Although the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, has less than one year to spend in his exalted office but he, nevertheless, has enviable choice of having his name permanently written in untainted gold if, before finally exiting office, he could help find lasting solution to increasing wave of senseless killings by killer-students in tertiary education institutions across the country. The worrisome situation is increasingly assuming dangerous dimension and if urgent steps are not taken by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government, as well as the various state governments, to stem the disastrous tide that has continued to claim lives of innocent and law-abiding students in universities and polytechnics, further loss of precious lives of promising Nigerian youths who are potential future leaders in the hands of blood-thirsty trigger-happy students, will certainly persist.
It is unfortunate and saddening that successive administrations in Nigeria, as well as relevant stakeholders in the largely decaying education sector have so far paid lip service to recurring menace of cultism and its destructive and deadly consequences in educational institutions across the country. The fact that the problem lingers and more lives are steadily being lost is a clear indication that government at all levels, as well as those directing affairs in universities and polytechnics seem to have failed woefully in this regard. Why are those in government and their counterparts in universities and polytechnics not doing the needful to effectively checkmate the atrocities of killers masquerading as students in tertiary education institutions? Is it because their own children and wards are schooling abroad where they are under protective custody? Why are there no meaningful and sustainable measures in place to deal decisively with wicked students that have cultivated the habit of deriving joy or satisfaction in killing their fellow students to achieve inordinate selfish objectives? Of all the incidents that have so far occurred across the country in this regard, how many of the perpetrators of the dastardly acts have been apprehended, prosecuted and punished to serve as a deterrent to others?
The wave of unwarranted killings and other forms of criminality by students in universities and polytechnics which have thrown many families that have lost their beloved children untimely into unending sorrow, is a sad reflection of the endemic rot, lawlessness, indiscipline, planlessness and moral decay that have eaten deep into the fabric of the country’s education sector.
In sane and civilised climes, tertiary education institutions are fruitful grounds for promoting long-lasting peaceful co-existence to guarantee meaningful teaching, learning and research for overall benefit of the country. Unfortunately, this has largely not been so in Nigeria where university and polytechnic teachers have not only turned such institutions into venues for conducting illicit sexual escapades but they have also become fertile breeding grounds for students to kill fellow students. No wonder none of Nigerian universities and polytechnics ranks among the best in the world. How could outstanding scholarly feat be attained in warped and crime-infested campus environments that are unsafe primarily due to indiscriminate killings by killer-students as well as randy lecturers?
It is a pity campuses are no longer safe for law-abiding students to go about freely to engage in their academic pursuits. Such students live in fear of possible unwarranted attacks by colleagues armed to the teeth with lethal weapons to kill or maim their defenceless targets. Apparently, having realised murderer-students hardly get arrested or punished, they have continued to conduct their heinous crimes brazenly without showing remorse, thereby putting lives of many students on the university and polytechnic campuses in danger.
Just last week, a pathetic incident was added to the growing cases of killing in tertiary education institutions following the murder, by fellow students, of a member of the Polytechnic Ibadan Students’ Forum, Ahmed Olalekan, nicknamed Maku. On Tuesday, August 28, 2018, normal activities reportedly came to a standstill in the institution following his killing by suspected cultists who shot him at close range and went on to matchet his lifeless body until they were convinced he was dead. According to Public Relations Officer of the Students’ Forum, which is an anti-cultism group, Adeyemi Ridwan, the deceased was dogged and unrepentant crusader against cultism on campus and was therefore, a target the two members of Aye Confraternity cult group had planned to eliminate. Ridwan also revealed that for two weeks, the cult group had threatened to kill Olalekan until they finally got him. The cultists reportedly claimed they killed him because he had been disturbing them from conducting their “affairs” in the institution.
Another member of the Forum, Ademuyiwa Bakare, reportedly disclosed that in spite of reminding the assassin-students that the Students’ Forum is an anti-cultism group that has been in existence for years and that they should not attack Olalekan, they still went ahead to kill him in his Apete area residence in Ibadan, Oyo State, on the ill-fated day. One could imagine the excruciating pain Olalekan suffered when, without expecting his days on earth were numbered, was shot dead at close range while his young assailants are now roaming the streets feeling they have accomplished their unholy mission. For them to have successfully killed the deceased without being arrested is a confirmation of the rising level of insecurity in Nigeria. Such students, until they are arrested and prosecuted, remain potential threats to safety of lives in their institution. Also, the lives of other members of Olalekan’s Students’ Forum are certainly not safe since members of Aye Confraternity know they are against their notorious activities.
If according to Ridwan, authorities of The Ibadan Polytechnic knew the cultists were threatening to strike even for over two weeks before they were emboldened to kill Olalekan, what did they do to prevent the avoidable incident? Perhaps, if they had promptly done the needful by reporting the cultists to the police and proscribing Aye Confraternity and other cultism groups in the institution, the disaster would have been prevented. By the way, how did killers of Olalekan obtain the guns used to snuff life out of him? This testifies to the fact that there are still illegal arms in wrong hands across Nigeria.
It is unthinkable that students sent to school by their parents to study to become useful to themselves, families and society are, instead, busy perpetrating criminal activities. Surely, these are dangerous characters that thorough screening ought to have barred from gaining admission into tertiary institutions. Henceforth, authorities of tertiary institutions should subject applicants to psychiatrist tests to determine their mental status and suitability for successful academic careers. If this had been done, killing of Olalekan by student-cultists, thereby cutting his life short, could have been averted.
END
Be the first to comment