Outrageous, it is, is it not, that cultism has its attraction?

Cult, as a term, denotes the heinous and the criminal.

A cult is a reference to any sociocultural or ethnoreligious body despised by the speaker.

For the purpose of this article, a cult is an organisation, whose origin lays in covert or overt human rights abuses, exploitation, or crime.

A cult has an open door policy for new initiates, but once a member, the door closes, firmly, permitting no exit.

A cult is a secret society whose real operations are not disclosed to nonmembers.

A cult regards members as integral and nonmembers as a threat to be eliminated or subdued.

One will hardly hear of an exmember of a cult, whose exit from the cult went without an hitch.

As cult membership exposes one to death at the hands of a rival cult and to death from former colleagues, should one leave the cult, the question is:

What attracts a person to a cult, in the first instance?

A cult offers a sense of belonging.

Cults are operated by the educated class, as well as by students and hoodlums.

Those whose pastime includes listening to a lecture of incoherent and extraneous words not found in any dictionary will certainly find campus cults appealing.

Those whose associates are criminals will incline towards street cults.

Those who rule by nepotism, tribalism, sexism, and fraud will seek to join skilled cults.

A cult purports to offer protection for members.

How much protection does a cult offer?

In reality, a cult offers a nominal and nonexistent protection to its members.

Should members of the cult come under the threat of violence, selfishness supercedes solidarity.

Each member flees abandoning any member who is oblivious of the impending harm.

That member becomes the latest casualty in the war of cults, for he will be shot, execution-style.

A cult provides an avenue out of problems.

Where the issue is an employment or a contract, a cult, especially the skilled cult, is a channel to fill vacant positions with fellow members.

Should the cult be of students or thugs, the solution offered will be armed robbery, kidnapping, extortion, drug dealing, assassinations, carjackings, and other violent crimes.

Cults exist as secret societies, confraternities, fraternities, sororities, blood covenant bonds, et cetera.

Cults are around us: in our universities, on campus; in our neighbourhood, on our street; and among our friends.

Some of us have a very close friend who joined a cult.

Some of us have a close friend murdered by cult members.

Some of us know of someone shot in the war between cults.

Some of us know a neighbour murdered by cult members.

Some of us have narrowly escaped death at the hands of cult members.

Although the violence between cults is usually directed at rival cult members specifically, non-cult members are frequently caught in that conflict.

Rival cults exist on one street, with neighbours, who grew up associating with each other, adhering to opposing cults.

This occurs both in street cults and university cults.

Skilled cults specialise in exploiting and dominating every field where they have members.

In effect, skilled cults can monopolise and cripple the economy.

While skilled cults rarely are involved in violent crimes, they do lobby governments to conduct state violence.

Skilled cult members hire street and campus cults to perpetrate violent crimes.

In essence, skilled cults provide the funding and, sometimes, the ammunition to other cults.

In a section of the Country, cults are, predominantly, known street and university gangs, with skilled cults in the background.

In that region, cults and drugs coexist and members freely smoke marijuana.

In another region of the Country, cults are hardly found in universities or neighbourhoods.

There, cults exist mainly as religious and ethnic bodies.

Members ingest a variety of drugs, the most prevalent being Rohypnol and Tramadol.

A piece of advice to young persons:

Stay away from cult members, to avoid being a casualty of any conflict between or within them.

Try and avoid associating with them, even greeting them.

Now, let us get personal, shall we?

Both Umm Sulaim and her partner, Jude Elias, whom she nicknamed EbubeDike Odogwu, have experiences of the mayhem caused by cults.

Years ago, Michael joined a street cult, after associating with a cult member, Matthew.

Michael became affiliated to a cult, despite repeated advice to desist from associating with Matthew.

Matthew would visit Michael and the two would go out in the former’s car.

One day, Michael returned late at night, a fully-initiated cult member of one of the two major neighbourhood underground confraternities.

A rapid sequence of events saw the murder of a member of the rival cult.

Word spread that Michael held the membership of the enemy cult.

That night, cult members entered Michael’s residence and shot him dead, as he slept.

Michael was a cult member for three days.

Where was the cult protection for him?

As Umm Sulaim researched this article, she received a call from EbubeDike at 10:08 hours Wednesday, 2019, May 8, that his younger brother Ujah Cletus Elias was shot by cult members in Ikorodu, Lagos, the previous night.

Ujah Cletus Elias is not a cult member.

Cletus was targeted by notorious cult members, who accused him of being a cult member.

Cletus owns a barber’s salon and among his clients are cult members.

For providing a hairgrooming service to cult members, Cletus was accosted by masked cult members, as he locked his business at night.

Cletus was shot in the head and the abdomen by balaclava-wearing cult members.

The insanity simply has to stop.

Cletus lay critically ill in a coma and underwent multiple surgeries to extract the bullets.

Surgeons had a hard time locating the bullet embedded in Cletus’ abdominal organs.

Hours after successful surgeries, Cletus was in a coma.

Cletus Elias has regained consciousness, but remains in a critical condition.

To help the Elias-Marthis Family, donate to: https://iamummsulaim.wordpress.com/commission-my-work/ujah-cletus-elias-medical-fund/

Umm Sulaim’s best friend, Chibueze Ama, was shot dead 20 years ago by cult members in Maryland, Enugu.

Unlike the current target, Chibueze was a cult member.

Umm Sulaim wishes she knew, at an early point, that Chibueze was involved with a confraternity.

Sadly, by the time she heard of it, he was already dead.

Umm Sulaim learnt of Chibueze’s cult membership the day she heard of his murder.

It was in the latter half of 1999 that Umm Sulaim met Chidi Ama in Lagos.

Naturally, she asked after his younger siblings, in particular her best friend, Chibueze.

She was excited to hear Chibueze was doing well and a student of Marketing.

Umm Sulaim had no idea she was asking after the dead, for Chibueze was gone.

Chidi, concerned not to derail her from the West African Examination Council ~WAEC papers she was sitting, did not disclose the truth about Chibueze.

As the external examinations drew to a close, Chidi visited again.

Chibueze was shot dead by cult members, Chidi informed her.

Was he a cult member?

The answer came: Yes.

Stunned, Umm Sulaim turned to her books.

“Chibueze is the one person I want to see and he is dead.”

Umm Sulaim bore her grief, privately, and had nightmares of Chibueze for years.

In deep sleep, Umm Sulaim’s chest would bubble as that of a weeping child, in great distress.

On his admission into University of Nigeria Enugu Campus (UNEC) Chibueze joined a confraternity.

Four years after Umm Sulaim fled Enugu for Lagos and four years since she saw Chibueze, he was dead.

Chibueze returned home from his lectures, tired, and fell asleep.

A cocult member paid him a visit, insisting Chibueze accompany him to the residence of another cult member to workout.

Chibueze left his home; he did not return alive.

Unknown to Chibueze, rival cult members were trailing his host’s vehicle.

Chibueze walked right into a trap.

As they exercised, his host went to the entrance gate and saw members of the rival gang approaching.

Chibueze’s host fled, without bothering to alert his mates of the impending danger.

Chibueze was shot in the chest.

Everyone fled.

Still alive and mobile, Chibueze was rushed to hospital.

At the hospital, another health disaster loomed, for Chibueze needed a blood transfusion, but the staff in charge of the blood bank could not be traced.

Chibueze was dead by the time the staff returned.

Dedicated to Chibueze Ama, my best friend.

Thank you for the memorable times.

Thank you for protecting me.

Thank you for being my best friend.

I am sorry I left you behind in Enugu, when I fled from my family.

I am sorry that those, who knew you were a cult member, did nothing to pull you out of it, but later gossiped about your involvement in a cult.

I am sorry. I miss you, still.

Dedicated to Chidiebere Ama, my confidant.

Thank you for suggesting I leave Enugu, to escape my family.

Thank you for planning my escape with me.

I was 19 years old and you were a year older, in 1995, when we planned my flight from my oppressive family.

Thank you for every one of the pieces of advice you gave me.

Thank you for looking out for me.

Thank you for repeatedly demonstrating that teenagers and young adults are not the unthinking ‘kids’ adults expect them to be.

I am sorry I was not around to offer you some sound pieces of advice when you urgently needed it.

I miss you, still.

Dedicated to Ujah Cletus Elias.

I have yet to be acquainted with you.

We are connected because EbubeDike, your brother, is my loving partner.

EbubeDike is exceptional in the respect and loyalty he accords me.

For his sake and the sake of your family and yourself, I pray you recover fully from your wounds.

•Umm Sulaim is the Publisher of Umm Sulaim’s Thoughts (https://iamummsulaim.wordpress.com).

Copyright © 2019 Umm Sulaim. All rights reserved.

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