I bumped into an old friend whom we grew up in the same neighborhood and we got talking trying to catch up on some memories, I asked him about his younger brother who was also a friend, we all literally grew up together and he told me that he does not know what the brother has been up to lately. I was expecting him to tell me that the brother is now a lawyer working in some big law firm somewhere because we both always wanted to be lawyers. He told me that the brother with whom we got admissions together, although in different schools, did not graduate from his university.
Here is the sad story; the brother got into the University and joined a campus secret cult, they had a cult clash which led to the death of some rival cult members and the death of some other innocent students who were caught in the crossfire; some people got killed and school properties were destroyed. The university board rusticated everyone that was fingered to be involved in the gunfight and anyone known to be a member of the secret cults terrorizing the school and that was how he, as a final year law student got rusticated out of the school; since then he is yet to make anything meaningful out of his life.
He was quite a smart champ but his dream of becoming one of the best lawyers in Nigeria and ending up as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria got shattered all by his doing and he has been off the grid since then. It is possible that he can start afresh and still be what he always wanted to be but nothing could ever make up for the lost years and for his tarnished image.
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That story got me thinking about why a student could ever think about or fantasize about joining a campus secret cult and I have struggled to justify their reasons. Nobody I have ever known in my University days that were infamous and notorious as members of campus secret cult ever graduated; some were killed in rival cults clash, some were arrested and sent to jail, while some that got luckier got rusticated from the school.
I remember vividly back then in my class while I was in the University that there were about seven colleagues of ours that got initiated into the campus secret cult. One of them, who was an acquaintance, joined in our final year and he said that he had to join because of the constant harassment, oppression and intimidation he had been enduring in the hands of other cult groups. Most often than not, this is always a similar reason we hear from people as the justification for them joining a secret cult; they do not want to be harassed, oppressed or intimidated and they would rather be the oppressor than the oppressed. Well as touching as this reason may seem, it is all nonsense; millions of people have gone through the university, kept their heads low, avoided troubles and graduated without enlisting into the campus secret cult. Ironically, all secret cults could ever promise their members is false and a bluff; false security and safety because immediately you join your life will constantly be in danger from other rival cult groups and you constantly live in fear.
Out of these seven folks that joined the secret cult in my class, some who rose to the leadership of the cult all had issues. None of them graduated with us. Some dropped out, others were outrightly rusticated. I remember one of them slapped a Junior female colleague while we were writing our final exams. He was rusticated outrightly by the faculty board because there have been a series of other complaints against him for constantly using the cult to intimidate people.
Common guys, this is 2023, youths are building sophisticated tech companies and selling them for tons of millions of dollars, young minds are making a kill off social media, devising means to make legitimate money and survive right from the university and there you are still fantasizing about becoming a “Capone” in a campus secret cult? You should actually be ashamed of yourself.
Most of the people I know back then in university as infamous members of the campus secret cult were killed in a gunfight by the rival cult group, assassinated, and some were shot right inside their classrooms in broad daylight. I remember a guy that was quite popular in my school back then, a very pretty-looking guy; he was shot during a class party right inside the school in broad daylight. I still remember that day as if it was yesterday; we heard a gunshot and some of us in the commotion and confusion, running for our lives had no idea that we were actually running towards the place the incident took place; that was the fight time in my life I saw a human brain shattered in front of me, I saw thick and sticky blood pumping and gushing out through his head, I can still see him struggling for survival and gasping for breath until he gave up the ghost with his two eyes still wide open. I will need a therapy section to get that image off my head. It was a brutal eyesore.
There is absolutely no reason why anyone should join a campus secret cult. Some of the folks in my class then who were members are always on the run, always looking over their shoulders; they will always abandon classes and even examinations and go into hiding once there was a little brawl in school; hiding from law enforcement agents, hiding from the rival cult groups and hiding from the school authority.
Every sane thinking person, even those that were cult members and managed to graduate and are in better places now will tell one thing; “campus cult is the worst thing you could ever get involved in as a student”. Run away from it, it will ruin your life if you are lucky enough to escape getting yourself shot in the head.