The Alake and paramount ruler of Egbaland, Adedotun Gbadebo, has tasked the National Association of Seadogs (NAS), better known as Pyrates Confraternity, to adopt more practical means to check the worsening problems of cultism in the nation’s higher institutions.
Oba Gbadebo said it had become imperative for the Pyrates Confraternity to urgently arrest the current ugly trend, where various amorphous groups now terrorise students on the campuses of the nation’s higher institutions of learning.
The monarch stated this on Thursday when the Chairman of the Abeokuta branch of the Pyrates Confraternity, Yemi Akintunde, led other members, including the Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Olaokun Soyinka, on a visit to him in his Ake Palace on the seventh anniversary of his coronation.
The Alake, who recalled that he joined the Pyrates Confraternity in October 1965 as a student at the University of Ibadan, stated that because of the lofty humanitarian ideals and discipline exhibited by members then, the group was the most liked of all clubs on the campus by both students and staff.
He expressed happiness that the confraternity was already taking steps to check the problem of illegal initiation of unqualified persons into its fold which he said had now resulted in the resurgence of fake groups of students claiming to be members of the association in some campuses of higher institutions in the country.
“I joined the Pyrates Confraternity in October 1965 at the University of Ibadan. Many of us were interviewed then at Kuti Hall, but very few of us eventually made it.
“I’m happy that the problem of illegal initiation is being tackled by the current leadership, but you have to do more.
“I’m happy something is being done to separate the wheat from the chaff, but you still need to do more to make it different from all these cult groups, and you also need to find better means of combating this problem on our campuses.
“During our days, we regarded ourselves as brothers and we shared so many things in common.
“In fact, the Pyrates Confraternity was the most liked of all the groups on the campus of the UI then,” he said.
The Alake therefore pledged his support for the Pyrates Confraternity in its crusade against the menace of cultism in the nation’s higher institutions of learning.
Gbadebo however urged the association not to lower its current standard for admitting new members in order to maintain the discipline and enhance humanitarian services it had been known for worldwide.
By Segun Adeleye, Senior Reporter, Abeokuta
Daily Independent
November 30, 2012
