Abstract:
Cultism is prevalent in most tertiary institutions in Africa. There is no gainsay that this vice
is generally unacceptable from both socio-cultural and religious viewpoints. Unfortunately,
despite the detrimental tendencies associated with it, some students actively engage in it.
Hence, various governmental and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have risen to
campaign against cultism in tertiary institutions. The thrust of this research, therefore, is to
investigate the roles of Christian campus fellowships in the fight against cultism amongst
students of Nigerian universities, with reference to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka
(UNN). It also explores the challenges which the activities of cult groups pose to the
university community. Utilising the descriptive method of data analysis, this work
discovered that Christian campus fellowships are both a significant and a veritable tool in
the fight against cultism in the UNN. As part of her primary and social responsibilities,
Christian campus fellowships preach and teach against cult activities in tertiary institutions.
They also intervene through some philanthropic gestures and other ecclesiastical activities
which are primarily geared towards inculcating right values and godly characters in
students, encouraging students who are members of cult groups to denounce their
membership and also discouraging students from joining cult groups. The data for this
research were drawn from both primary (personal communication) and secondary sources
(books, journals and internet materials). The major finding of this article reveals that
Christian campus fellowships in the UNN, have made remarkable strides in the campaign
against the involvement of students in cultism.
Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article explicitly lays bare the
contributions of Christian campus fellowships in order to bring cult practices to a barest
minimum amongst students of the UNN. The study contributes to modern discourses on
juvenile delinquency with respect to disciplines such as religion, sociology, social work and
psychology.
