THE IMPACT OF CULTISM AND EXAMINATION MALPRACTICES ON THE
QUALITY OF EDUCATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY NIGERIA
BY
ABDULWAHAB OLANREWAJU ISSA
D.L.Sc., B.L.Sc., M.L.Sc. (ABU)
SENIOR LECTURER
AND
DIRECTOR,
CENTRE FOR CONTINUING EDUCATION,
FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC, OFFA, KWARA STATE
ABSTRACT
The paper provides a brief historical perspective to the issue of cultism in the
Nigeria education system and the consequent emergence of examination malpractices.
The many destructive tendencies of cultism are also highlighted alongside the
educational sub-sector; with particular reference to the tertiary institutions. The paper
concludes that the twins menace of cultism and examination malpractices have had a
huge impact in bringing about the present low quality of education in Nigeria-a situation
that spells doom for the future of the country. Consequent upon the conclusion therefore,
it advances a number of suggestions which could go a long way to stem the ugly tide of
this unwholesome trend, which has adversely affected the good quality of our education
today.
INTRODUCTION
Many Nigerians were aware of the rot in the nation under the years of military
dictatorship, but hardly knew the magnitude of the rot. As it is with the nation, so it is
with the education sector; only those saddled with the responsibility of administering our
education system can appreciate the crisis in the education system. And just as the
damage done to the nation will take a long time to correct, sanitizing the education sector
will take quite some years of continuous and determined reformation. Many reform
measures do not bear fruits overnight. This is even more so in the education sector. For
example, the impact of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s free primary education was not fully
felt among the Yoruba till the civil war and after, when they had to occupy Federal
positions abandoned by the Igbo. The twin evils of campus cultism and examination
malpractices entrenched themselves in the campuses during the years of military
despotism. They are product of the years of decay while the nature of inter-campus
linkages of cult groups as well as the sophistication with which malpractices are now
being perpetuated in various examinations has made the matter more difficult to rout
(Omabu, 2003).
Aims and Objectives of Education in Nigeria
Education has been described as the best legacy that any nation or individual
could leave behind for generation yet to come. It is an invaluable asset, therefore, to both
the individual and the society; since it has been also used from time immemorial, as a
veritable instrument of cultural transmission. Thus education, in one form or the other,
had always been an integral part of the human society. Generally, forms of education
could be broadly categorized into formal and informal. Whereas, the former takes place
in a formal or official setting, compartmentalized and certificated with designated
learners and teachers, the latter is not so clearly designed. It has a longer life-span
commencing from birth and ending in the grave, with everyone around the learner
constituting his teacher even as no certificate is required.
Yet, this form of education is as important as the former; if not more; if only for
the fact that it is quite a practical thing with all the evidences of effective and functional
noble expectations and objectives of the formal system of education. Indeed, it has a
multilateral aim with the end objectives being to produce an individual who is honest,
respectable skilled and cooperative and conforms to the social order of the day.
According to Fafunwa (1974), seven aspects of these educational objectives can be
identified and these include:1.
To develop the child’s latent physical skills.
2.
To develop character.
3.
To inculcate respect for elders and those in position of authority.
4.
To develop intellectual skills.
5.
To acquire specific vocational training and to develop a healthy attitude towards
honest labour.
6.
To develop a sense of belonging and to participate actively in family and
community affair.
7.
To understand, appreciate and promote the cultural heritage of the community at
large.
Thus, it was for good reasons that the Nigerian formal education system took after
these objectives as enunciated in the National Policy on Education (1981). According to
Policy, the broad objectives of Nigerian education should emphasize such things as:i.
The inculcation of the right type of value attitudes for the survival of individual
society.
ii.
The training of the mind in building valuable concepts, generalizations and
understand of the world around.
iii.
The acquisition of appropriate skills, abilities and competencies of both mental
and physical nature as equipment for the individual to live in his society.
iv.
The acquisition of relevant and balance knowledge of facts about local and world
phenomena.
In the light of the first two objectives above, Nigerian education was to be geared
towards self realization, better human relationship, self and national economic efficiency,
citizenship, national consciousness, national unity, social and political progress, science
and technological progress as well as national reconstruction. In pursuance of the
objectives therefore, our educational institutions (pre- to post-primary) have designed
their programmes in such a way that functional individual who will be capable of
contributing his quota to national development is produced. But the question however
remains as to what extent have these objectives been achieved? How well and indeed
dependable are those measuring instruments such as internal and external examinations
capable of producing the desired results?
Evolutionary Trends in Cultist Activities in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions
The phenomenon of campus cults in Nigeria dated 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 with the motto “Against all
Conventions”. The skull and cross bones were their insignia, cultivating a bohemian style
that ridiculed the colonial attitudes 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 the 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
Pyrates Confraternity during the early 1970s when a breakaway group formed the
Buccaneers Confraternity followed by the emergence of the Black Axe or the Neo-Black
Movement.
Inter-group rivalry then set in, even though skirmishes between them were limited
to fist fights. The 1980s saw the multiplication of cults in the more than 300 tertiary
institutions across Nigeria as new groups such as the Eiye, Vikings, Amazons and Jezebel
emerged, bringing with them more intensely violent rivalry. By 1984, when Soyinka
initiated the abolition of the Pyrates Confraternity in all tertiary institutions, the
phenomenon of violent had developed a life of its own. By the mid-1980s, reports had it
that some of the cults have been co-opted by elements in the intelligence and security
services serving the military government such that 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.
Cultism includes the activities of secret cults or societies that are very rampant in
our institutions of learning today. The founding fathers of such societies do not have the
mind of carrying out evils but as a pressure group that can monitor and defend the interest
of the immorality of students’ populace without violence. But the activities of the various
cults seen day in our institutions are far from the above reasons. They have constituted
themselves into gangs of “never-do-well” set of people. Their mission today is to loot,
kill, steal and destroy lives and properties at will. The violence associated with them is
reported to be as a result of battles for supremacy among them. They have constituted
themselves into a big cog in the wheel of Nigeria’s education development. Indeed, the
growth and maturation of examination malpractice tendencies in our tertiary institutions
have been considered as one of the direct fallouts of cultism.
Hardly a month passes these days, without reports of deaths of students or staff
resulting from cult-related violence. This has not only created an atmosphere of
insecurity in our campuses, it is also diverting attention from the primary purpose of the
universities which is education. At a time when funding of these institutions are
inadequate, and the standard of education is said to be falling, cultism and examination
malpractices tendencies are clearly a big problem for the concerned authorities. Both of
the most frequently discussed problems in the education sector today; since indiscipline
in schools is central to the factors contributing to the fast dwindling, declining and
deteriorating educational standard. The various acts of indiscipline commonly perpetrated
by students such as truancy, stealing, hooliganism, examination malpractices, sexual
immoralities and cultism among others are all destructive to the educational system.
Taiwo (2004) declared that “what we are all witnessing today in the education
sector is a sad reflection of corruption in the society and the low priority placed on
standardization and improvement of the intellectual custodians of our time by those in
governance”. This is against the fact that most members of these cults are from rich
homes and are never serious with their studies; thus prompting their venturing into
examination malpractices. Whenever they fail their courses, they react violently through
their cult members against the teachers in charge of their failed courses. They operate at
night and conduct initiation of new members at dawn in these institutions coming out
with dangerous weapons at the middle of the nights when students who are ignorant of
their activities fall victim. The recent arrest of some students who were believed to be
cult members at Esa-Oke Federal Technical College serves as typical case in point.
The fire of cult terrorism on the campuses which raged on for about one year,
after the half-heated spray of cult antidote by the Federal Government in 1999, has
steadily intensified and burst into flames once more. In the first two weeks of August
2004, 33 students of three universities were brutally murdered in cultic butcheries,
suspected to have been perpetuated by cult members among students of tertiary
institutions. Of the figure, 15 were of the Ebonyi State University, whose eight other
students had similarly been killed the previous year. The rest 18 were of the Enugu State
University of Science and Technology and the University of Nigeria Nsukka, whose five
other students were shot dead in June, 2002, by cultists (Vanguard, 2004).
The toll of the ever-intensifying cultic butcheries had to lecturers and officers of
these institutions. Only recently, two lecturers, one each from the ESUT and the UNN,
were shot dead by suspected cultists; while suspected terrorists threatened to kill the new
Vice-chancellor of University of Benin, Prof. Emmanuel Nwanze, if he failed to
dismantle the committee on “Renunciation and Cultism”, which he set up after two
medical students of the university were killed by suspected cultists. The cultists have also
widened the scope of their operation to include armed robbery.
Reasons for Prevalence of Cultist Activities in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions
It is often claimed that some parents of these cultists are the brains behind the
sponsoring of evil clubs releasing funds and weapons to them to carry out their obnoxious
acts against humanity. This indecent moral values impacted into these youths are giving
them more confidence to feel that nothing will happen to them even if they are caught
with the belief that money answereth all things. Cultism in larger society has become a
celebrated phenomenon among the political class who equally happen to be in control of
the wealth of the nation. There are enough resources to sponsor to sponsor the babycultist in our institutions by these sets of evidence their political opponents whether real
or perceived.
Considering the various killings of innocent students in our institutions by cult
members, one may want to ask, why have solutions eluded us these years in bringing a
stop to the menace of this anti–social behaviour? We have remained in our present state
of confusion for the number of reasons, which according to Taiwo (2004) include:i.
Lack of concerted and consistence political will to deal with the problem once and
for all.
ii.
Constantly shifting and unsettled socio-cultural and educational policies and
practices, which tend to negative previous efforts at solving the problem.
iii.
Sudden and drastic dislocation of our scale of value whereby the intellectual
custodians have become systematically relegated yielding place to other less
important priorities.
iv.
Worshipping of money to discredit intellectual zealousness among the upcoming
youths.
Odili (2004) gave 11 possible causes of the rising cases of cultism in these
institutions to include:i.
Erosion of Education Standards
ii.
Economic Difficulties
iii.
Emulation of Military Coupists
iv.
Adventurism and Egotism
v.
Sponsorship by Community Leaders
vi.
Lack of Integration
vii.
Peer Group Influence and Drug Addiction
viii.
Bad Parenting and Erosion of Family Values
ix.
Oil Bunkering
x.
Sponsorship by Politicians.
The diminishing economic prosperity also contributes greatly. There is the crisis
of confidence and of faith in our educational institutions leading to a general state of
anxiety and an erosion of confidence in getting jobs after school by the majority of the
students. From the state of confusion to which the society exposed our youth, one may
conclude that cultism is an offshoot and indeed a reflection of our corrupt society, which
had for long plunged our educational sector into serious malfunctioning and dislocation.
The Guardian (2005), in an editorial, attempted an explanation of the situation and why
the problem had remained seemingly intractable in the submissions that “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 problem of the larger society.
An obvious explanation for the resurgence and worsening of cult crisis on the
campuses is the inadequate, half-hearted enforcement of the measures already officially
pronounced. The slaughter of five students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife
in one fell swoop in 1999 prompted Federal Government’s adoption of an anti-cult
strategy, part of which was an offer of monetary incentive to repentant cult members
among students nationwide. In keeping with some recommendations of judicial panel on
the cultic killings too, the government vowed to establish a unit to identify secret cults
and their activities in all tertiary institutions. Also, the government empowered heads of
the institutions to summarily dismiss any student properly identified as a cult member,
and proposed a data-bank of students so dismissed to forestall their re-admission into any
other similar institutions in Nigeria. Had these measures been adequately enforced, the
soaring rate of cultic terrorism would have been drastically reduced. But the government
has merely pointed its anti-cult armoury without really using the weapons to fight the
bloody cults.
Besides, the government’s order to heads of tertiary institutions to summarily
dismiss cult members among their students is rendered ineffectual by the plea of the
police, in a number of cases, of non-existence of a relevant laws to prosecute students for
their involvement in cult activities; as the long-standing decree prohibiting cultism on the
campuses is rendered unenforced, null and void. Such expelled students have often safely
returned to their institutions for being secret cult members brandishing court orders for
their reinstatement. The kid-glove handling of serious cult cases by the police and the
judiciary, combined with the thickening suspicion that a number of rich parents,
influential politicians and government officials sponsor cultism on the campuses, gives
the cultists the erroneous feeling that they would always escape punishment, or if at all
convicted, would suffer mild punishment (Daily Champion, 2004).
Implications of Cultist Activities in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions
All these are not without their very grave implications worth mentioning here.
Although not all the students are involved in cultism, the few that are involved do
considerable damage to the system. Since violent cult activities started, thousands of
students have lost their lives to it while properties worth millions have also been
destroyed. Apart from the injured and those rusticated or expelled, troubled universities
students are generally known for their activism everywhere. Together with the media and
civil societies, they help to protest against bad policies of government.
The Vietnam War for instance, ended after heavy protests by students and other
civil groups. British students recently protested against the proposed hike in fees by their
government. All these are positive actions by university students. Although Nigerian
students have, over the years, contributed their quota to national development, the issue
of cultism has come to dent their image. If it is true that the youth of today are the leaders
of tomorrow, then the stackholders in education must rise up to the challenges posed by
the scourge of cultism. Despite the much already done in this regard, more still need to be
done to eradicate cultism from our institutions of higher learning. Summarily, Odili
(2004) pinpointed 7 implications of this trend to include the following:1.
Destruction of Lives and Properties
2.
Upsurge in Crime due to Arms Proliferation
3.
Epileptic University System
4.
Loss of Prospective Investors
5.
Loss of Government Revenue through Illegal Bunkering
6.
Cost of Maintaining Law and Order
7.
Threat to Government
Nature and Types of Examination Malpractices among Students
Today in Nigeria, there has been an increasing occurrence of examinations
malpractices among students than ever before, permeating every public examination, like
the West African Examination Council (WAEC) Joint Admission and Matriculation
Board (JAMB) and lately National Examination Council (NECO) with rampant cases of
examinations results not released or cancelled outright for many candidates. Most of
these cases have come to be linked directly to examination malpractices. Similarly,
institutions of higher learning have gone sophisticated in these malpractices to the extent
that reports of expelled students on account of these have become a common occurrence;
going on unabated. It is even believed that many prospective candidates seeking
admission into higher institutions today often employ others to write the examinations for
them. This readily explains the antecedent of those found with the habit in institutions of
higher learning. This is because they tend to carry on, with more sophistication though,
when they get into the institutions. Little wonder then that the cult platform will seem
particularly appealing to this group of students as an easy escape, with a view to shoring
up their academic bankruptcy. Hence the rather mutual relationship that lies between
cultism and examination malpractices in these institutions.
Meanwhile, the New Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language (1992)
defines examination as a formal, written, spoken or practical test especially at school or
college, to see how much you know about a subject, or what you can do. On the other
hand, the term malpractice refers to careless, wrong or illegal behaviour while in a
professional job (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2000). Olanipekun (2003)
views it as ‘the failure to carry out properly or honestly condition specified by the
examination body (School authority, for example) for the evaluation of students in a
programme of study’. It implies therefore that any student who before, during, after or in
anticipation of any examination or test goes against the rules and regulations guiding the
conduct of the examination is involved in examination malpractices.
Examination malpractices come in varying forms, shapes and sizes; with
differing designations such as ‘microchips’, ‘macro-chips’, ‘download’, ‘laptop’, ‘giraffe’
and quite recently, the use ‘mercenaries’. Micro and macro chips are same techniques
except for the variation in the sizes of the imported materials. Whereas the former has to
do with small pieces of extraneous materials imported into the examination’s venue, the
latter is of more significant size. “Download” refers to the bringing in of the whole text
from which the candidate intends to copy. Sometimes the scientific calculator can be used
for the storage of relevant data, formulas etc. to be downloaded for use in the
examination hall. As for ‘laptop’, the individual candidate’s lap is used as the writing
surface from where relevant information can be copied in the examination as the need
arises. This type is more prevalent among female in view of the fact that it is rather easier
to do with the wearing of skirts. “Giraffe” happens to be the age-long style whereby
candidates use neck-stretching to look at what another person was doing.
All these have, however, come to look like a child’s play when compared with
the sophistication and artistry that mercenary represents. A major difference between
mercenary and other forms of examination malpractices is that whereas the actual
candidates in question perpetuate other forms, ‘mercenary’ involves the recruitment of an
external body to write the examinations on the candidate’s behalf. The examination
mercenary syndrome thus refers to the practice whereby candidates employ and pay
external person(s) to sit in and write examinations on their behalf. Usually, the mercenary
is considered as the intellectual where-withal to write the examinations successfully for
the one who has engaged his ‘services’. This is because, such an individual either comes
from higher institutions of learning or had already succeeded in similar examinations in
the past.
When ‘mercenary’ is used in institutions of higher learning, he is either a more
competent hand in the course concerned or it is so believed. Sometimes, candidates from
other institutions of higher learning are imported for the job. It suffices to state
categorically that the syndrome is almost completely male-dominated generally
associated with monetary incentives, reward or gratification, and sometimes to
compensate an amorous relationships. There have also been a few other cases where the
‘mercenary’ is self-employed, that is, doing it (in compassion, they claim) for someone
who, in actual fact, has not solicited such a service in the first place. Friends, sometimes
male, often do this for their female colleagues as a demonstration of true friendship.
Thus, it can be concluded from the foregoing that it is the ‘mercenary’ and means of
settling the fees to be charged which, of course, varies from one ‘mercenary’ to the other.
Implications of Examination Malpractices in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions
This unfortunate development in our educational system represents a high
sophistication to which examination malpractices had risen in recent times. Sadly too,
some parents have been found to encourage the perpetuation of this ugly act by their
children/wards either directly or indirectly. Not only has this contributed to the
diminishing standard of our education, but it has also helped to cast aspersion on
individual candidates’ certificates, which many often claimed, have not always been a
true reflection of their academic standing.
Due to this weak background, it is not surprising therefore that many candidates
who secured admission into higher institutions with such results have been much of a
disappointment. They simply could not leave up to their billings in all ramifications.
Attendant frustration often result in sundry other malpractices in examinations to
such an extent that they are sooner or later certified as academically unfit and marked for
withdrawal on academic ground. Desperate ones among them would want to do all things
possible to hang on. This often take them to all kinds of anti-social vices, prominent
among which is cultism. The individual, which is the bedrock of the society, is by this
token, being malformed and deformed for the future.
There is no doubt therefore, that all kinds of examination malpractices stand
condemnable by all the stakeholders in the education sector. This is for the simple fact
that to compromise academic standards is one sure way to mortgage, if not the present,
certainly the future of a people. Our today, and whatever it stands for, represents the
foundations of our tomorrow. Prevalence of examination malpractices, especially the
mercenary syndrome, indicates the weak foundations upon which we are to build our
tomorrow therefore. Yet, our credible and lasting tomorrow is already being endangered
with this ever-increasing wave of academic frauds and immoral dispositions (Issa, 2003).
Although many of such students end up with brilliant results, especially at
external examinations, they often find it difficult to live up to those results after securing
admission into institutions of higher learning. Their apparent inability to cope well in
their studies, quite often, leads to frustration thereby encouraging their environment into
cultism and other related social vices. The bulk of them end up badly in their academic
pursuits while the remaining few who would have crookedly sailed through to the end
become social misfits. For one, they are hardly good at their jobs even as the anti-social
tendencies remain with them throughout life.
Yet, human resources have been considered the most vital of all resources needed
for both individual and societal developments. Incidentally, the education system
represents the most veritable instrument with which human resources could be created
and developed. It therefore goes without saying that the individual and society’s success
in ensuring the laying of a good foundation for our tomorrow lies in our ability to rise
above the challenges posed by this trend in examination malpractices and cultism.
The Way Forward
Hope is not lost yet once we are alive to the rescue mission. With respect to
cultism, one cannot but agree with Odili (2004) on his 7-point agenda for a way forward,
which are:
1. Moral Upbringing of Children.
2. Public Enlightenment Advocacy by the Media.
3. Re-orientation in our Tertiary Institutions and Better Funding.
4. Integrity Watch for Business, Community and Political Leaders.
5. Anti-cult Law
6. Law Enforcement
7. Job Creation and Good Governance
Beyond enforcing the relevant laws on campuses, the government should step out
to improved the university environment, which tends to be a fertile ground for breeding
cultists. Given the uncongenial condition of the universities, bereft of teaching and
learning materials, teachers’ incessant strikes, examination malpractices and school shut
downs, students have found cult activities quite appealing. Their utmost goals of vain
glory and supremacy are cheaply attainable through enlistment in cults. If universities are
meant to impart knowledge and mould character, while their degrees and diplomas are
awarded only to people found worthy in leaning and character, then any student identified
as a cultist, murderer, or robber should be punished accordingly. They must not be
allowed to remain hit-squads and agent of destruction of lives and property. Only the full
weight of the law can warn them that cultism is evil, and pays no dividends.
As for the case of examination malpractices, there would be the need to change
our orientation and value system, which seemed to emphasize the erroneous at all cost
and by all means belief, which are not only negative but also counter-productive. It is
high time we begin to have a sound realization of the fact that it is not only by having a
degree that one can succeed or excel in life. It is much more beyond that, because there
are still a score of people who, in spite of not having a degree, actually succeeded and
excelled in their chosen careers. The point must also be made that it is far better to be a
self-reliant, successful artisan than an unemployed, jobless and street-roaming degree
holder. If we succeed in this orientation bid, hopes are that majority of those that would
remain will be those who interested in pursuing serious active studies would match the
requirement and demands of a standard educational system.
Finally, students must be made to understand and appreciate hard work,
dedication and commitment to studies. This is where the teachers and the entire school
authority need to be highly responsible and responsive. Students must be treated and dealt
so as to encourage others to even better performance thereby looking up to them as
source of inspirations. At that point in time, when the majority would have come to
appreciate hard work, examination malpractices in general, the mercenary syndrome as
well as cultism, would have been relegated to the status of an abnormality, as against the
prestigious status they currently enjoy.
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