Poverty and Cultism in Our Contemporary Society: Implications for Nigerian Students

Abstract

This paper is aimed at making an overview of the concepts of poverty and cultism in our contemporary society. The origin, causes, prevalent patterns, the implications on Nigerian students and the challenges posed by these concepts in our society were all x-rayed. Whereas proper and adequate funding of public schools by both the Federal and State governments, advancement of international grants and aids, promotion of “pro-poor” policies i.e., Policies that focus on the welfare of the poor masses, good governance and to increase the performance and employment rate of Micro-Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) among others were identified as measures to be adopted for curbing poverty in the Nigerian society, some techniques found to be effective strategies for combating cultism in the society also include: coercion, persuasion, mass mobilisation campaign, public renunciation among others. The author concludes that the target of the government and stakeholders in education to eradicate cultism and poverty in our society would be achieved if only the successive government do not jettison their predecessors’ agenda in line with the programme, rather incorporate theirs and allow both to run concurrently in order to reach their target audience.