DEATH PENALTY AS A MEANS OF CURBING CULTISM IN NIGERIA

DEATH PENALTY AS A MEANS OF CURBING CULTISM IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

In defining cultism, Azelama, Alude and Imhonda (2000) noted that “cult is an assemblage of people united by certain ideals, or symbols and whose rites and ceremonies of veneration are unique and shrouded in mysteries with a secrecy that cannot be broken.” Maxey (2004) traces the meaning of cult from the Latin word ‘cultus’ which means ‘to worship or give reverence to a deity.’ Thus, in its original usage, it was simply applied to a religious worshipful group of people regardless of the object or person they venerated.

Furthermore, Rotimi (2005) cites the anthropological definition of ‘cult’ by Oxford Concise Dictionary of Sociology (1996) as ‘a set of practices and beliefs of a group in relation to a local god.’ The same dictionary gives a sociological definition of a cult as ‘a small group of religious activists whose beliefs are typically secret, esoteric and individualistic.’ Aguda (1997), Ogunbameru (1997) and the Free Encyclopedia (2006) define cult in a similar manner. Langone (1988) indicated that cult leaders have absolute control over the members of the movement and as such they use force to subdue them under their command. The author concluded that because cults tend to be leader centred, exploitative and harmful, they come into conflict with and threatened by the rational open and benevolent system of members’ families and society at large and that it is an exploitatively manipulative and abusive group in which members are induced to serve the group leader(s). From these accounts, it can be deduced that cults and cultism have certain elements in common. They are esoteric, shrouded in secrecy, usually made up of a small group of people with a charismatic leader, and may or may not be religious in nature.

Section 318 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria defines a secret cult as any association, group or body of persons (whether registered or not) that uses secret signs, oaths, rite or symbols and which is formed to promote a course, the purpose or part of which is to foster, the interest of its members and to aid one another under any regard without due regard to merit, fairness or justice; whose oaths of secrecy and, the names and activities are held in secret. The numerous and diverse activities of campus cults and confraternities have gained undue and unwanted popularity in institutions of higher learning and the society has borne brunt of their existence. In the tertiary institutions today, these cults are involved in activities that could destabilize the smooth running of academic work in higher institutions. In the tertiary institutions, there are reported cases of murder of students in clashes between rival cults. In some cases, non cult members are murdered for reasons of provoking a cult member or group. Also female students are raped, disfigured for refusing to yield to love advance from cult members.

Despite the fact that many view cultism as abode of evil, where all manners of evil such as maiming, murder, examination malpractice, robbery, rape, arson, intimidation of fellow students and lecturers for good grades, forceful love (girl friends) and clashes of rival cults groups, some students find it fashionable to blend or join cults groups for different reasons. For this reason, social problems associated with campus cult activities calls for further investigation. In the normal school situation, people feel comfortable as the academic environments in the campuses are usually very conducive without disturbances. As reported by Arogundade (1994), Amachere (1992) and Oriaku (1992), every student was supposed to know why he/she is in the higher institution and as such his/her academic pursuit (aim and objective) must be achieved for he/she has no negative motives.

Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to identify social problems associated with campus cult activities in tertiary institutions in Anambra State, Nigeria and death penalty s a means of curbing cultism in Nigeria. Specifically, the study sought to:

1. Find out the social factors that lead to students’ campus cultism in tertiary institutions in Anambra State.
2. Identify the social problems associated with cult activities in tertiary institutions.
3. Determine the influence of school type on cult activities happening in tertiary institutions in Anambra State.
4. Find out how effectively death penalty can control campus cult activities in tertiary institutions in Anambra State.

DEATH PENALTY AS A MEANS OF CURBING CULTISM IN NIGERIA