PORT HARCOURT — FORMER vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Emeritus Tekena Tamuno has diagnosed the causes of cults in campuses, saying there are practices in the larger society especially in government that militate against attempts to eradicate cult practices in university campuses. He also said that a liberal interpretation of section 318 (1) of the 1999 constitution would make every Nigerian a member of secret society. His words: “the very broad definition of a secret society in the interpretation of that section would amount to a fishing expedition.” He then called for the amendment of that section of the 1999 constitution”.
“This is what the last paragraph (of that section) says: (C) the activities of which are not known to the public at large, the names of whole members are kept secret and whose meetings and other activities are held in secret.” He spoke at a lecture entitled, “Growing Menace of Cultism in Nigerian Society: A call for an Integrated National Response organized by the Old Boys of Okrika Grammar School (OGS) in Port Harcourt weekend.
At the lecture which held at Hotel Presidential in the city, Prof. Tamuno noted, “youths, particularly, those aged 14-20, are impressionistic and imitative. Hence, as “mirrors of society” these decade by decade, had seen a lot that was particularly bad in Nigeria, before and since the Civil War years. Youth, therefore tended to reflect bad image of Nigeria as one set after another entered and left Nigeria’’s centers of learning.”
Continuing, the University of Ibadan lecturer said, “that image included terror, through military coups d’’etat, counter-coups, blood-lettering in the punishment of unsuccessful coup plotters, armed robbery, ritual killings, political assassinations, escalation of electoral violence, as well as a pandemic of crime and corrupt practices, arrant indiscipline and lawlessness at every level of society.
“Add to these, endless conflicts and crises among the legislature, executive and the judiciary, Nigeria’’s mountain of external debts incurred with the raw material of egregious, fraudulent practices and a despicable state of helplessness and despair in Civil Society, among other deleterious acts of commission and omission by the combined factors of self, society and the state. It is then, and then only one could understand the impacts of the pictures formed in the fertile minds of youth and portrayed in the mirror they continued to show the rest of civil society.”
Prof. Tamuno added that “their conclusions (the youths), particularly, since the 1980s seemed to center on this Action Plan: Do as Adults do, not what they say. Thus, secret societies and cults in places meant for the orderly development of ‘‘character and learning’’ have come to demonstrate the ugly faces of contemporary youth culture. In these respects, they seem to have been fairly accurate mirrors of contemporary adult society in Nigeria.
“Faced with strong threats, from secret societies and cults, university authorities adopted comparatively weak strategies and tactics: in particularly, those without lasting values. For example, their Matriculation Oaths failed to catch the real culprits. Parents ands guardians aided and abetted measures to influence justice as dispensed through courts of law.” he added.
