The word “cultism” when heard in Nigeria today, causes shivering and goose pimples because to the layman, it means many things such as, beheading individuals, killings, fighting etc. that is how it has come to be practised in Nigeria mostly in tertiary institution, even in secondary schools.

Cultism started in Nigeria when the pirate confraternity was formed at the university college, Ibadan in 1953. the confraternity was formed by six students namely: Wole Soyinka, Aig-Imoukhuede, Pius Olegbe, Ralph Opara, Nat Oyelola and Olumuyiwa Awe. the society was formed for the following reasons:

To Abolish Convention,
To revive the age of chivalry and
To end Tribalism and elitism

But in our tertiary institution today, the reverse is the case as many people use it as an avenue to perpetrate their evil act on innocent people and students.

The list of the secret cult operating in our educational institution, looks like what you will find in the Second World War II. At a count, it was estimated that there are 44 cult groups operating in various campuses in Nigeria. It was said that university of calabar, (uncial), university of Benin (Uniben), university of lagos (Unilag) and the Obafemi Awolowo university have not less than 16 cult groups operating in each of these campuses at any given time.

The following is the alphabetical order of some prominent cult groups found in most of the educational institutions in Nigeria.

Amazons (All female)

Black Axe

Black brothers

Black beret

Black ladies club (All female)

Blackscorpion

Buccaneers(Sealord)

Egbe dudu

Eiye Confraternity

Green Beret

Klan Confraternity

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

Mgba Mgba

Pyrates Confraternity (Sea Dogs)

Sons of the night

Thomas Sankara Boys

Vikings

Most of the above named cults are known to be deadly cults in our tertiary institutions which will bring us to this question. why do people join cult?
People join cult for so many reasons such as power, recognition, to be dreaded and feared, to have connection, oppression, etc.

These days, cultism is not what parents advise their children to venture into because it is dangerous. Even with the beatings and all the things they go through during initiation, one will think, it will discourage our youth from it but the reverse, being the case. there’s this case of a boy that wanted to be initiated, after the beatings and all, he couldn’t survive it, he died in the process and his body was thrown, into the river, so that it will be as if he drowned, the parents believed that he drowned, until later when it was discovered that he was killed during initiation one thing about it, is that cultist don’t sleep with their two eyes closed, and they are always on the run, thinking somebody is after their lives, mostly the ones that they have killed.

The bible says, he that kills by the sword must surely die by the sword, why join something that will make you not have peace of mind? More than one hundred young lives have been lost because of cultism, one of these people could be Nigerian president someday that would have taken Nigeria to a greater height, but ended their lives in a disastrous way, not just that these are young youth, with great ambitions and visions that would have taken their family to a greater height but ended their lives without achieving any of this due to initiation into cult.

Some of these cultist are being mobilized by wealthy men who supply them arms, ammunition and uses them as thugs to eliminate anyone who steps on their toes and this so called wealthy men also backed them up financially to enhance their operations and existences, some of these cult members normally pay dues to their number one man and any one that refuses to pay can be beaten up, that is why most of them go for armed robbery, high way robbery and even lie to their parents for extra money for the dues.

We are hereby appealing to Nigerian youths to desist from this act because it could make them lose everything and put their parent in pains, they should also be aware of the kind of friends they keep. They should remember that what a man sows he reaps, and whoever kills by the sword will surely die by the sword.