recommends those who agree to belong to the cult group he is identified with for admission into the school and will always protect them whenever they are having academic problems.

The question is; how can cultism be eradicated in our tertiary institution if these continue? Thorough screening should be carried out before appointing any body as Vice Chancellor, Rector or Provost of any tertiary institution and any person found or suspected to have anything to do with any  cult group should not be appointed and if already appointed such an appointment should be terminated, forthwith.

Government: Nobody is above the law so they say. However today, some people are above the law, especially those in government. Today, some of the brains behind cultism are the children of top government officials because they know that with their parents connections and positions, the police will be afraid to arrest them or even if they are arrested, just a phone call from above will be enough to settle the matter.

This is why cultist, scout for sons of influential, top government officials, to belong to their cult group, and use such persons for their suicide missions, or deadly attacks having it at the back of their mind that should the police arrest them, virtue of their parents connection they would be released immediately, and will never be rusticated or expelled from school.

If leadership is by example, and if some top government officers allow the rule of law to take its course, whether their children are involved or not, I believe it will go a long way in minimizing or even eradicating cultism in our tertiary institutions.

The National Assembly should strive to pass a bill on secret cult on campus. Such bills make it a constitutional offence for any student or lecturer to belong to, or take part in any activity of the campus cults. Violation of this law should attract a jail sentence, ranging from, say, a minimum of 10 years imprisonment without an option of fine.

This could be a step in the right direction towards combating the menace of cultism in our tertiary institutions.

The Police: This is another body that encourages cultism, indirectly in our tertiary institutions. Today, police is using cult members to make money; they will arrest them and instead of taking them to court for adequate punishment, they will impose huge amount of money on them as bail fee. At the end, while the children of the less privileged who can not afford the money will then be taken to court.

The quest to acquire money by arresting cult members have made the police to start arresting even non-cult members and claim that they are cult members, and threaten the parents that if they don't pay the amount of money they will be asked to pay, will take their children to court. Trust parents, they will struggle to pay their money. That is why, today, about twenty (20)  cult members will be arrested at the end only four (4) or five (5) who could not afford the money to pay as bail fee, will be taken to court, while the rest that paid the money will be set free. Cult members, knowing this very well, will now prepare ahead of time, some even set some money aside, incase of police arrest, their friend can use it to bail them. They are no more afraid of the police knowing fully well that it can only cost money to be free from the police net. And so then achieve go on without any fear.

But if the police force will change and start taking any body suspected to be a cult member to court, it will go along way to put an end to cultism in our tertiary institution, by the time 20 or 30 students will be jailed for belonging to a cult group, others will be afraid to belong to cult groups. These will go a long way to help minimize or eradicated cultism in our tertiary institutions.