Cultism in Lagos schools – The Nation

• We need to distract them with fruitful activities

The news that 16-year-old boy, Adewale Ayuba, has been arrested by officials of the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC) for allegedly killing his mate during a cult clash in Ijanikin area of the state is as shocking as it should signpost a period of reality check on the social implications of the lethargic attitude of a country with a seeming lack of a visionary plan for its teeming youth population.

Cultism in Nigerian schools is usually traced to the Seadog Confraternity (a.k.a Pyrates), founded by  Professor  Wole Soyinka and six others at the foremost University of Ibadan in 1952 as a students’ protest group. Since then, a plethora of cult groups have emerged in Nigerian universities, and despite the different havoc traceable to members of the groups, not much punitive measures have been taken beyond universities either suspending or expelling the cult members.

It did not take long before cultism spread beyond universities to secondary schools, and now there are reports that even our primary schools have come under the influence of cult groups. Children are recruited by adults and initiated into different cult groups. But unlike what the initiators of cultism in schools purportedly envisaged, cultism in Nigerian schools has taken a damning life of its own. It has come with tears, sorrow and blood.

The spate of cult killings amongst students in Lagos schools ought to have sparked a sense of outrage that would have given rise to very stern and decisive steps by successive state governments to nip the aberration in the bud. Unfortunately, it does not seem to be so. The Fashola administration funded some youth bodies to take them away from nefarious cult activities. Some of those youths were involved in the Fanti festival that had many of them participating in activities, including the production of the festival costume. It seemed the Ambode administration that succeeded it saw no value in either maintaining or surpassing the efforts of its predecessor in this regard. Today, the youths are neck deep in distractively destructive cult activities.

Societies that want progress as a matter of urgency plan for the future of their children. If the adults in leadership fail to plan for the youths, the youth in their juvenile exaggerated sense of power and control would take actions that might destroy them and the future they ought to be armed for by adults. We therefore urge the state government to take serious steps to protect and nurture its youth population, the owners of a tomorrow that each society depends and hopes on.

There must be a deliberate and consistent plan to fully engage the youths at all levels. Commerce, technical activities, sports, arts and entertainment must be invested in to engage idle hands during the holidays. Like in other societies, the state must take deeper interest in youth development programmes and vocational schools that can soak in those students that do not show any competence for academic work.

If, as the saying goes, ‘an idle hand is the devil’s workshop,’ the state must work with local governments and corporate bodies to create centres of activities. Sports is also another sector that takes off kids from the streets. Beyond football and other popular sports, investment in other sporting activities is a good way of investing in youth development. Waiting for the Federal Government to always take the lead is often counterproductive.

Beyond specific actions, we recommend well-planned state-wide re-orientation programmes to resuscitate the traditional African core values that technology and internet are fast eroding. Parents must be made to account for their failure in parenting. In countries where child welfare works, parents that are considered incompetent in the raising of their kids are often relieved of such duties and other people willing to provide nurture and love given the opportunity to redirect the children. We must begin to let parents understand that parenting comes with certain basic responsibilities.

The state must equally show interest in cases of those arrested for cult activities. The laws are either too ineffectual or being disobeyed. When people understand that certain activities are outlawed and they see offenders punished adequately, it might serve as a deterrent. Enough of child-student related deaths and rape cases.