Ujudud Shariff
6 August 2002
opinion
The alarming resurgence of violence and killings associated with cult activities in our tertiary institutions in the last few weeks, calls for serious concern and demands for drastic action to combat this repulsive menace. Also worthy of consideration is the fraudulent manner the university authorities spent the N300 million special grant allocated to fight cultism in 1999.
The horrifying activities of cultism in the universities pricked the conscience of the nation when on July 10,1999 five students were killed in a most bizarre massacre. According to reports then, on or at about 4.00 am, over 30 members of the Black Axe secret cult invaded the Awo Hall of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, where they shot and killed five students including the secretary general of the students' union government, George Yemi Iwilade. This cold-blooded murder ignited a national outrage that once again forced the nation to make critical examination of cultism and seek effective measures to eradicate it once and for all. In fact, this episode raised the question of the involvement of the teachers and the university authorities in cult activities. Of particular interest was the indictment of Professor Wale Omole, the university's vice chancellor by the students who accused him of sponsoring the attacks. Though he denied the allegations and the panel that investigated the matter exonerated him, the fact of the matter still remains that there is no smoke without fire. In fact, one notorious fact still remains that a number of university and polytechnic administrators and teachers are involved in cult activities. A report by the National Universities Commission (NUC) also admitted this much when it stated that university authorities do actually use one cult or the other to "intimidate or fight fellow academic or other staff members and belligerent students union activists". But before we go into too much detail in this matter, the obvious question is how did all this start?
The history of campus cults can be traced to the early 1950s when Wole Soyinka and some of his friends established the Pirates Confraternity at the University of Ibadan as a social club. But over the years it assumed a larger than life image as a very dangerous cult. Just a few years ago, at the University of Port Harcourt, the cult was fingered for the massacre of some students. Though it has denied that it was a cult organisation, its secret activities and the strange titles it gives its members point in that direction. Indeed, one of its prominent members is Dr. Agunloye, the current minister of state (navy).
A study conducted not long ago by the NUC revealed that there were 33 secret cults and associating groups operating in the universities. These include such deadly ones as Black Axe, Black Cats, Buccaneers, Pirates Confraternity, Maphites, Sea Dogs, Black Beret Fraternity, Green Beret Fraternity, Panama, The Dragons, The Frigates, The Walrus, The Baracudas, The Canary, The Himalayas, The Vikings, Neo Black Movement, Musketeers Fraternity, Trojan Horse Fraternity (Oasis of the Silhouette), Temple of Eden Fraternity, The Mafioso Fraternity, Osiri Fraternity, Ostrich Fraternity, Eiye or Airlords Fraternity, Burkina Faso Revolution Fraternity, The Scorpion Fraternity, Mgba Mgba Brothers Fraternity, Cappa Vendetto, KKK Confraternity, Third Eye Confraternity, The Black Brassieres, The Amazon and Daughters of Jezebel.
In terms of membership, this study also showed that they cut across all sexes, classes and even ages. But the prime movers are the children of the rich and powerful who finance their activities. On geographical spread, the report asserted that ". . . it is worthy of note that while membership is not restricted to a particular area of the country, the menace is more pronounced in the campuses located in the Southern part of the country than the ones in tbe North". As for the reasons why students join these cults, they range from the psychological, economic, egotistical to the ludicrous. Firstly, some students are said to join cults because they want to belong to this type of class that is seen as macho. Others do so because they want to protect themselves from becoming victims of such organisations. Others still do so because their parents who were members encourage them to join. Moreover, there are also others who do so because they believe that their academic progress squarely lies in their membership because anybody that is somebody in the university is also a member. In essence, therefore, different people join cult associations for different reasons. It is therefore quite evident that the authorities have not been able to eradicate this menace for different reasons especially in the southern universities.
The spirited efforts made by President Obasanjo to take cultism in the universities head-on about three years is now admitted to be a failure even by the minister of education. It was after the mayhem in Ife that the president summoned the pro-chancellors, vice chancellors and chairmen of councils to a meeting to specifically discuss the imperatives of eradicating cultism. After the lengthy meeting, he gave them the marching orders: eradicate cultism within three months or face my wrath. He then dished a whopping 300 million naira to the universities to facilitate their work. Thus, within a few weeks, television screens were inundated with faces of self-confessed cultists who apologised and proclaimed themselves born again Christians. Before you knew it, this charade had spread like wild fire to virtually all the southern universities. To many of us even at the time, we knew all the spectre of confessions and denials were fake as they were stage-managed. They were clearly organised by the authorities of the universities to justify the money they collected from government. But in reality, all they did was simply pocket the money and ask the cults to lie low until the heat cooled off. We are happy that the education minister has also realised that and also admitted as much. In this context, our recommendation is that the government should retrieve its money from the vice chancellors whether they are still serving or not. This is in the true spirit of fighting corruption and false pretences. The government must teach serious lessons to these university administrators so as to serve as deterrence. Indeed, one can even argue that their failure to fight cultism seriously with the special funds allocated to them went a long way to sustain the entrenchment of this monster. So by their acts of commission and omission, they contributed in no small measure to the present escalation of dastardly acts.
Another reason why cultism flourishes in the universities is because as already indicated, it is for some, a family affair. It has been established that some parents are cult members, encourage their children to also join. More often than not, it was found out there are many big and influential men in the country who are cultists and therefore subvert whatever measures the government introduced to curtail the menace. For example, it is on record that the first indigenous Chief Justice of Nigeria, the late Sir Adetokunbo Ademola was a major figure in the Ogboni Society, a very old secret cult in Yoruba land. In fact, even recently, the governor of Ogun State, Chief Segun Osoba confessed his membership of the dreaded secret cult. Thus, the children of these big men appear to be untouchable in the universities and could do whatever they liked without fear of any expulsion. Additionally, the memberships of these cults by some university administrators compound the efforts of its eradication. Because the administrators are also members, it is virtually impossible to eradicate cultism in our institutions of higher learning.
It has therefore become very necessary that government should evolve other measures to eradicate this monster from our universities. It is a very well known fact that innocent teachers are being intimidated and blackmailed to give generous marks to the student cultists even when they fail their examinations. It is also a fact that innocent girls are raped and harassed by these cultists. In this regard therefore, government should consider the closure for two years of any institution where there is cult-related violence and issue the riot act to the effect. With this drastic measure, the students themselves would expose the cultists. These cultists are not spirits. They are known by almost everybody close to them. Thus, if the security men would cooperate with these students, within a short time, our institutions would be saved from the menace of cult activities.
Kano prisoners of war?
On July 29,2002 the police in Kano arrested a number of
persons that were alleged to have participated in the violent
protest following the book launch on the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero at the emir's palace that was attended by President Olusegun Obasanjo. It is over a week since the incident and those arrested have not even been taken to court not to talk of being released on bail. This is certainly a violation of their fundamental human rights as provided in the 1999 constitution. Similarly, their transfer to Abuja is another constitutional and human rights impediment that the police would find difficult to justify or defend. These citizens did not kill anybody. Granted that their action is condemnable as the reports indicated that a number of cars were damaged, the fact still remains that the president was not personally assaulted as the violence occurred well after the president left the venue.
While we are awaiting the police report, my own personal inquiries revealed that these protesters were peacefully conducting their protests by carrying placards demanding the release of Mohammed Abacha. This is quite legitimate and an exercise of their constitutional rights and freedoms. What we are trying to ascertain is at what point the protest turned violent?
We therefore would like to call on the police authorities to immediately take these men back to Kano and arraign them in court there. Their continued detention in Abuja and for more than one week is clearly unconstitutional. We are also amazed by the police action against these unarmed citizens. For all the murders committed by the OPC and its leaders such as Ganiyu Adams and Fredrick Fasheun, not a single member of the terrorist organisation was ever brought to Abuja for either investigation or even trial. But why now?
The police should handle this matter dispassionately as it can easily be politicised. Much better still, we appeal to the president to order the release of these young men in the spirit of reconciliation. Kano people have enough grievances and their sons in mysterious detentions. Apart from Mohammed Abacha who is still in jail despite being granted bail by a competent court of law, Colonel (Dr.) Ibrahim Yawale Yakasai is still serving a jail term arising from the 1997 coup. He was jailed for allegedly receiving stolen goods while those jailed for serious crimes of treason like General Oladipo Diya have since been released. Yakasai is the only person among all those convicted for the 1997 coup who is yet to be free.
These young men should be freed and not be treated like prisoners of war. All men and women of goodwill should lend their voices in order to avert potentially serious consequences.
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