Cultism in Educational Institutions in Nigeria

1. Search for responsibility: Some students join cult groups in order to perform certain services for the members. For example to fight perceived injustice in their campuses against their members
2. Search for Satisfaction of ones aspirations and needs: For example, a student may belong to a cult group whose part of their objective is to ensure high success of her members in academic examinations.
3. Search for security: many students, especially the females join cult groups for protection. Some male students join to secure their girlfriends.
4. Search for social identity: There are also students who join cult group to be popular. They want to be regarded as powerful people; for them, it is a way of achieving prestige and greatness. It is their belief that they could influence decisions on campus-that they could dictate the pace during Students Union Elections.

To Oshodumo (1999), some students join campus cults to gain respect and recognition and to acquire protection against sanctions from members of the community. He also added that students join cults group for reasons based on past negative experiences at the family level. There are others who join cults because they want to create avenues to exhibit and diffuse frustrations from the family, school and society. There are students who join cult group for reason of wealth (financial assistance) while others join cults to hide their weaknesses (inferiority complex) - academic or social. Some are forced to join while others feel that the objectives of the cults are landable and worthwhile.

Causes of Cultism in Nigerian Institutions of Learning

Cultism is an anti-social behaviour which is a deviant act. It is at variance with the established norms of behaviour. It is a non-conforming behaviour which usually contravenes the social rules of an institution in particular and the society in general.

In spite of the negative consequences of cultism, it still thrives. Some factors responsible for this are:

1. Identified as some of the causes of cultism. Parental and Home Background:Student's participation in cult activities may be influenced by parent's involvement in similar activities. Parents who are members of secret cults will not see anything wrong in their children's involvement in cultism. Parents may encourage their children to join cults so that they may maintain the traditional titles that have been given to them (that is parents). Children from broken homes may also find solace in cultism. A home that is characterized by child abuse, intolerance, violence, insecurity and hostility may be a breeding ground for prospective cult members.
2. The society: The Nigerian adult society is materialistic. There is the mad ambition for wealth and power. Some powerful members of the society sometimes unleash terror on the other members of the society. Some of them recruit young adults to perpetrate heinous crimes in the society and can erase the long arms of the law. They are the fraudsters, kidnappers ritual murderers, etc. children who grow up in this kind of environment may see nothing wrong in cult activities that involve maiming and killing of innocent people. “Godfathers” who are ready to protect cultists from prosecution sponsor cult activities.
3. Emotional Sickness: Children who have emotional sickness tend to be frustrated and fed up with life. In an attempt to express their anger against neglect, they may join cults to unleash terror on the society that has caused emotional distress. Some children are possessed by the demon. Those children can grow up to become criminals because of the evil spirit in them.
4. Peer Group Influence: Motivation for joining cults may come from peer group's influence. Some students have become cultist because their friends are members. The members of the peer group influence one another with the experiences they have had in their various families and environments.
5. Support Given By Staff Of Educational Institutions: In some institutions, certain administration and lecturers are members of secret cults. The student cultists are used against other members of the community to promote selfish interests. There are allegations that some Vice Chancellors were sponsoring cult activities in their universities to silence the voice of dissent.
6. Government's Lukewarm Attitude: Cultist in our educational institutions watch how government officials break the laws of the land with impunity because they are members of secret cults. Government also fails to apply sanctions against cultists who contravene the laws of the land because of the protection offered by those who are close to the corridors of power. Cultists are therefore given the impression that they can go away with any acts of lawlessness.
7. Unconducive Learning Environment: Learning facilities provided in educational institutions are grossly inadequate to the extent that some students cannot cope academically. Because of the craze for certificates, such intellectually weak students join cults to harass lecturers and administrators so that they can be given undeserved marks.
8. Inadequate Religious and Moral Instructions/Education: Some parents have abandoned their responsibility in the area of moral upbringing of their children because of the craze for material wealth. They hardly shoe interest in the progress of their children at school. Such parents rarely attends parents' forum meetings. Educational institutions teach Islamic and Christian Religious studies for student to pass examination without emphasizing the moral lessons that can be learnt from such topics. The heart of the young ones therefore left for the devil to manipulate. Some religious leaders are not showing good examples to the younger generation.
9. Administrative Style of Institutional Administrators: A number of institutional administrators are autocratic and maintain hostile relationship with staff and students. They hardly involve the members of the community in decision-making thereby promoting rumour mongering. They ban student unionism at will. This atmosphere promotes violence and cult activities because peaceful resolution of conflicts has been made absolutely impossible. Some institutions maintain boarding facilities but administrators rarely find time to know what is going on in these hostels. They don't monitor students and staff activities.
10. Mass Media: The mass media also expose our young ones to all kinds of negative behaviour. There is the importation of magical films, occultism literature and obscene behaviour. Advertisements are made in the media on how youths and adults can join occultism organization both locally and abroad.
11. Inadequate Welfare Programmers For Students: Our educational institutions have inadequate basic amenities like accommodation, transportation, recreational facilities, to mention a few. Students are therefore encouraged to join violent groups like secret cults that wreck havoc in these institutions because of the insensitivity of government and institutional administrators to their (students') plight. The factors discussed above are not exhaustive.