Cultism in Higher Institutions, what led to it?

People said Wole Soyinka and six others were the cause of cultism in our higher institutions, but I disagreed with them. Have you people ever thought of the founder of 'Buccaneers? I will say he caused it. You ask me why? I am ready to explain.

According to history, the Pyrate confraternity was formed to speak for the oppressed. One of the founders, called Bolaji Keru forked and he was sent off and he went to found what we now know as the Buccaneers and if you take a good look at most of the fight we are now seeing in our higher institutions, this fraternities are among them.

Have ever see pyrate causing any misconduct in school? No, let's be frank with ourselves. Lets stop deceiving ourselves. Wole came and said he founded the Pyrates. Why can't the founder of other fraternies come out standing tall and [admit] that they found all these other [menaces] we are seeing in our schools today, calling themselves cults?

Dear Owolabi,

Your contribution makes for interesting reading, but I will be quick to advise that we avoid controversial issues  that tend to wind up in protracted and bitter battles among the youths in Nigeria.

One of the cardinal points of  the Pyrates Confraternity is never to stir up or get embroiled in bitter disputes with others.  The people are free to hold whatever opinion in a free world, but as the Pyratical saying goes: "Only Dwarfs Need Platforms"
-It is not in the xter of the Pyrates Confra to say that their Mercedes Benz Car is bigger than other People's Car

The truth will prevail at last!

Owolabi, I might be mistaken but none of the confraternities that exist today call themselves cults. That label was attached by the media to discredit these organizations.

AIIYYYEEEEEE!!!
Where will finding the roots lead anybody to? Be real, brothers.

Hmm, it's a free world and I believe anybody has a right a to express his or her selves but still we need not just open our mouth and [speak nonsense].

I totally want to disagree with Owolabi about Buccaneers being the perpetrators of the nefarious activities on our campuses.

I schooled in Lagos and though I won't point accusing fingers but I will say Buccaneers are far more organised than any other fraternities. I also strongly believe that Buccaneers are far more peaceful and matured in thier ways.

I lost a babe because I wasn't a Buccaneer in LASU. They are all about clubbing, parties and all the good things of life but most importantly they hold their academics as their primary aim. Peace.

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Please, I pray you not to categorise the Pyrates Confraternity as a Cult...............
You may read this piece of newspaper report:

[glow=red,2,300]''Soyinka seeks end to cultism in varsities [/glow]
''WORRIED over the rising scourge of cultism in the country's tertiary institutions, Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka yesterday advocated a collective action to check the menace.
He said in Abuja that it was time to find solutions to the menace of cult members and the resultant occasional harm to the society.
The literary icon's advocacy was also targeted at "seeking means and ways of saving the decaying campuses, the fertile nursing grounds of cults and their members' activities from further ruins."
Soyinka's message was conveyed through a 12-minute film footage, in which he aptly captured the organised crime, violence and associated incapacitation or even deaths resulting from cult-related activities in the tertiary institutions.
The presentation was part of his eighth lecture series on "Cults, shrines and impunity" shown at the Town Hall Meeting organised as part of his 71st birthday by the National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity).
Part of that footage showed the brutality of members of the armed forces and police on defenceless members of the civil society, showcasing in particular, a scene of the assault by some soldiers on commuters in Lagos.
Soyinka, who was narrator and interviewer in the film, said that it was an abuse of intellect for anyone to confuse or conflict "cult" with "confraternity". Cultism is dangerous, he said.
He added that contemporary members of various campus cults had since imitated wrongly and negatively the very ideals and principles of the confraternity co-founded with other six like-minds in 1952 as students of the then University College, Ibadan (now University of Ibadan).
He said that the goal of the confraternity as enshrined in the pyratical creed remained the pursuit of a just and egalitarian society in which the strong protected the weak and all had equal access to opportunity for the realisation of each person's potential. Soyinka refused to be "demonised" for forming the first campus fraternity in the country even in Africa, saying that founders of organisations should not be held responsible for misbehaviour or misdeeds of followers.
The avowed pyrate said that "what people do is their business so long as they do not harm other people or engage in impunities."
He said that successive governments in the country had deliberately refused to tackle the nagging issues because they set out to undermine the authorities of those tertiary institutions.
"It is a national problem, not those of the universities," Soyinka said. The social critic faulted the doling out of cash by the government recently to management of tertiary institutions to "exorcise cult members," get cultists renounce their membership, get pardoned and or be reformed.
Soyinka took a swipe at the government and said: "You better clean your fingers first before you point your hand at the society." He said that many frauds and fakes existed in every organisation and warned of the consequences of accommodating the fifth columnists''.

Hey pintos thank you for your comments ,i will appreciate if you speak pyratically to me ,i want to establish some facts!,ABSOLUTELY NO LAGGING

Does the fact that one is short-sighted to see the future implications of one's actions exonorate him/her from responsibility of whatever may occur as a result of them further down the line??


Let's take a look at some examples..

1. The creation of the nuclear bomb by the americans, and the subsequent bombing of Hiroshima, Japan

2. Ethnic wars on the West African sub-region, and the subsequent slave trade that sprung as a result.. [where the vanquished were sold off to the slave traders]

*Note that this has even more far reaching implications as all over the world, race hate of blacks has been the offspring of this act of thoughtlessness*

3. Bio-germ research, and the subsequent out-breaks of health epidemics [note.. these are those that have no traceable roots nor cures]  all over the world eg. HIV, Ebola, SARS, etc..

The bottom line..

In each of these cases, I'm sure the intent was not to harm mankind or society; but the possibility was always there that someone would twist things to their own benefit.. Hence, the originators do have some degree of culpability...


Wole Soyinka (and the original founders) are not to be exonorated... 


My two kobo...

i am really surprised that people continue to talk and discuss on issues they know little or nothing about.i am bold to say am a sealord.the issue of cultism or terror on our campuses was not caused by buccaneers.the act of terror can be laid on the door step of the govt. for clamping down on the activities of confraternities.buccaneer is a confraternity and not a cult.so also, the activities of BAN is always on the pages of our national dailies and mind you its a registered association in Nigeria and in many countries across the world.GO ROUND OUR CAMPUSES YOU WILL FIND OUT THAT THE BEST BRAINS ARE LORDS.some of us who are already graduates are not doing badly in both public and private establishments.lords are gentlemen.those that refused to be counselled cannot be helped cos you are a stinking lubber.

@ Oloolutof

.. So then how do we rationalize the activities and incidents occuring, and done by these confraternities on campuses all over the nation...

i quite appreciate your objective responce.the government should recognice these confraternities by way of registration.this will help curb the nefarious activities of bad eggs within the fold - who will also risk expulsion if found wanting.at the moment, the various confraternities should organise a conference to resolve all lingering differences and shun any form of pride to save our already endangered educational sector.

... but.. 
[if memory serves me correctly (and this is if the information at my disposal is authentic)]

...isn't this exactly what lead to the original splintering of the National Association of Sea Dogs (Pyrate Confraternity) back then in the 60's.. And further lead to the creation and spawning of other confraternities nation-wide, of which the National Association of Sea Lords (Buccaneers) is one of them [I may need a history lesson here so please correct me if my information is not correct.. ]

I believe this has all been tried before... And we all can bear witness to the results of what happened then.. But I do agree with you on one point.. Parent organisations should be held accountable (for the actions of their members nation-wide)...

Well, at least somebody should.. 


ps... Admin.. What is "the History of Campus Confraternities in Nigeria??"... from the first one till date...

nuclear bomb - this was developed as a weapon, Hiroshima was no accident, it wasn't a thing of ooh, we have this bomb, lets drop it on Hiroshima

HIV, SARS - these are not products of germ warfare.

conflicts - slave trade - this is too convoluted

the veracity of your examples are convoluted to say the least and plain wrong in some cases.

The roots of cultism cannot be traced to Prof Wole Soyinka because he formed a confraternity and not a cult. I believe the roots know themselves. The government of nigeria it's self is worse than all the accused, they need to battle cultism in the body before cultism in the institutions.Lets hope and pray they win.

Cults, Frats, Confrats, call them what ever you like the whole thing has degenerated into a messy situation, seadogs bucs, Viks, and the other riff raffs all have to clean up theri acts big time

will somebody keep shut here before the hailstorms descend! who cares if wole soyinka had good intentions when he formed pyrates confraternity,all that matters is dat what he formed for the oppressed is now fast turning to be an oppressor itself.i commit the blood of all fallen young men ,who died as a result of fart violence on wole soyinka's head. stanley tookie william's was killed in the states because he formed the crips gang,though it was formed with good intentions but men of bad intentions soon took over it and there was a real life war btw crips and the bloods till this day.if wole soyinka knew he would not be able to control his invention then why create it.Bleep all thsoe stories about him now going about to say no to cults.if he denounces campus cult is he not a member of almost 7 different occultic brotherhood,to mentiona few,ogboni,fremasons,sungbo,odd fellows and so on .Bleep peaceeeeeeeeee
all those whia dvocate for peace are devils advocates themselves.BEWARE AND BE WARNED!!!

We say[b] NO[/b] to cultism!!

i came about this post and i was impressed by the way we all want cultism eradicated from our universities.but first i wanna ask who says bucaneers are the cause of voilence on our campuses?owolabi hw did u come about that conclusion that bucaneers are the cause of violence on our campuses?
i read a post of some one saying he lost a girl due to the fact that he wasnt a bucaneer back in LASU.bucaneers from my own orientation and knowledge are not riff raffs,they are clean,fine looking boys that actually come together for a common goal.they excel in there academics because that is there primary assignment in any university.
olootufo or watever i respect your view and points we are not riff raffs.
i graduated from the univ of ibadan last year and i will come out proud and say i am a proud bucaneer.i work and make my cheese now(who says monsters dont prosper).anyway we all just need reorientation about wat confraternity is and not just keep classing frats as cults
anyway i rest my case
safe and stay up y'all lords till we reach tresure

I graduated from ESUT in 1996, and am proud to say I am a member of OF AFRICA. I work with one of the major communications companies in Nigeria. Peole have diff things in mind when joining associations.

The upsurge of violence in our universities today is as as a result of the decay in our society. The politicians have contributed a lot to this decay. Have we asked ourselves the source of the sophisticated political thurgery we witness during our elections?

When Soyinka started the Sea Lord thing, it was for smart people. These low life cultists are in cults to intimidate fellow students and even some lily livered lecturers so they can get passing grades. It's a shame. Most of them ordinarily cannot date beautiful girls on campus, but because they have affiliations to these despicable organizations, you often see them dating beautiful chicks. Na that one dey vex me pass.

Dauda, if ur only idea of going to school is to razzle babes, then u have a problem. Have u ever heard about acadamics

School is where u bang babes and experimant with drugs.THe rest of ur life u have to settle down

lol @ 4play

Confra is what you make of it. The smart, level headed members learn leadership, team building and organizational skills while the riff raffs find an avenue to commit crimes and other unspeakable things in the name of beef. If you look at the average violent confra boy you will find that he was a ruffian before he joined the association. The key to cleaning up the organizations is to stop blending touts. A lot of these confras have ideology but how can you get it into an idiot's thick skull? They take advantage of the high level of brotherhood to perpetrate all kinds of violence for ridiculous reasons. Then ofcourse we have the mummy's boy who enters bush and starts to believe that he is now rambo. These are the most dangerous because they will go and buy trouble, get beaten up by Ju men and the confra will be forced to retaliate because of the retard.

kamuzu B:

Dauda, if your only idea of going to school is to razzle babes, then u have a problem. Have u ever heard about acadamics

@ kamuzu B

I hope you are in school? If you are, please brush up on logic and logical reasoning. There is no part of my post that suggests that my "only idea of going to school is to razzle babes"

We should all be thinking of how to bring an end to violence on our campuses rather than the different factions pointing accusing fingers and trying to exonerate themselves.

It is really unfortunate that the National Association of Seadogs are adopting this "holier than thou" attitude towards this menace. They will receive the greater glory if they take an active role in curbing this campus violence than the usual "we left campuses in 1984" story. Nobody buys this story.

Campus violence is a microcosm of the wider Nigerian society and it will take all forces working in concert to solve the problem. Saying one group is more at fault than the other just serves to flame the embers of violence.

Lots of people know next to nothing. i happen to know here in the states confra boys from many colleges in Nigeria
-core professionals, well respected in their fields. I mean not to defend confra or cults but also know that violence in coleges and the unnecessary deaths are apalling.Kongi(WS) is not responsible for violence on our campuses.
The prescribing of campus cults by the Buhari/Idiagbon junta in 1985 drove most of thes groups underground anmd that gave way for excesses. Now add the decay in education which came as a result of the militirization of universities by successive military dictatorships you arrive at violence,deaths etc. Obviously all fraternities are involved in this rot.
Its lame to say a particular frat is not-lets say the truth.Register frats,let the public know them and their sponsors,you would see a decline in this nonsense.However,failure to do so would see us at this thread in another 20 years.Many boys now graduate to armed robbery because of the arsenal at their disposal-can you imagine? Something must be done fast to protect our youth.Indians and Chines are gone

pls, spare us dis joke- confra boys are professionals, respected, blah, blah, blah: but it doesn't deny the fact that cultism is evil and devilish. we do not in any way need them in our society. cultism has robbed us many genius and inventors- you see promising young men gunned down after their last paper; some even die at their parents' arms during their convocation ceremony; not to talk of the many that did not survive the cult's initiation rites.

as far as cultism in nigeria is concerned- call it confra, call it frat, call it cult- call it what you like- wole soyinka started it. he claimed he and six other like-minded people had good intentions founding pyrates confraternity: to stop harrassment or victimization or whatever. but if i may ask, 'was there no students' union then?' couldn't they have channelled their initiative towards making the union stronger and more effective- if peradventure it had derailed? they chose instead to form a parallel govt and they had no concrete plan as to how to sustain their good intentions when they leave. the prof should come to terms with reality: he introduced cultism into our educational system. and we all must do something fast about the menace of cultism. we are dying.

please is all about blackism,fredom of the oprsed.i wonder y any body will eva name d movt among d so called and underating word, cultism.please all bambellas in this forum shuld please stand against tis derogatory statement, dodorima

havent read all what is being posted on this beautiful site i will like to add one orr two comment . u see the aim and focus of the founding fathers of pyrate confraternity is to librate the oppresed, but its unfortunate that all other group that erupted after it have turn that those dream to something else with the exeption of the buccaneer confraternity. ther were some comment onthem too on this site i will tell u categorically that buccaneer is the most organised group today of which i am a member. i join the group at about seven yers ago while in school and the primary aim we had then was our academics we had the highesy GP then not because we had two intimidate our lecturer but through hard work and perciviarance.we are the neatly dressed guys on campus and we dont retalliate just like that if we are being offended.we beleive in dialogu if all group could bee like buccaneer confraternity there would be peace in our schools.and i also want to comment on what somebody said about bolaji keru as far as im concern bolaji meant no harm he left pyrate to form buccaneer and he taught us all the rules of pyrate that is why we have things in common with them so the issue of buccaneer being the cause of violent does not arise pyrate & buccaneer are one . alora silourd sail on

Owolabi, a quick correction, Bolaji Carew was not amongst the Original 7 as the founders of the PC are known. He was a later day initiate who got black spotted (Expelled) in 1972 and he went on and formed the Buccanners. It is however interesting to note that Pirates, (notice the spelling with an "i" as against the "y" that Pyrates is known) are also known as Buccanners.

For more information about the Pyrates Confraternity, which of cousre is not a secret cult, please visit www.nas-int.org

Ova.