The Nation Newspaper

Tag: cultism

  • Rector admonishes freshers on cultism

    •MAPOLY admits 5,250 students

    Five thousand, two hundred and fifty (5,250) fresh students of the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Ogun State, have sworn to be of good behaviour, shun cultism and other acts capable of denting the image of the institution or aborting their academic pursuit.

    The new intakes that had their oath administered by the school Lawyer, Mr Lanre Ojo, comprise of full and part-time students for both the National Diploma (ND) and Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes for the 2012/2013 academic session.

    It was learnt that no fewer than 15,350 candidates applied for admission to the polytechnic for over 40 programmes it runs.

    The Rector, Tokunbo Fowode, an architect, charged the students to start working hard from their first year if they desire to graduate with good grades, adding that their primary objectives in the polytechnic is to obtain their certificates.

    Fowode advised the students to steer away from examination malpractices and be wary of groups they identify with on campus, noting that there exist a number of registered societies by the management which law abiding students are eligible and encouraged to join.

    He said it was the resolve of the institution to reduce vices to the barest minimum, which informed the building of a modern sports complex and provision of sports facilities for students to recreate, burn energies and showcase their talents in various sports.

    Fowode said: ”It is appropriate to say it here as fresh students, you should be mindful of the group, association and society to belong to. This advise is coming on the heels of a number of campus vices prevalent in higher institutions these days.

    “My general message to the new students is just for them to apply to the rigours of academics and do well in school. As at now, we have established our e -library because the PTDF gave a block with about 100 work stations and we are trying to turn that to an e – library.

    “With what we have in our library now, we hope that the reading culture will come back gradually for our students.”

     

  • Official cultism in Nigerian universities

    Official cultism in Nigerian universities

    SIR: The legislators should debate homosexuality scientifically, not merely scripturally, but that is not the concern here. I observe that some university administrators also practice cultism without knowing they do; they never asked themselves what cultism means. It is cultism when a Vice-Chancellor gathers around himself loyalists with whom he conspires on shortchanging workers, or in the case of a Christian or Muslim Vice-Chancellor who gathers around himself or herself fellow believers from among the staff and conspires with them on how to project their own religion and hammer other religion(s) in a federal or state university.

    Cultism is mostly about getting undue advantage or favour. When our Christian and or Muslim rulers collude to secure undue advantages or favours, they plot it at night somewhere or in the secrecy of their offices or houses; they are secret cultists. The ritual aspect comes in the name of worshipping the same God in the same religion.

    Some university administrators don’t know that cheating workers is worse than sexual promiscuity, particularly if the sexual act is consensual rather than a rape. It is a clear case of rape when you shortchange workers; you do it without their consent, and so, you are a robber, thief. These clarifications are necessary to conscientize Nigerian rulers and administrators who are committing sin against humanity and still proudly calling themselves Christians and Muslims.

    Those who say that African Traditional Religion (ATR) is responsible for cultism in Nigerian universities miss the point. I have read books on cultism in which the name “Africa” or any African country does not even feature! Why are Africans raised to hate their roots, their ancestors to that extent? Yes, it is a cultist mentality which some or many develop or which is developed in them through indoctrination to promote their Christianity or Islam, selfishly. That renders many persons myopic. They lack rebirth in the art of “openness to life”. Too many “educated” persons are still living at the catechetical level, and it is children and not adult catechism.

    Imagine that hardly any of the students caught in acts of cultism comes from “pagan” homes; they are baptized or have undergone ritual birth in one “Godly” religion or another. I grew up in ATR and I never heard about secret cultism of the favoritism type within the system in Yorubaland. Cultism is an art of conspiracy born out of clique mentality, not religion.

    Yes, women must not see Oro, Agemo, Oloolu, and things like that in Yorubaland, but not like conspiracy as a religious modus Vivendi. Original Christianity and Islam don’t enjoin cultism, but those indulging in it in our universities are at least ninety-nine and half percent Christians and or Muslims. Yes, pariah status is bad for any university academic staff union congress; shortchanging workers is also un-Islamic; can it be Christian?

     

    • Pius Oyeniran Abioje, Ph. D,

    University of Ilorin.

  • 17 held for robbery, cultism in Oyo

    The Oyo State Police Command has arrested 17 suspects for robbery and cultism.

    Parading them at its headquarters in Ibadan, the state capital, Commissioner of Police Joseph Mbu, who was represented by his deputy, Clement Adoda, said weapons, charms, stolen vehicles and some foreign currency were recovered from the suspects.

    He said the parade was necessary to discourage criminals.

    Mbu said on December 9, Victor Okafor, Alhaji Ibrahim Animashaun and seven others allegedly snatched a Toyota Avensis, marked TT 273 AAA, from Mrs. Florence Oluwamida at gun point in Ibadan.

    He said they were arrested in Ikire, Osun State.

    The CP said on December 3, Yakubu Olamide and Muraina Amuda were arrested in possession of a stolen Toyota Prado Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) and two pistols.

    He said eight suspected members of the Black Axe Confraternity were arrested last Friday around 3am, while initiating new members in a bush at Ajibode, Ibadan.

    Mbu said the suspects, who claim to be students of the University of Ibadan (UI); The Polytechnic, Ibadan and Lagos State University (LASU), have confessed to being members of the cult.

    Asalu Babatunde (22), a student of Guidance and Counselling at UI, said he joined the cult a month ago.

    He said: “I was blindfolded and beaten up about a month ago in a bush. I am regretting my decision now.”

    Mbu said the police would sustain the peace and security in the state.

  • Six poly students renounce cultism

    Six students of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State, have renounced their membership of cult groups.

    The school’s anti-cult group destroyed the temple of a cult group.

    The former cultists were mostly “freshers”, who were initiated about seven months ago; one of them is a final year student.

    At the convocation arena, venue of the renunciation ceremony, the anti-cult group, led by Khaki Abdullahi, displayed some items recovered from the temple of the Black Axe Confraternity.

    They included a Bible, a mace, three pieces of regalia for the chief priest and other hierarchies, axes, charms, candles, vests and daggers. The items were burnt by the repentant cultists.

    Abdullahi said his group acted on information, which resulted in the destruction of the temple.

    He warned that the other cult members, who refused to renounce their membership, would be rusticated.

    The Rector, Prof. Godwin Onu, recalled that when he assumed office in 2010, over 50 students renounced their membership of various cult groups.

    According to him, his administration’s zero tolerance for cultism is yielding positive results.

    He said: “We have sustained our efforts through prayers with the men of God around us, through the activities of the Anti-Cult Squad and through other mechanisms to ensure that our students enjoy their studies and live without fear. We stand on the declaration we made that this place must be cult-free.”

    The Rector noted that cult groups’ efforts to re-launch themselves in the school had been thwarted.

    Four members of the Black Axe, he said, who came from another higher institution in Abia State, were recently arrested “to prove that our school is a no-go area”.

    Onu added: “These young men, who have declared in the name of Jesus Christ that they will no longer have anything to do with cultism or have any relationship with cult groups, are hereby pardoned and forgiven. We reintegrate them into the polytechnic and they are not going to suffer any form of punishment.”

    He, however, warned that those who refused to renounce their membership of various cult groups would be expelled whenever they are caught.

    The Rector said: “…We are tracking them.”

    The Anglican Chaplain at the school, Venerable Chukwudi Osondu, told the students that membership of secret cults would only lead them to destruction.

    The cleric said he was baffled that the cultists included the Bible among their instruments of worship.