| Author | Message | ||
     Tairon (212.137.19.134) |
NIGERIA: Focus on the menace of student cults [ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] LAGOS, 1 Aug 2002 (IRIN) - No-one paid much attention to three cars as they pulled up on the afternoon of Friday 14 June in a car park at the University of Nigeria's campus at Nsukka, in the southeastern state of Enugu State. All of a sudden, several armed young men jumped out of the cars, raced into a nearby auditorium and opened fire on students swotting for their end-of-semester examinations. By the time the gunsmoke had cleared, 14 students lay dead. Two of the assailants were arrested by fellow students and handed over to the police. The shock and outrage caused by the massacre reverberated throughout the country, and the university was closed indefinitely. The police put the blame squarely on campus cults. "The university has been shut down because some cult members went there, shooting and killing innocent people," Nwachukwu Egbochukwu, Enugu State's police commissioner said at the time. The three cars used in the operation, he said, had been snatched at gunpoint from their owners hours before the attack. The Nsukka massacre was the worst manifestation so far of a cancer that had been spreading in Nigeria’s tertiary educational institutions for three decades: the menace of student cults, who visit violence on their rivals in a manner comparable to US street gangs. The attack in Nsukka has been blamed on a group identified as the Vikings, who were on an apparent revenge mission on students thought to belong to a rival gang. Before the Nsukka incident, the president of the Lagos State University's student union, who had been waging an anti-cults campaign, was stabbed to death by suspected cultists. At the Ibadan Polytechnic in the southwest and universities in Okigwe and Port Harcourt in the southeast, several students also died in shootouts involving rival cult groups. Barely two weeks after the killings at Nsukka, two students of the University of Ado-Ekiti, in the southwest, were shot dead in their residence by suspected cult members. A few days later the scene of violence shifted to nearby Owo. This time students of the town's polytechnic arrested five cult members following an incident and lynched them. "At least 250 people have been killed in cult wars in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions in the last decade," Emeka Akudi, a sociologist who has been studying the phenomenon, told IRIN. "And as the years pass, the casualty rates appear to be increasing." Yet, it is a monster with an innocuous beginning. The phenomenon of campus cults in Nigeria has been traced back to 1952, when Wole Soyinka - winner of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize for Literature - and a group of friends at the University of Ibadan formed the Pyrates Confraternity. Its motto was “Against all conventions”. With the skull and cross bones as their insignia, the Pyrates cultivated a bohemian style that ridiculed the colonial attitudes and mode of dress of the day. This caught on among students and over the next two decades the fraternity, a non-violent body, became established in all universities and tertiary institutions that emerged in post-independence Nigeria. The emergence of campus cults as they are known in Nigeria today began with a split in the early 1970s in the Pyrates Confraternity. First, a breakaway group formed the Buccaneers Confraternity. Next to emerge was the Black Axe or the Neo-Black Movement. Inter-group rivalry then set in, but skirmishes between them were limited to fist fights. The 1980s saw the multiplication of cults in the more than 300 institutions of higher learning across Nigeria. New groups such as the Eiye, the Vikings, the Amazons and Jezebels emerged, bringing with them more intensely violent rivalry. In 1984, Soyinka, perhaps to take the wind out of the sail of the emerging trend, initiated the abolition of the Pyrates Confraternity in all tertiary institutions, but by then the phenomenon of violent cults had developed a life of its own. By the mid-1980s, it had become evident that some of the cults had been co-opted by elements in the intelligence and security services serving the then military government. They were used as foils to the left-wing student unions which, along with university teachers, were among the only remaining bastions of opposition to military rule. "This was the time guns came into the picture," said Akudi. "Indeed there were instances where some university vice-chancellors actively protected some known cult groups and used them to hound student activists considered troublesome." He said the existence of traditional ancestral cults, some of which have transformed into contemporary ones, alongside the Free Masons and other esoteric organisations, had favoured the activities of student cults. Members of some of these groups bond together for the purpose of protecting political and economic interests, and this is mimicked by the student cults. Following a violent attack in 1999 at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, in which some student union officials were killed by a members of cult, President Olusegun Obasanjo launched a campaign to eradicate cultism from Nigerian tertiary institutions. Hundreds of students across the country came out openly to renounce their membership of cults and the violence associated with the activities of such groups began to die down. However, recent events indicate a resurgence. An editorial on 30 July in the respected daily, The Guardian, attempted an explanation: "The violence associated with the cults currently can be attributed to the general breakdown of values which we once held sacrosanct. The premium attached to human life has plummeted so badly that youths can now kill without flinching ... We therefore cannot combat the cults menace without paying attention to the problems of the larger society." [ENDS] | ||
| keembash (62.3.255.219) |
I cannot imagine the immaturity of some of you frat men. There's alot more to life than violence, i think you all just need a re-education, or should i say reorientation. and i'm refering to all frat men. Anyway Greetings to you all, be u an axeman, marphite, buka, airlord, kk, vikky and nuff respect to all the other frats that i didn't mention, i am a world airlord from the great oluyole . i'm currently resident in england, and i stumbled across this forum this morning, and to be honest i'm impressed with most of what i've read. i think we all need to come together to make confraternities a positive force in the society. we all know that the situation in Nigeria is depreciating by the minute, and we the educated and proven rugged ones that are supposed to fight for the rights of the masses are foolishly fighting amongst ourselves. Like rugged outlaw dawgg said confraternities in the civilised world are a force to reckon with, why can't we in Nigeria emulate such behaviour? We really need to get our priorities right, all those rugged men from the different frats whose lives were so foolishly cut short due to our inability to comprehend what is right from what is so terribly wrong, i'm sure you'll all agree that it was not worth the fuss. Guys, you are all highly rugged, lets test our wits like real men, lets stop the violence and start the reconstruction of all the confraternities. from there we can make Nigeria a better and greater nation than any of us can imagine. | ||
| dave (192.116.115.185) |
all sailing lord should put an end to violence in nigeria unversity and also rule killing in campuse and nigeria as a whole. make all lord see the light of buccaneering by the grace of gp. sailon | ||
| lekan (192.116.115.185) |
may sail to salt all sealord let leave eiye and aiye to continue fighting in all nigeria institution for no reason,but i think with time the nigeria government we do something about this eiye and aiye issue many people has been kill in ogunstate university,lagos state university,osun state colledge of technology uniben ibaban poly kwara state polythechnic and so on.make all sailing lord always believe that buccaneer association of nigeria we are not member cult member but if u believe u want to challenge this well mail lincolnahmed@yahoo.co.uk | ||
| Anonymous (24.193.211.19) |
FUCK U... WHO U BE SEFF... LOOK MAKE I TELL U WE MUST FIGHT ...... | ||
| Anonymous (195.93.34.13) |
U are all cowards,selfish,shameful,low minded and lazy lots.The youth as they say are the future of the nation. These cannot be said of the Nigerian students whom have been forced against their wish into cultism by a small group of people whose life revolves around violence,rape and murder. I have a piece of information for you idiots and as we know some highly placed individuals who has been supporting the cults, Your days are numbered! Refrain and banned all aspect of cultism in our higher institution or YOU WILL ALL BE HAUNTED DOWN. We know you all, your girlfriends, your dens and hideout and we can get you anytime!!! CHANGE NOW or BE SORRY | ||
| victorchikelue (victorchikelue) Member Username: victorchikelue Post Number: 68 Registered: 1-2005 Posted From: 24.167.209.94 |
o yeah, mai rofo guy? Where am i be? Wot could u do about it, anyhow? | ||
| korofo (korofo) New member Username: korofo Post Number: 5 Registered: 6-2005 Posted From: 213.52.144.59 |
For real dudes!!! This is some stereo typical BULLSHIT!!!!!! To think that our forefathers were fighting the very same war many moons ago, just with a different race. What will it take for our own people to prosper? How long is bloodshed going to continue, for how long will this stooooooooooooooooooopidious feud go on. Dont y'all think its about high time that we take responsibility for our own ations? It aint just about Naija, but every other country in this here our Motherland.... What are you individuals so scared about that y'all feel that you have to live your lives hiding behind somebody or behind whatever it is that makes you think your BIG MEN! Get with the Mother Fuking Program dudes! Wise up and heel out...Its time to put a stop to this. How many Brothers, fathers, and uncles will you continue to kill and pass judgement on, when y'all aint tall enough to pass judgemnet on yourselves, how many other innocent women will you kill before you realise that you came from one yourself and if it wasn't for the woman you call mother you wouldn't have a leg to stand on... I have nothing to hide, I may not be perfect, but I sure as hell am as free as I want to be. Got no ties on ma back and aint no one gonna stop me from doing whatever it is that I want tp do. I will prosper, and its guys like you that make me wanna proove it to maself and others even more. Wake up guys, smell the coffee. This aint the USA, this is AFRICA. Remember, What goes around, comes back around. God is the only one that can and will pass judgement on us as individuals...its a tough world, and you haven't even begun! | ||
| paparazi (paparazi) New member Username: paparazi Post Number: 8 Registered: 5-2005 Posted From: 80.88.157.139 |
can we please have a moment of silence.to all my brodas da B on B niggaz.i wish to say dis.as day goes n night fall,we want you all to know we missed you all though dis life most go on we still mourn,wishing you are home.na me PEACEFULL AYE | ||
| victorchikelue (victorchikelue) Member Username: victorchikelue Post Number: 78 Registered: 1-2005 Posted From: 24.167.209.94 |
True dat. | ||
| pally New member Username: pally Post Number: 2 Registered: 6-2006 Posted From: 213.185.106.153 |
AT TIME I DEY WONDER IF BUCCA KNOW WETIN BROTHER HOOD BE.WHY SHOULD A BUCCA USE POLICE DEY CARRY HIM FOLLOW SO HIM GO DEY MAKE MONEY,SHAME ONTO YOU GUYS TRY LEARN WETIN BROTHERS KEEP BE.AWU TO ALL REAL LURDS MAY YOUR BLOOD NEVER CLUT  | ||
| redsea New member Username: redsea Post Number: 10 Registered: 11-2005 Posted From: 196.1.176.83 |
GUY WITH THE ID : PALLY. I DONT KNOW WHO YOU ARE BUT STOP POINTING FINGER ON BUCCA LET EVERY CONFRA PLAY THE GAME THE WAY THEY KNOW IT BEST.IF YOU A NAS MEMBER MAIL ON ON SEAPALLY@YAHOO.COM . TO MY RUGGED PALLY PLEASE DONT BARK ANY CODE PERTAINING TO KRIP IN THIS LOB ARRANGMENT.KEEP IT REAL.ACT MATURE WHICH I KNOW YOU ARE. SAIL ON. | ||
| jeffo New member Username: jeffo Post Number: 15 Registered: 6-2007 Posted From: 85.18.201.172 |
una don hear, 7axemen and eiye sentenced to 7yrs and 3months with about 10 others(AXEMEN AN EIYE) awaiting sentencing for trying to kill each other in italy.dis na oldmen with children oo. so much 4 orientation |
