Curbing campus vices

Poor academic performances and failure among students of tertiary institutions in Nigerian are resultant effects of evil or immoral behaviours and activities such as cultism, drug abuse, campus cohabitation, prostitution, among others.

It has also been argued from another view point that peer influence and pressure are causes of students’ participation in social vices that results in poor academic performance and failure. Whatever the case may be, peer influence plays significant role in this regard. As a background to this, it will be pertinent to look at cultism, drug abuse, campus prostitution and how they affect students’ lives and performances on campuses of Nigerian tertiary institutions.

History shows that cult activities in tertiary institutions began at the University of Ibadan. The first secret cult in Nigeria came into existence in the 1950s, when a group of seven students led by Professor Wole Soyinka founded the Seadog Confraternity, also known as the Pyrate. Aig-Imoukhuede, Pius Oleghe, Ralph Opara, Nat Oyelo and Professor Muyiwa Awe, were the founding fathers of this cult, at the University of Ibadan. The sole objective of the cult was to fight colonialism, to end tribalism and elitism, and to ensure the dignity of man. Their ideas were both patriotic and altruistic, as it was not imagined as a secret cult. The objectives revolved around the maintenance of polite behaviour among people of the different background and chivalry portrayed the dreams of the founders. Its members engaged in humanitarian activities such as donation of blood to hospitals to save lives and presentation of gifts to orphanages, to assist the hopeless in the society.

Today, the reverse has been the case. Secret cults constitute themselves into a protection group that fight and advance the rights and privileges of their members, including harassments, brutalization, and sometimes killing of fellow students who challenge their members and lecturers who fail them in examinations. Many students have been lured into joining secret societies through deception. Such deception include becoming one of the untouchables once you are a member, controlling the most beautiful girl on campus, passing examinations without study, and so on.

The effects of cultism on students and their learning processes cannot be overemphasized. This is evident from the existence and modes of operation of cult groups on campuses. Clashes between members of different cult groups result to killings, destruction of facilities and disruption of academic activities.

Findings also reveal that more than fifty notorious cult groups exist on Nigerian campuses and have also resulted to the death of thousands of students. They include Black-Axe, Eiye, Mafia, Maphite, Klansman, Black Beret, Black Cat, Black Cross, Jurist, Mgba Mgba, Thomas Boys, Black Brassier, to mention a few. These groups operate in different levels at universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

Cohabitation has also become a common phenomenon among students of tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Campus marriage, as it is fondly called among students, is a situation whereby a male and female student lives together in a rented apartment outside the school as husband and wife. Living in alone is now a thing of the past as some students want to experiment the bliss of marital life before leaving campus and getting married proper.

In this pattern of settlement, male students assume the role of a husband and his girlfriend, the wife. This relationship has every attribute of a real marriage, except that pregnancy is avoided and the consent of the parents of both parties is not neccessary. In a nutshell, the male student- often referred to as the husband- relies on his parents for money to become the breadwinner as he provides the female student with money for food, sightseeing during weekends and most often, provides the female with money for her upkeep. The female student on the other hand cooks, cleans up the house and satisfies her man’s sexual appetite.

The consequences of this immoral act is failure or poor academic performance, as some only remember that they are students actually when examinations come knocking, when they have spent better part of the semester practicing family life. On the other hand, it also results to unwanted pregnancy, which in turn leads to one or two of the students dropping out of school. In some cases, it results to the death of the female student in attempt to abort such pregnancy.

Moreover, drug abuse and consumption of harmful substances among students has extended to include not only male, but female students of tertiary institutions. Apart from alcohol, marijuana and tobacco, students have cultivated the habit of consuming substances such as cocaine, heroin, morphine and paregoric methadone. These substances or drugs are dangerous to healthy living as they reduce physical and psychological sensibility. They adversely affect excellent academic performance among students.

To remedy our campuses from this tragedy, and to avert indecent and evil practices among students, governments and authorities of high institutions in Nigeria should actively monitor the movement of students. This can be achieved through the provision of security personnel who are well-trained in human psychology to be able to identify drug addicts and cultists on campuses.

Guidance and counseling units should be created in institutions where there are none, and should be strengthened in institution where they exist. Students should be mandated to attend counseling sessions. Authorities of high institutions, particularly the students’ affairs division and the security units, should monitor carefully the activities of all registered students’ unions, associations and clubs. This is because many cult groups operate under the guise of registered social and cultural associations. These will help to avert all indecent and evil practices on campuses and produce well-trained and excellent students

Tweet