Cultism has obviously extended its tentacles to secondary, primary schools and regrettably, to our various communities and this if not checked through the involvements of stakeholders and all sundry, will obviously leave our children and youth with no future even our dear country.
The inspector General of Police, IGP Mohammed Abubakar ADAMU in view of this, rolled out POCACOV- Police Campaign Against Cultism and Other Vices; A programme which is community driven and involving different stakeholders in line with the community oriented policing tenets with a view to resolving this and problem it has created.
The Police Campaign Against Cultism and Other Vices (POCACOV) has a resource centre known as “IGP MA ADAMU POCACOV Resource Centre” that develops modules aimed at resolving identified issues associated with cultism and other vices in line with the tenets of community oriented policing.
The Resource Centre working in partnership with Exam Ethics Marshals International with a view to promoting best practices in education in line with goal 4 (quality education) as well as goal (16) transforming the world; of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has come up with the following to assist parents, teachers, caregivers and other relevant stakeholders.
The understanding of this warning signs and their control measures will be of immense help at the following levels:
- At the family perspective; the child becomes suddenly withdrawn, the child becomes secretive or superficially timid, keeps late nights, dresses in a funny ways, uses passwords or other signs periodically, keeps company of friends with strange characters, makes unusual financial demands, engages in smoking and alcoholism, Acquires strange body marks especially at the back, assumes or exhibits militants gaits, in possession of dangerous weapons or charms, enjoys bullying constantly, manifestation of fatigue, engages in pilfering and telling lies, pretending to be a good child, etc.
The control could come in various ways which includes; Adequate surveillance, close observation to check for warning signs, monitoring by cross-checking behaviour from school authorities (Safe School partnership), physical examination of the bodies of wards and children as well as their hairdo, surprise checks of children/wards apartments, boxes and phones, taking the child for medical examinations.
- At the school perspective, the following are likely to start manifesting; Student engages in truancy, failure to do assignments, extorts money from other students, serial involvement in examination malpractice, exhibit violent tendencies, exhibit irrational behaviour, sponsors/participate in expensive night parties, infiltrate clubs and associations to hijack the leadership, serial engagement in agitations, serial precipitation of crisis, suspicious movements, deterioration of academic performance, laying claim to territorial boundaries, regular hosting of strange visitors etc.
To checkmate this, the following are relevant: The full scale implementations of the principles of safer school partnership programme that will encourage robust tracking records of academic performance of students, tracking records of behavioral performance of students as well as giving of regular update that will constantly keep parents/caregivers abreast of child performance and behaviour /early signs for timely prevention and control.
