Cultism, a major vice youth crime, which was mostly common in the tertiary institutions in Nigeria, is now spreading like wildfire in both secondary and primary schools. Segun Ogunbo an Ordinary National Diploma student (ND1), Yaba College of Technology, writes.
One of the most trending youth crimes in Nigeria today is cultism.
Cultism is the activities or practices of a group of people with one common spiritual, religious or philosophical belief.
Cultists (practitioners) often take oaths and go into covenant with one another. They are ready to defend their beliefs and practices with their last breath.
Since cultism started in 1952, it has gone through a lot deadly changes. It started as fraternities, confined within universities campuses, with the motive being maintaining of law and order in campuses.
After this, the group established their roots in universities, as a result of leadership tussle among members of the previous confraternity.
Today, there are too many cult groups, and all involved in deadly and devilish practices. They kill and maim. The members involved themselves in crimes like stealing, robbery, cyber-crime, assassination, fighting, kidnapping, and so on.
Cultism, which was founded in tertiary institutions, has now moved into the streets. It can now be found in primary and secondary schools. This has become a very big issue to young people, parents, and communities in Nigeria. These days, children as young as nine, 10 and 13 years old are being initiated into cultism.
Most times, the uninitiated passes through pains before being initiated. They are flogged countless times, forced to drink local gin, which old members spit into their faces and eyes. They are slashed with blade and then asked to drink and share alcohol as a sign of oath.
Most young people join cultism due to the following reasons; quest for power, need to have a sense of belonging, pressure and oppression from cult groups, pressure from friends who are members, and most times for security purpose.
Other factors are poverty, insecurity, peer pressure and weak parental control. When a person gets caught and becomes a member, the person indirectly becomes a ‘hostage.’
What most young people, who join cultism, don’t know is that there are consequences. The major one being premature death. Right from the moment one becomes a member, a life of violence, terror and fear begins.
It has also been discovered that most of these cultists, have godfathers, who, in order to ‘cook them’ spiritually, in order to stop bullets or machete penetrating their bodies during clashes, introduce them to diabolical powers.
The cultists empower and armed themselves with charms like, Ayeta, Okigbe, Oruka, and so many other charms. They believe that with all these sort of charms, no weapon will ever have effect on them. They begin to see themselves as gods.
Cultists operate, using fear to intimidate. Most members are browbeaten and coerced into becoming members.
Solutions
Parents and guardians should educate and orientate their children morally and religiously in order to ensure their children didn’t join the wrong peer groups and succumb to terrible peer pressures. Parents should try to keep an eye on the children.
Government should begin to seek ways to check cultism and provide security for the nation. Politicians should stop using cult groups for campaigns during elections. They should stop employing them as thugs.
Another way to check youths’ involvement in crime is for government to provide employment. When young people have jobs, they would be occupied. When they are idle, many thoughts, mostly bad, run through their minds. Providing job opportunities in Nigeria will reduce cultism. Parents, schools, religious bodies and government should do everything possible to begin to change youths’ orientation on cultism and crime.
First Published 2019
