NIGERIA-EDUCATION: Cults take over University Campuses

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

CALABAR, Nigeria, Jul 2 1996 (IPS) - Nigeria’s university campuses have been taken over by radical student cults, who even resort to beating up, maiming and terrorising members of rival groups to assert their power.

There are dozens of such groups, each with their different rituals, initiation ceremonies and secretive ways. While some are open to both male and female students, most are the exclusive preserve of males.

The most prominent groups on Nigeria’s 31 university campuses are Buccanias, Black Axe, Pirates Confraternity and Kegites Confraternity.

Said a student of the Federal University here who is a member of Black Axe, but did not want to disclose his name: “I just like to be a member. There are things you gain from being a member of a cult on the campus. Nobody lured me into it, I took the decision myself”.

But clinical psychologists say it is a craving for power and easy access to good things on the campus, including dating girls albeit by intimidation, that lure Nigerian undergraduates into joining campus cults. Some also join to escape harassment.

Since mid-1995, Nigeria’s campuses have been troubled nearly every week by cases of killings, maiming, gun battles, stabbing and other incidents by cult members.

And newspaper headlines such as “A student was killed, three others wounded when cult members attacked some students of Calabar Polytechnic” and ‘Four students of the University of Lagos were hospitalised, one later died, following a clash between rival cults”, have become almost predictable.

Campuses have however been quiet in recent weeks since the authorities closed the universities after teachers there went on a nationwide strike to press for better conditions. Some universities have reopened and students have begun trickling back, although their lecturers have not yet ended their strike.

When IPS visited the Federal University here on Friday, there was little evidence of the cults usually active there.

“The campus is peaceful because nobody knows if the security people will invade the campus again like they did in February when during a violent clash between two rival cults, a student was killed,” said Theresa Akpan, a student of political science.

Akpan, who was in fact very reluctant to talk for fear of reprisal, said of the cults: “I know they exist but we are afraid to mention them. They are dangerous.

“If you an unfortunate to be wooed by a cult member and you refuse, you are in trouble. You either agree to date him or you start receiving threats from other members of his group. You dare not report to the authority. It is as bad as that,” she said.

Peter Omoluabi, clinical psychologist at the University of Lagos explains that studies show that members of these “unorthodox social groups” are motivated to join as a result of basic psychological deficiencies such as low self esteem, lack of self confidence, feeling of insecurity and cowardice.

“Joining a group is a way of hiding and getting anonymity to cover up these deficiencies, and that is why in their mode of operations, members of one university do not carry out the undesirable activities themselves, rather they get their members in another institution to do them,” he told IPS.

“It is natural for groups to be formed … On University campuses, the fact that there is a large number of people in about the same age range, interacting at close proximity makes it inevitable for all kinds of groups including the so-called cults to be formed,” he explains.

Much has changed since the first wave of university societies which predated independence from Britain in 1960. Then campus fraternities were a part of Nigeria’s independence struggle.

The Pirate Confraternity, for example, was formed in 1952 by Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, then a student of the University College, Ibadan. Its aim was to redress the social inequality and segregational policies of colonial academics and administrators against the blacks.

Today, however, the cults strike terror in the student community, and are a cause of great concern to university authorities and even the government.

The causes of conflict between rival cults are often petty: fights over girl friends, posturing to grab money and rivalries over positions in student unions.

Mary Nwanbani, whose son was killed during a clash between two groups at the University of Lagos, believes people in authority are “scared” to unmask cult members, who she thinks have some backing in the corridors of influence.

“Why must everyone keep quiet and be scared of the cults. The government, the university and the public, can no one dare these devils … Are they sacred?” she asks with bitterness.

Most people believe the cults could not have survived on university campuses without support from outside. “Weapons used by members can only come from people in the armed forces or rich parents,” says Richard Bassey, a student of University of Calabar. “They are well connected.”

The problem, according to the Rector of a Federal Polytechnic in the state of Kwara, Taiwo Adeife-Osemeikhian, is rooted in the frequent closing down of universities because of strike.

“If government can check strikes by teachers and parents can make extra efforts to monitor what their children are doing in school, cult membership will be reduced to a minimum on our campuses,” she said.

However, Duke James, a former student leader here, thinks cults reflect the economic and political instability in the country. With deep cuts in welfare, frustration has been growing, he adds.

“What we are seeing in campus cults are merely transfered aggressions from the frustration in the society, to some unidentified enemies,” he told IPS. “The campus cults will die a natural death as soon as welfare services are brought back to the campuses.”