Lokuzo John Etim|6 July 2017
Based on recent cult-related clashes across the State, I will attempt to look at its origin and how to deal with its associated problems. In the course of this research, what is certainly obvious to me is that there is at present no national definition of the term "cultism". What I can read from the general public is that fraternity equals cultism. Another shade of interpretation could rightly say that fraternity plus violence equals cultism. I will attempt to define and distinguish between the two terms in this post.
Finally for this preamble, let me state clearly that whatever is written here is done in good faith and with the overriding objective of terminating a menace, not to destroy or castigate anyone or group of persons willfully.
WHO ARE CULTISTS ?
When people talk of cult groups, they in their subconsciousness are referring to the following :
1. The Pyrates Confraternity
2. The Buccaneers Confraternity
3. The Eiye Confraternity
4. The Neo-Black Movement of Africa
5. The Vikings / Norsemen Confraternity
6. The Klan Confraternity
7. The Mafia
8. The Daughters of Jezebel
9. The Black Braziers
There are a few others such as Mgba Mgba, the Amazon's, etc that are really not significant enough for discussion here although they should not be ignored.
The Pyrates Confraternity set out to fight moribund convention, neocolonialism, and tribalism and at the same time, defend humanistic ideals while promoting comradeship and chivalry amongst its members.
The Buccaneers Confraternity, now called Brothers Across Nigeria, set out to pursue the same goals as the PC and infact broke out of the PC because of some internal crisis and disagreement.
The Eiye Confraternity started out as Eiye Group with the objective of promoting a balanced physical and mental development with emphasis on sports and academic excellence.
The Neo-Black Movement was born out of their determination to fight for the restoration of the culture, dignity and pride of the black man. Their establishment was in response to the Sharpeville and Soweto massacres in South Africa. Its newspaper was called Black Axe (so named euphemistically as the Axe with which to "cut" the white man and those keeping the black man in bondage). The name, Black Axe, later became the synonym for the movement.
The Vikings and the Mafia were created by government during the regime of General Babangida for the purpose of fighting student unionism in aid of the self-succession program of General Babangida and later, of General Sanni Abacha.
The Eternal Fraternal Order of the Legion Consortium, also called the Klan Konfraternity, alias KK, was founded in 1983 by students of the University of Calabar in Cross River State with the same objectives as other confraternities.
The Daughters of Jezebel and the Black Braziers were both female responses to the pervasive male chauvinism and domination on campuses combined with the coincidental interest of the girlfriends of members of the male groups.
Now moving forward, the Pyrates Confraternity succeeded in remaining without imbibing or internalizing the culture of violence. For various reasons, they have become generally acceptable to the public and the academic communities although they do not exist on campuses anymore. They have largely succeeded in shedding the image of cultism.
The Buccaneers slipped into violence at some point and became neck-dip into intra-fraternity violence. However, before the bubble burst and perhaps taking a cue from the PC, they took steps to restructure and reorganise in a way that rid their organization of violence. Significantly, the Buccaneers have not been involved in any violence in recent times.
Much of the violence we have witnessed are traceable to the Eiye Confraternity (not significantly in Cross River), the Black Axe, the Klans Men, the Vikings and the Mafites as they are called. I want to quickly state here that the Vikings Confraternity have recently metamorphosed into both the Norsemen Confraternity and the Vikings (the Woodens). The Norsemen Confraternity have also taken steps to restructure and reorganise in a way that rids it of violence.
So far from my analysis, it is clearer to understand that the Vikings(not inclusive of the Norsemen Confraternity), the Black Axe and the Klans Konfraternity have held us on the jugular quite lately in Cross River State.
Now, the first cult-related violent death occurred in 1984 with the cruel massacre of five students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in the early hours of July 10. In all, I will say that no less than a total of 5000 students and others would have died as a result of fraternity rivalry in the last 33 years. I am still working on this very awful statistics. It is significant to note that while this amount of crime has been committed, no one has been successfully prosecuted to the best of my knowledge.
I do appreciate all who have followed me thus far. I feel boosted by your comments that I am dealing with a matured audience. As I said earlier, I will proffer solutions and also attempt to define and distinguish between cultism and fraternity, but before then let's look at other associated issues.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE ?
We all are. Let us briefly review the hierarchy of responsibility.
1. THE GOVERNMENT :
Violence has for along time been part of our political culture since independence starting with the crisis in the west. The military came and seriously dented civil conduct and deeply implanted in our psyche the culture of violence. The significant imprint in our psyche took place in October 1986 when Dele Giwa was issued the letter bomb.
Military governance gave rise to extreme moral decadence in the society. Honour and integrity were no longer virtues to be respected. The economic decay largely engendered by corrupt governance led to job insecurity and poor pay. The result was massive brain drain from the academic community at a time there was an explosion in university enrolment. This affected student/staff ratio with severe impact on the quality and intensity of learning.
Along side all these was failure to invest appropriately in the educational system leading to collapse of facilities and decay of the academic environment.
Far more significant than all the above was the unwholesome infiltration of the groups and the large scale impersonation that occurred. Under the government sponsorship, a lot of crimes were committed which were attributed to the fraternities. Armed robbers claimed to be cultists when caught. The government sponsored a lot of killings and other forms of violence and blamed it on the cultists. Politicians in and out of government capitalized on their vulnerabilities to unleash mayhem on their perceived opponents by providing the necessary tools.
2. THE INSTITUTIONS
They too contributed. Purchasing of grades became rampant in our higher institutions. A student need not go to class as long as he is well connected, preferably if he is a cult member, or if she is beautiful and is willing to deal.
The absence of virile student unionism resulting from the Akanbi Panel recommendations that student unionism be banned or at most be made voluntary contributed significantly to this problem. Although five students died following the ABU crisis that gave birth to the Justice Akanbi Panel, the adoption of that recommendations enabled most Vice Chancellors to move in the direction of outright destruction of students unionism. This created a vacuum that was exploited by the cultists over the years.
Cultists were used to settle personal scores on many occasions. We had student versus student, lecturer versus lecturer, student versus lecturer. After all, a Vice-Chancellor once used them to harrass and / or sack lecturers and student Union executives.
3. OTHERS
The media, the general public, parents, etc also contributed their quota to the degeneration. We all inadvertently massaged the ego of the criminals in the society each time we called them cult members and painted a picture of them as the ultimate in machismo. As if murder committed by a cultist is a different category as that committed by any other citizen, we failed to show the necessary resolve that would have put those murderers behind bars. The family institution lost its value, parents could no longer hold firm grip on their children. They rather protected them.
4.THE "CULTIST"
After all said and done, the cultists bear the most responsibility for the evil they have perpetrated. Whatever outrage the public is now expressing against them is their own making. They derailed woefully from the principles and ideals of fraternity even as defined by them. Present perception of them as dangerous monsters to be wiped out of existence was largely self-inflicted.
They lost control of their membership as they embarked on unrestrained recruitment of new members to as many as 500. Each group saw the academic institutions and our societies as private kingdom to lord over. Wars in the academic communities that were traditionally fought at the level of intellect and scholarship became reduced to war of the barbarians with Stone-age ferocity accompanied by total disregard for the sanctity of life. Number of personnel, size and sophistication of armoury became vital to the strategic equation of domination.
Lokuzo John Etim
Is a Social Commentator
