The Impact Of Peer Pressure On Youth Involvement In Ritual Killings

 

CHAPTER ONE

 

Preface

 

Preface

 

Ritual payoff is a common miracle in Nigerian diurnal life. It has come a regular event when hundreds of Nigerians lost their lives to ritual killers or what Nwakanma, & Abu,( 2020) called, “ Head nimrods. ” The ritual killers go about in hunt of mortal corridor – heads, guts, speeches, and coitus organs – as demanded by witch croakers , jinx preachers, traditional drug men or women and/ or occultists who bear similar for their dubious offerings or for the medication of varied magical portions( Igwe, 2010). In the contemporary Nigeria, ritual payoff has taken new dimension. Tell magazines describe the scene as the “ Reign of the Ritualists ”( Elesho 2004). numerous different means are used to abduct people with evil intentions; especially for rituals. numerous of those abducted for similar purposes are long gone but there are a lucky many who actually live to tell the story of their encountered with the ritualists. Some of the kidnappers caught with their victims some time dead or partial-dead also witnessed of their dubious acts( Aiyetan, 2003). There are all feathers of stories of colorful ways of hijacking ; some people faded on picking or touching some particulars set as trap by ritualists or kidnappers. It seems egregious in Nigeria that ritual killers are more current at certain seasons in the time – like the weeks leading to Christmas and during some monthly pilgrimages. It’s generally believed that people engage in immolation of mortal beings to get plutocrat to spend at similar gleeful ages.

 

Phenomenally, according to Shujaa( 2009) ritualism is a set patterns or specified procedures and orders for carrying out religious conduct or observances through mortal immolation. Stebbins( 2010) editorialized that immolation is a vital aspect of every religious ritual. This involves giving up commodity of value for the sake of commodity that’s of lesser value. While mortal immolation according to Ayegboyin( 2009) is a blood immolation that involves payoff of a living critter as a ritual immolation to a god or spirit, generally in anticipation of a return in the form of good fortune, whether generalized or as the permission of a particular prayer. This could be told by socio profitable factors like poverty, severance, materialism, media or pressure from peers, headded.

 

From time old peer pressure has, constituted reasons and conduct embarked upon by a group of people or individual. Is like the case my mates or group members are doing it, also I must do it. La Fontaine( 2011) also editorialized that the peer pressure has a great influence on youths ’ disposition to engage in felonious behaviours like ritual payoff and internet fraud know as Yahoo. therefore youths are pressurized by the use of plutocrat and material thing to be drafted into bad gangs or secret religions like Yahoo Plus where they’re exposed to some dangerous ways to induce pains on other innocent people just to attain wealth. Bond( 2003), Henslin( 2008) and Adeyemi( 2019) indicated that peer groups are so important that members are willing to diverge from the morals of the society in order to cover the interest, values, morals and prospects of their group therefore members are under pressure to conform to peer folklore because the group consists of musketeers and people that they value largely and depend on for getting along in life. therefore it’ll not be out of environment to affirm that the increase prevalence of ritualism, hijacking , internet fraud and other felonious geste is told by pressure from peers and groups in the society.

 

Statement of the problem

 

Although rituals have been in actuality since time old, he practices were employed in an attempt to assuage an unknown advanced being for protection and provision. still, over time, ritualism has evolved into commodity more dangerous than how our ancestors rehearsed it. The causes of similar decay can be traced to the collapse of family institution, lack of economic employment for parents and academy dropouts, preferential treatment of the rich against the honest and the knowledgeable in the society, corruption, poverty; affectation and relinquishment of social practices, peer pressure hence egging youthful people into progeny rich quick system viz harlotry, thievery, hijacking and the chief of all ritual payoff. According to Igwe( 2010), numerous youthful people still believe that charms and ritual offerings can fortify them spiritually, enhance their fortunes in business and during choices, or cover them from detriment, complaint, poverty, accident, death or destruction. According to() one great factor that leads youthful people to ritualism is is the peer pressure from their musketeers and associates, which tempts them into believing that there’s commodity better they can acquire through these practices. This includes wealth, job creation, entrance into good seminaries sodalities.

 

Importantly, with the intermittent frequentness of ritual killings in the country, one is forced to ask why similar brutal and barbaric act persists. colorful explanations have been offered by scholars( Igwe 2010 and La Fontaine 2011) and numerous other social scientists. Some scholars condemn the problem on the socio- profitable conditions in the country especially as ritual killings increase in ages of profitable difficulty; some argues that home videotape story lines on ritually acquired wealth has contributed to ritual killing as youth and adolescent tend to exercise what they watch. Others scholars has also argue that traditional beliefs in fetish and ritual religious practices have percolated the frequence of ritual killing twenty-first century. Bizarrely, none has concentrated on the impact of peer pressure on youth involvement in ritual payoff. therefore, it’s against this background that this study seeks to examine the impact of peer pressure on youth involvement in ritual payoff using Benin Metropolis as case study.

 

Exploration Objects

 

The broad ideal of this study is to examine impact of peer pressure on youth involvement in ritual payoff using Benin Metropolis as case study. Specifically the study seeks

 

To determine the nature of ritual killing youth involve in Benin Metropolis.

 

ii. To ascertain the purposes for youth engagement in ritual killing in Benin Metropolis.

 

iii. To probe if pressure from peers impact a youth into ritual practices.

 

iv. To examine if unhealthy competition among sets and group contributes to high prevalence of ritual killing in the society.

 

Exploration Thesis

 

 

HO1 Pressure from peers doesn’t impact youth into ritual practices in Benin Metropolis

 

HO2 Unhealthy competition among sets and group doesn’t contributes to high prevalence of ritual killing in the society.

 

Significance of Study

 

The result of the study will be of applicability to policy makers, Nigeria Youths and religious bodies. To policy makers, findings of the study will enlighten policy makers on the need to establish guiding principles to dock ritual payoff and establish discipline for those caught in this devilish act. To government, the study will also emphasize on the need to introduce poverty relief program, employment openings and support of entrepreneur as this will go a long way in reducing felonious geste among unemployed youths. further the study will emphasize the need for to consolidate tutoring of moral education in seminaries, universities and as well encourage preceptors speakers that educate moral education to be part model for our youths among others as this will reduce the rate of ritualism in Nigeria. Empirically, the study will add to the body of being literature on ritualism as serve as reference material to scholars and pupil who wishes to conduct farther studies in affiliated field.

 

Compass Of The Study

 

1. The compass of this study borders on the impact of peer pressure on youth involvement in ritualkilling.The study will bandy the nature of ritual practices youth involve and for what purposes. The study will also probe if pressure from peers impact a and unhealthy competition among sets and group contributes to high prevalence of ritual killing in the society. The study is still demarcated to Benin Metropolis in Edo State.

 

Limitation of the Study

 

Like in every mortal bid, the experimenters encountered slight constraints while carrying out the study. The significant constraint was the deficiency of literature on the impact of peer pressure on youth involvement in ritual killing converse. therefore important time and association was needed in sourcing for the applicable accoutrements , literature, or information and in the process of data collection. Also the study is limited in period as the study covered only South- South region with reference to Benin megalopolis, Edo State. thus findings of this study can not be used for conception for other regions or State which creates a gap for farther studies.

 

description of terms

 

Ritual A ritual is a sequence of conditioning involving gestures, words, conduct, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be specified by the traditions of a community, including a religious community.

 

Ritual Killing Also known as ritualism is a violent and extreme type of felonious homicide in which vital organs of the victim are gutted by the executioners for use in “ sacred ” solemnities.

 

Moral degeneration This means a gross reduction in the moral values in a particular society. It appears to be a fall’ in the moral standard of the society and a deterioration or a collapse in upholding our societal values, beliefs, morals and ethical norms.

 

Peer Pressure Peer pressure is the direct or circular influence on people of peers, members of social groups with analogous interests, gests , or social statuses. Members of a peer group are more likely to impact a person’s beliefs and geste .

 

Reference

 

Adeyemi,B.( 2019) “ Influence of peer pressure on inferior secondary academy scholars ’ academic performance in Social Studies in Mushin Local Government Area, Lagos State, ” South Asian Research Journal of Humanities and Social lores,vol. 1,no. 3,pp. 233- 239.

 

Aiyetan,D.( 2003, December 29). Reign of the Ritualists. Tell,p. 25

 

Ayegboyin, Deji. 2009. “ Immolation, ” in Encyclopaedia of African Religion edited by Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama. California Sage Publications, Int.

 

Bond,R.( 2003) Group Size and Conformity ‟ Group Processes and Intergroup Relations 8, 4, 2005 331 – 354

 

Elesho,R.a.( 2004, August 23). bloody Rituals. The News,p. 18.

 

Henslin,J.( 2008). Social Problems A Down into Earth Approach 8th ed. Boston Allen and Bacon

 

Igwe, L( 2004), Ritual Killing and Pseudoscience in Nigeria. Skeptical missions. Volume 14( 2). penetrated 29th January 2015 at3.59 pm

 

Igwe, L( 2010), Ritual payoff and mortal immolation in Africa. transnational Humanist and Ethical Union. African Commission on Human and People’s rights 48th Session November 10- 24, Banjul, The Gambia.

 

La Fontaine, Jean. 2011. “ Ritual Murder? ” Interventions Occasional Paper Series# 3, Open Anthropology Cooperative Press

 

Nwakanma, Emmanuel & Abu, Owapiriba.( 2020). Cultural Issues In Violence Against Women And Ritual Killings In Nigeria Assessing The Counteraccusations For Sustainable Development. 18. 15447- 15457.

 

Shujaa, MwalimuJ. 2009. “ Rituals, ” in Encyclopaedia of African Religion edited by Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama. California Sage Publications, Int.

 

Stebbins, Morgan. 2010. “ Immolation, ” in Encyclopaedia of Psychology and Religion, edited by DavidA. Leeming, Kathryn Madden and Stanton Marlan. New York Springer Science Business Media LLC.

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