Anxiety As Cults Spring Up In Primary, Secondary Schools

Despite concerted efforts by government and concerned stakeholders to provide Nigerians with quality education, a few have chosen to toe the line that leads to destruction through voluntary initiation into different cults, which has eaten deep into the education system.

What is known as secret cult in tertiary institutions started at the University College, Ibadan in 1953 when Prof. Wole Soyinka, Aig-Imoukhuede, Pius Oleghe, Ralph Opara, Nat Oyelola and Prof. Muyiwa Awe formed the Pyrates Confraternity with the objectives of abolishing convention, reviving the age chivalry, and ending tribalism and elitism.

But these objectives have been defeated as thousands of lives have been lost and properties worth millions of naira lost due to the evil activities of cult groups in our tertiary institutions. As a result, the National Association of Sea dogs ordered a cessation of all its activities on campuses of higher institutions effective 1984.

But it is unfortunate that our primary and secondary schools are veritable grounds for breeding cultists, making one to wonder if we are civilizing in the right way.

The expulsion of 26 secondary school students for involvement in cult activities in 2002 in Cross River State, the beating of a secondary school typist to death in Eket, Akwa Ibom State in 2004, the killing of one Victor aka ‘papa’, a secondary school student in Oron, Akwa Ibom State in January 2004, the massive initiation of children into more than 150 cult groups identified by the anti-cultism law of Rivers State and the arrest of seven secondary school kingpins in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State in 2004, opened our eyes to the rot at the secondary school level in Nigeria.

It was reported that kid cultists, consisting of four girls aged between 13 and 15, were arrested at Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State. Some of the cultists had been expelled from various secondary schools in connection with cult-related activities. The boys had the marks of Eye Confraternity cult group on their arms, while the girls belonged to the Queen of White Angels.

Worried by the rise in cultism in primary and secondary schools, President Goodluck Jonathan has called on the National Assembly to enact tougher laws against cultists and those engaging in examination malpractice.

He said the eradication of cultism was a national project for all stakeholders in the country as campuses of higher institutions had been turned into breeding ground for cultists, an avenue for the practice of immoralities and a base for grooming terrorists.

Jonathan who called for a ‘re-orientation of our children said government would leave no stone unturned in its efforts to curb the activities of cultists and their sponsors.

Speaking with Vanguard Learning at the 3rd national conference on Strategies for Eradicating Cultism in Nigerian Educational Institutions organised by the University of Ibadan in conjunction with the Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission in Abuja, the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqqayat Rufa’i, said there had been recommendations in the past to curtail cultism but the greatest challenge was implementation.

“If we must succeed in eradicating cultism in Nigerian institutions, all hands must be on deck. Parents, religious organisations and both members and non-members of the government are to work jointly on this measure.”

Attributing the rise in cultism to the complicity of some desperate politicians, President, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Com. Dauda Mohammed, said: “It is frightening to see the depth at which the menace of cultism has eating deep into our educational system, particularly with its incursion into the secondary school levels, and we expect government to take a decisive step in checkmating cult activities on our campuses and also taking practical steps in bringing the sponsors of these cult groups to book.

“The presence of cult groups in our secondary schools is a spill over of the prevalence of cultism in our tertiary institutions. The first practical step that government must take is the promotion of Students Unionism as cultism took an increased dimension from the point when unionism became voluntary and union activities were facing repression on our campuses.”

Suggesting how to effectively combat secret cultism, the minister said Nigerian universities must enjoy improved funding, recreational/academic facilities must be improved and virile students union activities must be allowed to thrive.

For the NANS President, the return of vibrant and compulsory students unionism to the campuses coupled with the promotion of other voluntary organisations in our institutions will go a long way in reducing the menace of cultism.

Mohammed urged the National Assembly to also repeal the military decree of the recommendations of the General Abisoye panel which made students unionism voluntary rather than compulsory for students in our higher institutions.

How to identify cultists in secondary schools

Most schools prone to these acts are not fenced while those that are fenced are not high enough, making them prone to such things. The question is how do you know such students?

*They hardly stay in class to study and are fond of moving aimlessly trying to recruit new students or trying to disturb the peace of the class and also disturb the students who refuse to join.

*They don’t obey laws and orders that have been laid down by the school authorities. If it is a mixed school, they are fond of toasting girls and any who refuses would be beaten seriously.

*They are known to put on certain colours of attires like black, red, green and yellow berets, so also they put on mufflers with different colours, depending on the cult gang they belong to. Some put on the chaplet, it is either yellow, or those mixed with different colours, with the same bangles especially yellow, depending on which group they belong to.

By Amaka Abayomi & Favour Nnabugwu

SUCCESS RECIPE:Making Your Life Count

YOU will never make your life count until you make your day count. You will never make your day count until you make every hour count. You will never make every hour count until you make every moment count. You will never make every moment count until you make your actions count. You will never make your actions count until you make your words count.

You will never make your words count until you make your thoughts count.    Life counts when you are aware that every day is a countdown to your departure on earth. Life counts when you make a decision to make it count. Your decisions can never count until you possess the discipline to make it count.

Les Brown reveals, “Success is a habit you embrace on a daily basis, and the earlier you get into that mindset the sooner you will be able to give birth to possibilities you might not be able to imagine.” Therefore, until your habits count your life cannot count. Let’s unravel the successful habits that must be practiced daily in order for life to count.

Your destiny rises or falls according to the gauge of your life attitude. Until you develop and maintain positive life attitudes daily, life goes down in the drain of the gutters of mediocrity. Attitude is a fundamental course in the school of success.

Positive life attitudes - 

Positive Life Attitudes is the gateway to effective living and it constitutes; the way you see yourself; the way you see and relate with others; and your outlook on life. Happiness is a responsibility that cannot be delegated. Thinking positively about yourself and your abilities; thinking and behaving positively towards others; talking positively in your conversations and being around positive people will make your life gravitate towards the domain of success.

The use of your time determines the usefulness of your life. The value you attach to time determines the value you will create in life. Successful people prioritize their life; they plan their day carefully and follow through on their plans. Life counts when you operate on the foundation based on Universal Law of Value which states: “Do not waste your time on thoughts, people, or actions which are not worthy. Do not waste your thoughts on ideas that are not worthy. Do not waste your energies on activities which are not worthy. Do not waste your money on that which is not money”.

Therefore, prioritizing your life on a daily basis in the light of your vision will lift you from the shores of failure to the mountain top of success.

As the saying goes, “health is wealth” is undisputable. We all want to be successful but not at the expense of our health. Staying healthy is an asset that must be maintained through proper nutrition and eating habit, exercise, cheerful disposition, rest and the ability to handle stress effectively. Therefore, positive lifestyle that promotes good health should be cultivated.

One of the major habits that guarantee success is commitment. Your daily decision to stay committed set you apart from the half-doers in the game of life; those who never finish what they start and who wait for all the conditions to be perfect before they begin to play their part on the stage of life.

Maintaining your focus - 

Remember, life will test how committed you are before handing over to you its vault of valuables. Therefore, count the cost; determine to pay the price; strive for excellence; maintain your focus; and be disciplined; no retreat till the star within you emerges.

Your life can never count until you are value-driven rather than crowd-driven. What do you stand for? Are you being swept by the current of people’s opinion and actions or do you stem the tide by choosing to “stand out” even when “everybody blends in”? Developing positive values and living it out on a daily basis give you a solid foundation for your destiny to be built on and also sustains it from wreckage.

Growth is a word that is indispensable in the vocabulary of success. Personal growth encompasses improving oneself; spiritually, mentally; relationally; emotionally and financially. Have a personal growth plan; read books that will upgrade you; attend seminars, trainings; seek and gather every good input that are available to you to improve your life. Be a constant learner in the domain of life.

Your life can never count if you don’t add value to other people’s life. In the domain of success; effective relationships is king. Place a high value on people; respect and care for them. Greed, hatred, envy, revenge and selfishness are success poisons. Unconditional love is the soil in which success thrives and blossoms. Give the highest priority to your family in the scale of relationships.

Therefore, life counts when you practice successful habits every day.

By UDEME ARCHIBONG

Soyinka’s Sermon In Asaba

An erudite teacher of literature back in the days at the University of Ibadan, once described him as an indeterminate prodigy. Another described him as a reservoir of boundless creative energy that characterises seminal writing. Yet another chose to characterise him as one who exudes the kind of profundity and indomitability that arouses traditions of creativity. Many Nigerians loathe him with a passion, while many more adore his brilliance. Regardless of the side you belong to, many people have come to acknowledge that Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel Laureate is an enigma. You may wish to like or even hate him — just like many, but one thing is clear, you cannot ignore him.

In his characteristic provocative style and sophistry, Soyinka took the podium and addressed the participants of the 2nd South-South Economic Summit in Asaba, Delta State, a few days ago. For more than 40 minutes, he dazed and dazzled his audience made up of the Vice-President, governors, politicians, academics, ministers and captains of industry with a blend of suspense, imagery, riddles, plot, metaphor, and sarcasm. Vintage Kongi (as many call him), he sang like a soloist leading an ethereal orchestra.

I have spent the last five days trying to decouple the speech and extrapolate the message it tried to convey. I must confess that it has been a bit of a Herculean task. To understand a gigantic literary genius of the status of Soyinka is nowhere close to my preoccupation as a prosaic political analyst.

You will therefore be able to understand why I was able to draw only six observations out of his speech which I am willing to share with you. The first is the crisis of nation-building — our collective inability to recognise that Nigeria is not yet a nation. He lamented the fact that we have failed to revisit the history that brought us into being to examine the factors that have shaped our existence. Rather than do this, he observed, we have decided to muddle “in an impenetrable carapace of complacency.”

The second observation is what he referred to as “occupational illegitimacy” — the dubious legitimacy of a large percentage of representatives of the people’s supposed will. He opined that many of our political representatives in Nigeria today could not have caught the ‘sheerest whiff of the wood varnish on the seats they currently occupy’. Simply put — that if elections were properly conducted in Nigeria, many of those who are currently occupying political positions today could not have come anywhere near those posts.

The third observation refers to uncanny particularisation of the crisis in the Northern part as a burden on one part of Nigeria. Rather, Soyinka saw it as ‘a diabolical judgment on the structure that struggles to deserve the name nation, calling to question through its fiery monologues, the very legitimacy of our nation being’. He called on other constituents of Nigeria to take up the responsibility of finding lasting solutions to the crisis for the “survival of the totality of our national humanity.”

The fourth point made by Soyinka referred to a need to conduct a historical inquiry about the current crisis in Northern Nigeria by asking who let loose “these inhabitants of hell.” His comparison with the situation in Iraq offers a subject of reflection. He emphasised the need to conduct this enquiry in order to develop comprehensive response — whether it be political, revolutionary or theocratic. He invited government agencies to think deeper on the possible networks and sponsorships of the denizens of hell instead of the current approach of “climbing aboard the conveyance of evasion” which is likely ‘bound for the bunker of denial. “Their sponsors are not phantoms. They are real. They exist among us”, he insisted.

The fifth point made by Soyinka was the identification of a set of “gang-bangers” of our national future beyond the military. He described them as those who “even while claiming to defend the rights and entitlements of their own constituencies, do little more than defend the rights and entitlements of their own privileged existence.” He pointed sarcastically at two sets of people. First, the generator contractors, petroleum moguls and long haulage monopolists — who have ensured that our nation neither enjoyed electricity, nor a functional railway system. Second, those who see government solely as a livelihood and who engage in every dirty trick in the book to ensure that government remains in their hands, since they know no other way to survive.

The sixth and probably most important point was his recommendation for a reversal to decentralisation and developmental autonomy — a deliberate policy to progressively render the centre of Nigeria “reduced in its ability to impede the pace and quality of development of the constituent parts of the nation.” Soyinka made this prescription with palpable urgency recommending that the “constitutional envelope that holds the parts together must be pushed as far as it proves possible without it actually bursting.” Such political configuration, he opined, would leave the central government with issues of foreign policy, national security and interstate affairs.

I could not but giggle at his three seemingly “mischievous” references to abuse of power and banal extravaganza of the so-called spousal appendages to constitutional authority; zombie following who graduate from collecting pittance to demanding their own pound of flesh; uniform arrogance, unbridled rapacity and uniformed propensity to sterile interventions.”

Is Nigeria heading ominously to a perilous future?

•BY UCHE IGWE, member, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton

Monitoring Forfeitures Of Convicted Ex-Public Officials

BY PUNCH EDITORIAL BOARD 

AS was the case with Bayelsa State ex-Governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, and Plateau State ex-Governor, Joshua Dariye, the immediate past Governor of Delta State, James Ibori, is to forfeit corruptly-acquired assets that were recently confiscated by the authorities in the United Kingdom. As part of a plea bargain in February, he admitted to fraud totalling over $79 million, after his arraignment at London’s Southwark Crown Court for offences relating to money laundering and corruption. The planned repatriation of the loot has caused much excitement, but a challenge remains for the people of Delta State: how to ensure that the forfeited assets are properly managed and accounted for when they are eventually transferred to the state government’s custody.

The channels through which public assets of such value transformed into Ibori’s private wealth and were transferred to the UK should be blocked forthwith. Never again should any public official be able to so brazenly loot public assets. The Crown Court prosecutor, Sasha Wass, established that the ex-governor and a network of collaborators used multiple bank accounts to launder funds and perpetrate related criminal acts. Ibori succeeded in his looting because, in Delta State, as everywhere else in Nigeria’s public service — at the federal, state and local council levels — accounting standards are poor and oversight by the parliament is almost non-existent. The loopholes exploited by Ibori and like-minded looters are probably still intact; they involve the financial and judicial systems. There is a danger that these loopholes could swallow up part, if not everything, of what is currently being celebrated as recovered loot. Remember that, like his counterparts in Bayelsa and Plateau states, Ibori retains powerful connections within and outside Delta State that could facilitate his re-possession of what has been legally forfeited.

Such concerns are valid. There is always a disturbing blackout on the forfeited assets of corrupt public officials. As at March 2010, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission claimed it had recovered over $6.5 billion and secured over 400 convictions since its inception in 2004. On September 26, 2007 the Press and Public Affairs Office of the British High Commission in Nigeria declared that, “To date, the Metropolitan Police has seized £34.6 million of Nigerian assets relating to two former state governors, Joshua Dariye and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.”

Much of that has since been repatriated by the UK authorities to the state governments. On July 9, 2009 the then EFCC Chairperson, Farida Waziri, said the sums of N3.12 billion; $441,000; 7,000euros, and £2,000.00 were returned to Bayelsa State as proceeds from assets in Nigeria seized and sold by the Commission.

In addition were “two prime forfeited properties, Chelsea Hotel located in the Central Area of Abuja, valued at over N2.8 billion in 2007, and No.2, Marscibit Street, off Aminu Kano Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja, valued at N210 million.” The then state Governor, Timipre Sylva, assured Nigerians on that occasion that, “I will use the money to build a massive plaza, which I will call Transparency Plaza, in the midst of the Yenagoa Business District.” Neither in Plateau, nor in Bayelsa is there evidence that citizens, civil society groups, the states’ lawmakers or the press are monitoring these returned assets.

But in determining how best to guarantee safe custody and proper utilisation of the Ibori loot, the people of Delta State have to be guided, not only by their experience of what happened in Bayelsa and Plateau states, but also by the EFCC’s inability to properly account for forfeitures from an erstwhile Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun. In a disclaimer on February 23, 2011, the commission stated, in part: “Till date, we don’t know the exact number of properties seized from the former IGP because there is no record for forfeited assets. We don’t know how many properties were sold, who sold what and how much was recovered from the sale.”

Neither the state governments nor EFCC has proved dependable thus far. But one public agency or the other has to manage the returned loot.

Strict policies and procedures for the management and disposal of forfeited businesses, property and financial assets of corrupt officials must therefore be put in place in every state. The people of Delta must demand from the state government, official documentation and publication of all returned forfeitures traceable to the recovered Ibori loot. In addition, the government has to produce a plan itemising specific projects and programmes to which the money will be deployed — and their costs as well as executors and timelines.

The state House of Assembly has to stand at all times as worthy representatives of the people, regularly interrogating the executive on performance and related matters. That is the very least demanded of the state authorities by international best practices.

Goodluck Jonathan's Perfect Storm

Nigeria could never be described as a quiet country, but terrorist group Boko Haram's bombing campaign combined with a national strike over a fuel price increase is quite unlike anything the country has ever faced before.

President Goodluck Jonathan is caught in a perfect storm. With a death toll rising above 160 from Saturday's bombs in Kano, the credibility of the security forces, the government and the state itself has been profoundly undermined.

At first, Boko Haram looked like another messianic Islamic sect emerging from north east Nigeria that would, like others before it, burn out with its very ferocity. The biggest of those movements, Maitatsine, in the 1970s, also believed in killing infidels, and its suppression in Kano in 1980 resulted in the deaths of some 4000 people. Founded in 2002, Boko Haram calls for an Islamic Caliphate in northern Nigeria under strict Islamic law where non-Muslims will not be allowed to live. In 2009 police attacked the movement's headquarters in Maiduguri, seized its leader, Mohammed Yusuf, and executed him. Boko Haram declared war on the state and the police in particular. Already deeply despised by the population, the police became Boko's chief target.

Nigeria's police are generally held in contempt for their brutality and corruption. I once watched a pitched battle between police and soldiers which ended in a senior police officer being arrested, bound and taken away by the men in khaki. The crowd cheered. The police had been forcing street traders and motorists to pay fictitious fines. More recently, during the national election last year, I watched voters openly defying and jeering the police, but when a soldier appeared on the scene they were fearful and backed off.

No wonder then that the movement's new leader, Kabiru Umar, sometimes called Kabiru Sokoto, managed to escape from police custody recently. He was arrested and accused of organising the bombing of St Theresa's Catholic Church in Madalla on Christmas Day, killing 40 people. According to one reliable account a large but unarmed crowd marched on the police station demanding his release and the police handed him over. One eye witness was quoted as saying: "... some people came from nowhere and swooped on the police... surprisingly they [the crowd] overpowered them and captured Kabiru in handcuffs from the police. After [the police] lost him they started shooting and arresting innocent people".

Last year Boko Haram blew up the national police headquarters and the UN headquarters in the capital, Abuja. It also bombs packed churches. Thousands of southerners, many of whom had lived peacefully in the north for decades, have fled. Ominously, the last time southerners - particularly Igbo people from the south east - were targeted by northerners Nigeria was plunged into civil war.

All over Nigeria there are reports of Christian and Muslim communities beginning to arm themselves and create self defence groups. Nigeria - roughly divided between the Christian south and the Muslim north - is not yet close to that catastrophe, but there is nation-wide unease. More optimistically, in some places they are actually protecting each other. Matthew Kukah, the Bishop of Sokoto, the capital of the 19th Century Islamic Caliphate, called on people to be brave last week and said that in many places Christians and Muslims were trying to protect each other. In Kano, he said, "amidst fears and threats of further attacks on Christians, a group of Muslims gathered round to protect Christians as they worshipped. In Minna and recently in Lagos, the same thing repeated itself as Christians joined hands to protect Muslims as they prayed. In the last week, Christians and Muslims together in solidarity are protesting against bad governance and corruption."

Nigerians in senior positions have assured me that Boko Haram is just another creation of Nigeria's mercenary politics and can be "settled" with bags of cash - the Nigerian way. But right now the politicians do not know who to pay or even who to talk to. Although security was tightened after the bombings in Abuja, the attacks at the weekend demonstrate that Boko Haram is in complete control of where and when they plant their bombs.

The local driver of Boko Haram is the loss of political power by the north. Under British rule the northern Islamic leaders were favoured and left in charge of Nigeria at independence, and they have retained significant political and military power ever since. With the return of democracy in 1999 many of the most powerful and richest Nigerians, north and south, formed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and agreed informally that the presidency should rotate between north and south. But with the death in office of the northern president Umaru Yar'Adua in 2010, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian, assumed power. He then ran for and won the presidency last April, facing down northerners who claimed they had not had a full term in office.

When Jonathan won, angry crowds trashed the homes of his northern Muslim allies in the PDP. These were prominent traditional emirs and sultans, with religious as well as political power. Not only has the north lost political power but its traditional rulers have lost the trust of their people. Boko Haram is bidding to fill that vacuum. It is this element that is more worrying than the assumed links between Boko Haram and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb (AQIM) or Al Shabaab in Somalia.

The anger and fear created by Boko Haram's random and deadly bombings are being superheated by the demoralising inflation caused by the removal of the petrol price subsidy. President Jonathan's lacklustre government had not prepared people for this and mistimed the removal of the subsidy. The price of fuel shot up and so therefore did every commodity that needed to be transported. Overnight the price of a litre of fuel rose from 65N (26p) to 150 a litre (60p). The trade unions immediately came out on a nationwide strike and President Jonathan was forced to back down and agree to a compromise at 97N a litre (39p).

If it was a democratic country Nigeria would have an oil refinery that worked, but Nigeria refines almost none of the 2.2 million barrels a day it produces. The importers are so powerful - particularly in the ruling PDP - that they can ensure that the refineries do not function. Nor does the electricity supply, so these Big Men make fortunes out of importing generators and diesel fuel. A House of Representatives Committee found that Nigeria imports 59 million barrels of refined fuel but consumes only 35 million. Companies owned by powerful members of the PDP ship the surplus illicitly to neighbouring countries, depriving Nigeria of some £2.67 billion a year. In a real democracy the President could have turned the national outcry over the price rises against these fuel importers. But he said nothing about that. Many of them bankroll his party.

 Taking on the thieves and the terrorists at the same time would stretch the capability of most governments. Has President Jonathan the political strength and clarity of vision to address the causes?

 Richard Dowden is Director of the Royal African Society.