Stories of violence in schools were before now frequent in countries where weapons such as guns or knives are legalised and freely used. Though arms are used by few licensed to have it in Nigeria, illegal use of weapons such as guns, machetes and daggers to settle scores is gradually creeping into Nigerian secondary schools through students who are members of cult groups. Experts say youth violence is caused by negligence on the part of parents and government, writes JULIET UMEH
When a Senior Secondary School 3 student of Gaskiya College, Ijora area of Lagos State, late Saheed Jimoh, left the home where he was living with his uncle, Mr. Shakiru Oluayo, at Adejiyan Street, Amukoko area, for school on the morning of Wednesday, November 4, 2015, he probably said ‘good bye,’ but little did he know the day would be so ‘bad’ that he would not make the usual return journey home.
The life of the promising 19-yearold Jimoh, who was the school’s labour prefect, was allegedly taken by a junior, a Senior Secondary School 2 student in the same school, Saka Ahmed, aka Ejo (snake). Though there has never been any love lost between Jimoh and Ahmed, an eye witness told said the punishment Jimoh gave Ahmed and some others the previous day for coming to school late was the bone of contention.
Ahmed became so extremely angered by the punishment that he plotted an attack against Jimoh outside the school premises after the close of school same day in revenge for the humiliation he suffered in from him. However, he could not achieve his devilish aim that day; therefore he made sure he perfected a new strategy overnight that could result in the achievement of his cruel scheme.
The following day, it was gathered, Ahmed, like a snake quietly and secretly lurked around behind a food canteen near the school and immediately he sighted his ‘enemy,’ Jimoh, approaching the school’s main entrance, he quickly waylaid him and stabbed him in his chest with a knife. Though poor Jimoh fought against death with his youthful strength, he gave up the ghost shortly after he arrived at a private hospital where he was rushed to. Jimoh was fated to die maybe, because according to Mr. Oluayo, the deceased uncle, “My nephew had initially decided not to go to school on that fateful day, but changed his mind because he did not want to miss classes,” he sadly stated. At the centre of another pathetic story of violence in school is Oluwadamilare Olugbamu, a pupil of Nawarudeen Secondary School, Jibowu, Lagos. Unlike Jimoh, Olugbamu could be said to be lucky he still has his life after he had shave with death in the hands of a suspected cult member, a pupil from another school, on the morning of July 1, 2015. According to reports, the 16-yearold boy, Olugbamu, had left the compound of his school, at the close of school, when he was attacked with a knife by another 16-year-old boy suspected to be a cult member.
The assailant, Idris Ajagbe, a pupil of Birel Secondary School, Lagos, stabbed him in the left thigh with a knife suspected to have been poisoned. Pitiable as the case was, insult was added to the injury, eleven days after the attack, when his left leg was amputated at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja, Lagos, because the report from medical doctors showed that blood no longer flowed through it.
Olugbamu’s sorry story and struggles for survival continued, but his travails did not end. On August 15, the same leg had to be re-amputated because it continued to bleed without healing. Cultism in Nigerian educational institution started in Nigeria’s premier university, The University of Ibadan in 1954, when some young undergraduates because of some ills on campus among students and in the society formed Pyrates Confraternity (PC). Then it was non-violent, but humanistic organisation like fraternities in higher institutions in the western world. Among the objectives of cults then was protection of female students from harassment and attacks in magazines, but in recent times cultism has spread to secondary and primary schools with female students swelling their number, yet members are not noted for worthwhile programmes or peaceful presence but organised crimes. Saturday Mirror, in the course of investigation, discovered a catalogue of malignant actions by cult members in Nigerian secondary schools over two decades. In 1995, 22 students of Comprehensive High School Ayetoro Ogun State, were arrested at a secret meeting. They, on interrogation, confessed to have joined the group under the supervision of tertiary school students purposely to enhance examination malpractice. In 1997, five students of Community Secondary School, Okomedo, Obiakpan Local Government Area of Rivers State, were arrested after an attempt to initiate a fellow student failed when he ran away after they had pierced his head and were licking blood from his skull. Also in the same year, 10 SSSI students of Mount Carmel Secondary School, Ikare Akoko, Ondo State, were expelled for belonging to a cult “Seven Stars Cult” while in November, an SSS111 student of Western Boys’ High School, Benin City, Edo State, was stabbed to death by his colleagues who were cult members. Recently, an officer attached to Ogun State Police Command, confirmed the arrest of eight secondary school students of Remo Divisional High School, Kara, Sagamu, suspected to be cult members while performing an initiation rites. The suspects were said to be apprehended by police operatives attached to Sagamu Division with the help of members of the state Vigilante Service. According to the Ogun State Police Command Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, those in the net were suspected members of Black Scorpion Cult Group and were rounded up while they were initiating Ayoola Ahmed, a student of their school, in a nearby bush. The suspects, whose ages range between 15 to18 include: Sodik Suleiman (16), Seyin Okebiyi (15), Olaide Sodik (15), Dare Sodiya (16), Ogunfuwa Samson (17), Adegba Michael (18), Usman Adams (17) and Isa Suleiman (18). Moreover, the police foiled the initiation of 46 students of Mission Secondary School in I Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State in July this year. Reports have it that the students, who had just concluded writing their Senior School Certificate Examination, were alleged members of a cult group identified as Junior Vikings. They were said to have gathered in a hotel in the metropolis located along old Enugu Road to be initiated into a senior group known as Senior Vikings when the police swooped in on them through preinformation. During the initiation, the police stormed the venue leading to the arrest of over 15 of the students while those billed to conduct the initiation escaped. According to the Police spokesperson in the state, Chris Anyanwu, “the initiators had dangerous items on them, but the police had mounted a man-hunt to arrest the fleeing suspects.” He explained that the ‘initiators,’ who were members of the Senior Vikings, mandated the graduating students who were dressed in white hats, red shirts and black trousers to be initiated into the senior team or face difficulties in their lives. These bizarre cases, generating wide reactions from well-meaning and worried Nigerians, have left a lot of questions than answers on cult groups in secondary schools because Nigerians believe that because of the ugly activities by cults in secondary school, pupils now engage in dangerous activities outside learning, the aim of being a student. A parent, Mr. Daniel Akinpelu said: “The rate of secondary school students’ cult killing is alarming. Ejo acted truly to his nickname. He’s a future Agbero.” But while pundits continue to give the touchy subject noble reflections, many reasons have been adduced why cultism is practised in institutions of learning. These include grandstanding, revenge an insult, power show, thirst for blood, instrument of threat and attack by gangs that thrive in secrecy after crimes such as robbery, rape, election fraud, examination malpractice etc, but Emeritus Professor Muyiwa Awe once said “the basic reason is spiritual.” Little wonder, cults have practices akin to religion though strange: initiation, songs, hymns, doctrine, worship system, place of worship, altar, shrine, regalia, lingo, images, symbols hierarchy and responsibilities of members etc. “They have special handshakes as if they are members of secret societies; they initiate new members by incising their hands and drink each other’s blood for bonding and covenant-taking; sometimes these are done at cemeteries,” said Azuka Amamize, a sociologist. A psychology lecturer at the Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, Dr Mrs. Debora Adewuyi, said the killer of Jimoh is a suspected cult member. According to her, school violence wears many faces: gang activity, locker theft, bullying and intimidation, gun use, assault, just about anything that produces pain to a victim. Specifically, students these days verbally abuse one another physically, mentally or psychologically. Also the use of guns, knives and other dangerous weapons and other abuses – physical or psychological – are now more common than ever in Nigerian school system. A social analyst, Mr. Godwin Illoh, believes institutional, cultural as well as social and family issues are some of the reasons why violence exists in schools and some pupils join cults. “It is not uncommon for kids to bully other kids in order to feel they have some power in this world. Institutional causes of bullying often come from a home environment or a school environment where the standards are not very high when it comes to how people treat each other. Social issues come into play within the subject of bullying because the kids doing it know that it will get them attention that they desperately crave. Since the world is a place where negative actions get more attention than positive, bullies are inspired to participate in these negative actions. Many times both scripted and reality TV shows make kids think that bullying is all right because they see negative behaviour and actions highlighted on these shows. In addition to TV shows, video games are often blamed by the parents of bullies as cause of their child’s actions in the first place,” he said. Equally expressing bitterness over the recurrent cases of cult activities in Nigerian secondary schools is Professor Ngozi Osarenren, of the Faculty of Education, University of Lagos. She said such issues tell the level of debasement in our society, noting that the last two decades had witnessed secret cult violence in higher institution in Nigeria which has had spilledover effect on the secondary schools and leaving in its trail, bloodletting and wanton waste of human lives. She however heaped the blame not only on parents but also on government because “As a people, we have lost it. We have failed to do the needful as parents. We have also failed to do the needful as government. If all parents have been able to look after their children, teach them the right values, we won’t have the incidence of cultism in our secondary schools. “Secondly, some parents are bad role models because they are strong cult members. So it is like passing on the baton of a family tradition from parents to children, because as impressionable children, what they see or hear influences them. If my parents are doing it, then it is good, I have to do it they think. And if their parents are not doing it, their friends are doing it. Therefore the professor of educational foundation added: “Peer pressure, the strong feeling that a child has when he thinks he must do the same things as others of his age if he wants them to like him, is another factor that leads to cultism. At a very critical period in a child’s life, there is increased reliance on friends than family. And they long to belong to that which their friends belong. And they would do everything possible to be members of that clique.” However, Prof. Osarenren didn’t proffer any solution to this social problem but stressed: “We need to be sincere to ourselves. Many parents delude themselves that their children are bigger than them, but a child can never be bigger than his parents except the parents don’t want to say the truth. The only way out is for parents to start doing what is right,” she appealed. Nonetheless, for schools and teachers, she has a piece of advice: “In schools, the teachers, the principals should start focusing on school itself, not school as in quote. Most teachers that are supposed to be foster parents hardly play that role. We have to look at the school again; what kind of teachers do we have. Do we have teachers that are committed, motivated and satisfied on the job? Do we have teachers who look forward to going to school to impact children? When you look at all these variables, the teacher factor is very critical in ensuring that the incidence of cultism is reduced in our secondary schools. Corroborating the stance of the education lecturer is the Head of Department of Psychology, University of Lagos, Professor Ibinabo Agiobu-Kemmer, who sadly remarked that parents have abdicated their roles. In her words: “Parents are not checking or monitoring their children or don’t have time for their children as they should have. Some are delegating their responsibilities to others. Those who still want to keep the values are probably getting fewer and fewer. Also, in the house, if one adult wants to correct the child to maintain the value and what is right, another will be contradicting and saying “leave them alone, this is new world order, that is old school.” The children don’t need conflicting messages to develop morally. She however, re-emphasised the need for moral and religious values in homes. “We have to restore the family altar, restore prayer time, sit together to defend family and scriptural values. How do we correct children’s morals and values? We have to start from the home’’.