By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Nigeria is currently witnessing what could be described as an emerging troubling trend across the country’s campuses of higher education. Mob actions by students against their colleagues is in variation of the training they are being exposed to as ambassadors of civilisation, campaigners of due process and advocates of human rights.
What comes to mind at the mention of these killings is the dark days of bakassi in the South East region where some youths took up arms against their countrymen, executing them extra-judicially without trial or right to fair hearing. Under the regime, persons accused of stealing pay the supreme price but not through the court processes, instead the barrels of non-state actors.
One Mob Killing Too Many
In 2022, a female student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, North West Nigeria, identified as Deborah Samuel was stoned to death in broad day light by a mob of Muslim students.
She was accused of blasphemy against the Islamic religion. Her killers trailed her to her hostel, dragged her out and publicly mauled her down, a very unfortunate incident to come from those who are being trained to become teachers. Her suspected killers according to police authorities, were later arrested and charged with “Criminal conspiracy and incitement of public disturbance,” bailable offences with a maximum 2 year jail term.
A team of 34 lawyers led by one Prof. Mansur Ibrahim defended the suspects. They were subsequently acquitted by the court, which cited non-appearance of prosecution lawyers.
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In 2023, a final year student of the Department of Civil Engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, South West Nigeria, Okoli Chizoputam, was killed by angry students over alleged theft, a development confirmed by the university management and the students’ union.
The deceased had returned to the university for a repeat of courses he failed. He was alleged to have stolen a mobile phone at the Obafemi Awolowo Hall of Residence on the campus, but rather than reporting him to the university authorities, a mob of students reportedly lynched him. He was later brought in dead at the Emergency Medical Department of the university’s teaching hospital.
Also, just earlier this month, a student of Ajayi Crowther University in Oyo State, South West Nigeria, was beaten to death by his fellow students. Alex Timileyin, accused of stealing a mobile phone was killed inside a hostel known as Shepherd Inn on the school premises. Reports say the deceased was beaten from 6pm till about 10am the next day. He was stripped, filmed and dehumanized by those being looked forward as leaders of this nation in no distant future.
It’s A Reflection of Societal Mirror — Lecturer
A university lecturer, Dr. Chima Onwudi however believes that the orgy of mob actions in Nigerian campuses is a general reflection of what the society represents, arguing that the perpetrators of the dastardly acts are part and parcel of the society where their character was formed.
He said students are not automatically transformed into “angels of light” because they have found themselves in the university campus but a well-structured plan that will make them appreciate the value of life could be required.
“What we must understand here is this, the general behaviour of people, either in the market, religious houses, campuses or what have you is a product of what has been deposited in them by the same society. Either by default, family influence, religious inclination, people tend to behave in a certain way.
“The people who set others on fire for stealing sugar and onions at marketplaces, what difference do you think they can make when for instance they find themselves in the university campus? A man who has been taught that killing others in defence of his religion is the best way to be at peace with his creator will not suddenly be changed by the university environment,” he noted.
He therefore urged families, religious organisations and the society at large to inculcate good moral values on their children and teach them the value of life so that humanity will be better for it.
Tertiary Education Losing Its Way — Forensic Psychologist
A Forensic Psychologist, Dr. Law Mefor however believes that Nigeria’s education has “clearly” lost its way, especially at the tertiary level. According to him, two things the student must evidentially pass through before being awarded the earned certificate are character and learning. Where one or two of the factors are lacking, such certificate ought not to be awarded, he submitted.
He remarked that in today’s Nigeria, learning is not half way imparted anymore and character moulding also seriously waning and wanting, a situation he blamed for the increasing level of religious fanaticism, cultism and cultic activities in and off Nigerian campuses.
“The bullying and killings by students you have made reference to are better understood in the light of religious fanaticism, cultism and cultic activities that have now spread to even primary schools and to the open society. Things have really gone awry and haywire in our schools and its roots are just in the absence of discipline and lack of control by the school authorities.
“The teachers and lecturers have lost the power to discipline students because of religious fanaticism and cultism. Parents also harass and intimidate the teachers who dare to discipline their wards. What’s more, many lecturers are themselves fanatics and cultists right from their undergraduate days. Some of them are now heads of departments, deans and even VCs. In such circumstances, what do you want the ordinary teacher or lecturer to do? They will look the other way for their own safety while students become kings and Capones and bully everyone else. That’s why a group of students can have the freedom and temerity to stone or flog a fellow student to death. Cult wars are all over the country and many Nigerians have been murdered in broad day light with little or no consequences.”
Dr. Mefor posits that there should be consequences for religious fanaticism, bullying and cultism in order to halt the killings that have become fashionable. In learning psychology, any wrong behaviour not punished is bound to gain strength and reoccur in worse dimensions, he stated.
He therefore called for peaceful co-habitation of education and discipline, without which there can never be civilization. He expressed worry that discipline is no longer playing any serious role in the nation’s educational system. The system is now governed more by anomie – like a jungle where dogs eat dogs, where might is right. Whereas such atavistic behaviours are what education is meant to correct and eradicate in students, Dr. Mefor noted.
In his opinion, the way out of this quagmire is to sack all cultists from schools, both students and teachers/lecturers. Additionally, bullies in school who have inflicted willful injuries on fellow students should be dismissed, and bullying occasioning death must be tried for murder that it is, he told Heritage Times HT.
Civil society organisations and activists have also expressed worry that despite overwhelming evidences against suspects, they are rarely convicted to send strong warning to intending perpetrators.
