~ The devil makes work for idle hands
There were concerted efforts at all levels to stop all cult activities on the University of Ibadan campus 1n 1999. During our first year, that is, 100 level (1999), many preachers came from outside UI to organize renouncing crusades. Some cult members allegedly 'gave their lives to Christ.' While that was ongoing, the student unionism headed by Aluta was at loggerheads with the University authorities for increasing student fees. There was pandemonium all over the place including the incident where the Vice Chancellor of the day was disgraced at Zik Hall (Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall) by the student leaders, which event led to their rustication.
Normalcy returned to the campus but not without threats and stories of cult engagements up and down. We, the freshmen, were often harassed while we queued to pay our fees and return to classes. However, for the most part, cult activities moved to the off campus areas of Agbowo and Orogun where there were alleged shootings of rival members. I was relieved that I had school to do. While the student cults were diminishing in their potency, the institutional cults gained in importance and held sway. For instance, there was no understanding the various initiations that came to the classroom. One happened to me, occasioned by how a lecturer taught her class. She mandated Catholic styled and themed prayers in her office which doubled as our classroom. I told her of my disenchantment with her choice of style of teaching. I didn't think that a university classroom was to bring in prayers. And often started with, 'Ka anyi kpee nwa obere ekpere,' meaning, 'Let's say a little prayer.' I thought that was paganism! I didn't report her to the Head of Department and regret that I didn't. Till this day, I have wondered why the school authorities allowed such fear mongering anchored in laziness as exhibited by Mrs Regina Obahkena. My classmates didn't seem to mind as most of them were Catholic. In no time, I began to hear my classmates speak of 'Onye Ekpere.' One had a prayer warrior, she was Ms Ngozi Nwuba. But Ms Oluchi Ihunze visited Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries for her own deliverance. I wasn't sure what was going on. Some others went to consult Catholic priests. Ki lo shele? Everybody was afraid of dying or failing their exams. Who knew if it had anything to do with me being Mormon? Lol. I didn't do any voodoo o. That would amount to the pot calling the kettle black. Till this day, I've never practised sorcery. So, what gave?
Beyond Ms Obahkena and her prayers, there were other Catholic authorities operating within the UI campus and its environs. There was IMORAN, Pro Labore Dei, and even the Opus Dei. I didn't know to what extent those entities impacted the lives of students especially non-Catholics. But I had an eerie feeling about the interference of those establishments in upsetting the equilibrium of the school system. They served as a spy system and as long as they worked with the school authorities, they were adjudged safe for everybody. Pregnancies were covered up through incessant ASUU strike action. I didn't think that was cool. No nation should spin its wheels on fear and witchcraft. Mrs Obahkena, for instance, was shamelessly obsessed with virginity whether her own or her students' I wasn't sure how it mattered with my quest to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Igbo. In fact, it must have become a cult to her, the virginity cult, that was. To her credit, abstaining from all sexual relations also called celibacy was more like the word to use as most of the girls in her class were hardly virgins. But to have preached abstinence or celibacy on the UI campus would have made more sense to me, as most of the protestant/Pentecostal campus fellowships probably did. Otherwise, we had women who had abandoned school at UNILAG after their second year to start afresh at UI with claims virginity. Virginity as a word was bastardized and all got laurels for starting sexual predatory activities afresh in Ibadan instead of upholding morality. What a waste in creating and empowering a civilization of liars, scammers, stalkers, schemers and killers. The University of Ibadan was a university and not a convent of virgin nuns.
So, while the notorious cults that terrorized lectures and students on the campus and disrupted academic activities on the UI campus had been stamped out, student groups coming through extreme ideologies, attitudes, patterns of behaviour and belief began to manifest on the UI campus.They built networks, worked as gangs or syndicates and leveraged authority. Some of them are explained here:
1) The Cult of Harlotry/Prostitution: The cult of promiscuity and rogue hospitality. There were many prostitutes on the University of Ibadan campus, many of them masquerading as students. UI was a big community and there was little done to know those who came to school and those who 'tagged along.' It was easy for people to sneak in and out of the halls of residence. Others decided to operate outside the University gates, preferring places like Agbowo, Sango, Mokola and others. One of my lectures, a reverend sister, would call some of such people, 'They also came,' implying that some people had to be around because others were in school. Many of those prostitutes, male and female, knew one another as they often worked together. It was worse around Queen Elizabeth Hall. There were young boys, called water boys, who served as pimps for some of those Queenites. The Water Boys carried around albums containing pictures of the students in Queen's Hall and Idia Hall and present such to the visitors. When a choice was made, the boys made it to teh girls' room and present the proposal to them. The girls came out to bargain with the men in the car and would 'settle' the errand boy later. What entrepreneurship! Those girls went away most of the nights, especially Friday nights in bum shorts (short shorts) or mini skirts to unidentified places outside the UI campus possibly to attend parties and raves. Posh cars of all sorts came into school and took the girls outside for the night many never came back till the next day or after a week. The male students often referred to Queenites as sluts, whores and harlots. And they called Idiates 'our wives,' or witches, or Idiots, lol. While prostitution/harlotry was a crime nearly in every country of the world, including Nigeria, many foreigners (and local men/women) preferred university undergraduates for gigs and trysts. It didn't seem that AIDS was real, after all.
UI was a place where students tried to emancipate themselves and free themselves from parental and other adult control. But the choice of clandestine activities was wrong for a budding civilization. I'm not justifying prostitution, but I think that many of those students were hoodwinked into becoming prostitutes, spies, scammers or stalkers. Making money from such activities made them the 'big' boys and girls on the campus, many of them dated white men who brought in dollars. I wouldn't know if the white Mormons who were missionaries in Ibadan were part of their clientele. I didn't interact with them until I was about leaving for my mission to Temple Square in 2005. But what's not denying was how mean many of those call girls were to other students. Those who lived off campus would disappear for months only to return to write examination. Unfortunately, they wouldn't have studied their texts and would act like they paid you to teach them all the answers during an exam. Not all absent students were prostitutes, but there was no other explanation for their absenteeism. After graduation, they would have interacted with more lecturers and staff than their counterparts. They have made many contacts outside and inside the University and have built networks, have developed clout, may have financial buoyancy and definitely would wield great bottom power. While Idia and Queen's Halls were the two famous female hostels, there were others such as the Achiever's Hostel located off campus and St. Anne's hostel, on campus, which also hosted female students of the University of Ibadan. This isn't leaving out the Awolowo Hall, which was a hybrid hall of sorts, hosting male and female undergraduates and postgraduates. I didn't think much of it then, but many Igbo students could be in this group, often leaving Ibadan for Lagos on the weekend. They only knew what they went to do, perhaps to attend to their young children or engage in illicit activities that UI didn't allow.
2) The Cult of Spoiler: The busybodies. The nosy animals. Those ones had nothing to do but walk around the UI campus looking for trouble. They knew all the Appian Way of Ibadan and the back streets of Agbowo. They came to know what food you cooked, who was talking to who, who was seeing who. They scooped everywhere trying to gather fodder for gossip. Those ones weren't always in the classrooms but they were ever around. Most of them lived in the quarters of the school. Yes, some UI staff hired out their boy's quarters. It was where most people hanged around when school wasn't in session. While official cults weren't allowed anywhere on the UI campus, student groups still met to look for trouble. I wondered who got those ones enrolled in school and who bankrolled their trouble making.They probably were erstwhile members of the defunct cults. They often tried to foil examinations and carried rumours around the campus about other students. They would take down banners and posters of students vying for posts on campus. They would gossip from dawn to dusk; many of them lived off campus. Some would come as boyfriends only to find what to say about you to those who respected you. They are the cult of destruction and disruption.
3) The Cult of Eatery: While this is more like a behavioural pattern than a physical cult, beware how you interact with people who follow this ideology. These people are the 'French' of Anglophone Nigerian. They don't gladly share their meals with you even after they have 'invited' you to eat. You pay through your nose for eating at their parties. If you do attend, wouldn't it be funny to buy yourself a drink and your meal? That wouldn't be a bad idea. If somebody makes you pay for your drink at a party, hope that it would be the last time you'd be paying for the drink or meal. They aren't going to at first bring you to ridicule for 'eating' their food, mostly at their invitation being culturally sensitive to African or Igbo culture) but would still hold the grudge against you. They are wily and definitely full of guile. They hold you to great disdain for being 'carefree' or naive. They are shrewd and hardly have their meals outside their homes. I'm thinking there's an 'osu' cult to all these belief systems that are ridiculously popular on the UI campus. Many also wouldn't share in your meals and you wouldn't know that they are hoping not to be 'ensnared' by your own hospitality. I don't know what exactly they are about, but I did notice that trend on the UI campus. How to ignore those cult members in this group? Buy your own meal and don't think it's your job to feed anybody else because the opposite is also true - those you feed once may think it's your job to feed them always. It would get on their nerves when you choose to refrain from that hospitality. Whatever they believe, wherever they come from, these aren't your choice for campus camaraderie. During my undergraduate days, they came to school wearing many thinking caps and none would benefit you. This Cult is non-Igbo only in culture but it's naive to not know that such persons exhibiting 'French' must to be avoided like the plague. Altruism isn't a familiar word to this group. It was the cult of usury and usurpation.
4) The Cult of Virginity/Hypocrisy: It was weird why students who were mature, some nearly thirty years old came to school telling stories of their virginity. They were probably in some sort of pact to never reveal their love life to anybody. I wouldn't know why anybody would be out to tell lies from head to toe. Those students were mostly the 'born again' or the 'sista' or 'sisters' who claimed they were befriending 'Jesus.' There were others who didn't belong to any known religion but still branded themselves 'virgins.' I would later find out that many of them were women who engaged in 'azu bu ike' that is 'anal sex' with men. They didn't allow men to have access to their anterior private part. Yes, many did have sexual intercourse but restricted such to things that they believed 'virgins' ought to do. They weren't to tell men what they did for a living but like members of the cult of virginity, they had clout on campus. They were good with the Alhajis of Ibadan. They were dark and kept many secrets. In fact, I would call them 'born again ashewo.' They refrained from 'unwholesome' campus activities such as parties, going to the Arts Theatre or interacting much with unbelievers. Some of them were also secret single mothers who didn't want to engage in romantic relations on campus. So, the excuse of virginity gave them an escape route from silly UI boys who wanted a 'go' at them. All the campus fellowships housed members of this cult. They weren't necessarily holy as they were as vindictive as the devil. You just would hardly see them with men except for their 'brothers' in the church or fellowship. But there were the 'tarry nights', the retreats and the Redemption Camp to do once in a while. Of course, the holidays were done away from prying eyes. Mrs Regina Obahkena would have championed this cult if she knew of its existence or were an undergraduate of the University. It was the cult of heresy and voodoo.
5) The Cult of Networking: Networking is a system of trying to meet and talk to other people to see how they may help you in your work. The cult of networking has bastardized this otherwise useful and harmless way of leveraging human resources for lifestyle and career growth. They know members of your church or fellowship. They used the (monetary) gossip exchange more than the (monetary) stock exchange. Many people in the University thought that they had just networking to do. They knew all your lectures and staff of your department and faculty. They knew your hall master or hall mistress. They knew your aunts in the village and even abroad. They used everybody known to you to monitor your movement and ambitions on the University campus and outside. They were mad people who would drop dead if they didn't know your place of primary assignment (ppa) during your National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). They made people think that they served your interests but they eventually would harness and leverage every information they gathered while 'helping' you behind your back. Today, they cause the problems in homes because one member of your family serves as their stand by generator - providing every information to whom you wouldn't believe they were in touch with. Kai! I refuse to respect this cult of networking. They serve the selfish interests of people around you, linking you to people you had left behind since donkey's years. They feed the gossip mills of your life with constant interaction with your life endeavours. They are criminals. They hack email in order to stay abreast of the latest activities of your life. They are impostors and aid impersonation. They use all sorts of criminals in the society to do their work. Of course, they are familiar with the term, 'con artist,' which describes many of their activities. At UI, I had to make connections with a man whose telephone line I used to call relatives abroad. I believe that the man made my contact known to members of the cult of networking. Once, I caught him eavesdropping on my telephone conversation. I was really disappointed in that Ngwa man. Unfortunately, many members of the cult of networking are graduates who must make ends meet but wouldn't accept peanuts offered by local jobs. The advent of the GSM in early 2000 brought them more clients and work and trouble. They sabotaged and blackmailed other people seeking all ways to make life miserable for those who didn't worship them. It is the cult of information and gossiping.
6) The Cult of Witchcraft: Witchcraft is the use of magic, especially black magic, which uses evil spirits and spells to cause harm. It's male equivalent is called wizardry. Witches don't always tell you they are one. In fact, most people are called witches by others than they would admit being one themselves. To this end, it would be difficult to identify a witch. So, who's a witch? In common parlance, a witch would be that woman (a wizard, that man) who causes others harm. What is harm? It is that which cause physical injury or an adverse effect on another. It creates problems for people. This is different from a spoiler even though spoilers tend to cause harm. Witches cause accidents. They leave dangerous things for others to sit on and get injured. They are even believed to cause or have caused road accidents. They are hypocrites too and very pretentious. They lie a lot. In fact, it's very unlikely you would know the true identity of a witch including their material names. They switch identities when they work together. Today, they are Lucy, another day you hear people talk about Lucky and you wouldn't know that the same woman was being talked about. They use aliases. They live false lives and actually spread malicious gossip about other people in order to do harm. They don't keep confidences and aren't interested in being shamed. They are ignoble. The witch believed so much in her ability to get results and would go to great lengths to do unnecessary harm to the innocent. Their missions were often unknown to their contemporaries and counterparts. They would hardly be in the right place, but somehow they would be ignored as they lied a lot to cover up for their wickedness. They hardly attended classes but would be at every exorcism activity without changing a bit. They were self-righteous hypocrites, often never holding themselves to the same moral judgement that they held others.
On campus, witches hardly wore trousers like the cult of prostitutes would but they knew most of the activities of the other students. They belonged to no known fellowship. They hardly attended any church activity. They relied on being enigmatic. They were often seen with lecturers possibly resolving personal issues or causing harm to other students. They weren't necessarily ugly or beautiful but wouldn't appear to be up to any mischief. They would steal clothes off the cloth line for their magic or to scare their victim. They went away to Agbowo to consult local men and women. They were likely to visit witch doctors or even the Okija shrine in Anambra State to stall the progress of their 'enemies.' They knew vicious cult boys. Many of them were baby mama and quite knowledgeable of the local practices - the taboos and ethos. They could be courtesans too - prostitutes who only dated rich clientele, lecturers and diplomats. I'm not sure if there were initiation ceremonies for the cult of witchcraft was the case in Gothic times. Suffice it to say that the members were known to one another at least in behavioural affinity and their ability to cause harm. They must have burgled my apartment of Fadeyi Street to know the personal effects in my bedroom. They were also spies, stalkers and scammers. They knew people with whom you associated off campus without letting you know. They were the cult of sorcery.
7) Alumni Personality Cult: Being the first institution of higher education in Nigeria, the University of Ibadan (formerly the University College, Ibadan) has graduated notable alumni, some of whom are stuck in nostalgia. Those alumni who have no interest in the character part of 'character and learning' have continued to use young students to foment trouble on the UI campus. I'm not going mention names or bring up the history of such associations as the Pyrates confraternity. Suffice it to many people were in Aba and Umuahia, Abia State and kept spies at UI who gave them information on how other students were running their lives. The 'godfathers' and 'godmothers' who were expected to do provide jobs to the young students upon graduation. This was before the advent of the GSM. It's also possible that the need to keep the information fresh was what propelled the introduction of the global system of mobile communication (GSM) in the early 2000s. While the advent of mobile communication spearheaded the entrepreneurial flight of the country, it has brought news sometimes incomplete, false or misleading to UI alumni who wanted to know if anybody was 'tarnishing' the image of their alma mater. In Nigeria, nothing is a problem until it becomes a condition. UI alumni should graduate and leave 'aluta' for children. It was the cult of villainy and idolatry.
8) The Cult of Merry-Go-Round: Members of this cult or way of life are very dangerous because they are the wolves in sheep's clothing. They are never where they are supposed to be and are very much in your life. They are stalkers and very promiscuous too. Once they see you with a man or woman, they are stopping next time to 'greet' them. From greeting them, they are soon disappearing during the weekends. In no time, your 'friend' would stop speaking to you and like that you have been chanced. Members of these cult are your course mates, roommates and even your church members. They are helping the 'networkers' to get more information about fellow students. But the ugly fact about their machination is that they make people pact with them to cover up their antics. So, you would hardly know which of your course mates have spoken to your family, friends, relatives and the like. They are 'frienemies' and truly your wouldn't understand why they are spying on you. Of course, unwittingly you would have confided in your 'friends' without being in the know that they had been promoted to 'informants' only you never knew when they got the 'job.' One came after me to Orile, Lagos State, where I never knew who connected her to. She brought her sister to live with one Mbaise man in Lagos State, in the same building as the man in whose company I first came to the Southwest. In no time, I met with another course-mate in the Linguistics department on the same street. It was seeming to be the hideout of Igbo Linguistics students of the University in Lagos State. The lady lived in Festac axis of Lagos and probably came to Orile afterwards. People went to school to acquire knowledge, I believed, not to go playing spies to students. Whoever was using their 'scoop' was known only to them. Was that a kind of job? The things Nigerians pay for. Tufiakwa. They probably continued the liaison till our graduation in 2004. Igbo people sef, always the trouble they claim is a bother to them. It must have been a coincidence but it was with a queer man. My host expressed displeasure at her conduct in the compound and how it was strange that one man was befriending two 'sisters.' The merry-go-round want to date everybody known to you including your parents. Forget your boyfriend, that one has already become their 'assistant boyfriend cum informant.' Beware of members of the cult of treachery. They would never stop with your landlord, they also want his son, probably destroying your supposed 'power.' I had no idea what paranoia was until I went to UI and there were surely many paranoid busybodies there. Character and learning indeed. If it were their job to scope me out for my parents/relatives/friends whose job was it to examine them for their own parents/relatives/friends? Or were they all bastards without pedigree?
9) The Cult of Sodomy/gratuitous sex:
10) The Osu Caste System: The cult of canker and destruction. To understand the role of the osu cult in the University of Ibadan, let's walk down memory lane to discover the caste.The osu caste was a primordial criminal justice system employed by the Igbo tribe of Nigeria to check deviance in their communities. The system comprised slaves who took oaths in shrines, seeking protection from the shrine against any assailant for any crime committed against humanity. In many parts of Igboland, osu was the name given to the (en)slaved felons in many Igbo communities. while they were also called umeh in others. The osu was made a living dead for running away from the arms of the law and persecution and seeking amnesty from the deity. While amnesty was given to them they dien't enjoy acquittal - they didn't have freedom of association as did the Diala. The osu wandered around the villages, male and female, often in tattered clothing because they were unkempt. They tended the grounds of the shrine, providing service to the priests or priestesses of the deities. They kept the livestock of the shrine. They ran other errands as designed by the officers of the shrines. The osu was kept an enemy of the society.They didn't mingle with the freeborn called diala who were the custodians of the society. The osu didn't take titles, they were forbidden to do so. They didn't fetch water from the same stream or on the same day as the freeborn. They didn't shop from the same market or the same day or same time as the freeborn. Osu/umeh and diala couldn't inter-marry. They were a menace to other members of the society and were thus despised. They fomented trouble at every turn even though they were always ignored for their lack of social decorum. If hungry, the osu of the past, would snatch or steal any food or assistance without permission or courtesy towards his or her victim who was mandated not to retaliate or revenge the insolence. The osu was branded, often with part of the body missing, usually an ear or any of his or her fingers. Nobody would beat an outcast nor cause them bodily harm for it was abomination to do so. When an osu or umeh becomes very notorious he is taken away from the community and executed and the god(s) appeased usually with an adult cow.
Osu was a heritage, passing from parent to their offspring. The advent of Christianity changed or reduced the discrimination. Unfortunately, many offspring of the amnesty was an acquittal and thus remained obnoxious and obstinate despite many measures to curb crime in the society.... For more on my insights into the osu caste system read here.
11) The Cult of Conspiracy/Rogue Cooperative:
Why Did Cults Thrive on Campus?
The trouble with cults is that they are unnecessary, wasteful and don't stop their vile activities upon graduating school. The whole idea to them is to have and wield unhealthy power and influence in the society. They resort to sabotage and blackmail to pigeonhole their supposed 'victims' during the course of their studies. They are the harlots in your place of primary assignment during your National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) who are either over aged or have no business with community development of their host community. They are friends with the 'oga' some of whom are known to them for several years prior to the corps programme. With cults and their membership, the country is a bed of roses. Since jobs were no longer given on the basis of merit and industry, cults became sine qua non especially through those of personality cult and the cult of promiscuity/hospitality.
Why do I prefer to call these people and their groups a cult rather than a gang?
Why am I writing these blog posts, which are likely to crystallize into a book?
I have gone to school to learn and I have found that while some came to play, the reward hasn't been fair. Those who came to play had the sympathy of lecturers who probably gratified them into being lazy students promising them my achievements for their loyalty. This is of course speculation but the events post graduation haven't been very impressive. What were the possible reasons? The posts are only insights and the judgments are yours to call.
This series shall be renamed 'Things out of UI' because tales portend to falsehood. Nothing that I have stated/shared here is untrue. They are personal experiences of mine at the University of Ibadan from 1999-2004 and I stand to be corrected.
To be continued....
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