Introduction
1.1 Background to the Study
One major culture that has the capacity of developing the mind and body of the Nigerian students is sports. Sports does not exists in a vacuum; it is part of total educational program of a nation, which involves local and state systems, regional councils and international organization, sports without mining words has developed to become a socio-economic, political, cultural and religious weapon through which many nations seek to rule the world. Gert (1995) agrees to this fact by stating categorically that sports has been used by nation of low recognition to improve their global image and project their national status to recognition.
Sports also act as a kind of badge for social exclusivity and cultural distinctiveness for the dominant classes, it operates a means of control or containment of the working or popular classes; it is represented as a source of escape and mobility for talented class of performers. It articulates the fractional status distinctions that exist within the ranks of large class grouping (Sugden and Tomlinson, 2000).(Eitzen 2009) also sees sports as that which can bring people together by giving them a sense of personal identify, as well as feelings of group membership and social identification.
Awosika (2000) postulated that sports has been found to be an instrument of practriotism individuals especially in a multi-national agency. Also, researches have shown that participation in sports has positive correlation with academic achievement (Durcan, 2000).
Olajide (2003) stated that sports participation represents an integral part of total physical education programme, which mostly evolves from the intra-mural and extra-mural programmes. It is designed for students and it serves as an extension of the instruction programme by giving students with opportunity to practicalise what they have learnt in the classroom e.g morals and theories of games. It provides students with opportunities that will be conducive for their health and physical fitness. It motivates student’s participation in sports skills at their own level. It provides a forum or avenue to share common interest. It encourages the process of psychological meaning or self-confidence so important to the adolescent.
The concept of a “cult” as defined by Homby, (2001) is a small group of people who have extreme religious beliefs and who are not part of any established religion. Akanni (1999) postulated that a “Cult” could be said to emanate from great and or idea. This could be manifested in ritual, praised songs, chants and worship.
Omoluabi (1999) opined that against the background of the nature of campuses, theories and functions of groups, the formation of all kinds of groups in campuses is inevitable. The so-called campus cults or secret society are groups of students who have un-orthodox social practices. The groups that have pirates, Buccaneer, Black axe, Black beret, Eiye confraternity, Mafioso and Daughters of Jezebel. The group’s characteristics are: holding meetings at unusually times and in unusual places, wearing weird customers, singing outrageous songs, adopting outlandish nicknames, love of rituals and poor personal adjustment, magical activities and low self-esteem.
However, as it has been postulated above that cultism and the violence associated with it are inevitable phenomena on campuses, the realization that group behavior of the individual member of the group further confirms that inevitability. Arising from this background, the purpose of this study is to appraise indices of sports participation as predictors of non-involvement in cultism among students of Lagos State University.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
In the recent past, sports and provided a forum for unity and social interaction through the participation of fellow country men and women representing the country in some events such as track and field, football, and tennis. However, these participants are majorly from other works of life except academics. It has been noted that for instance the contingent i.e presenting Nigeria in 1989 under 20 World cup, only multi Adepoju happened to be an undergraduate from university of Ibadan.
To this end, if samples will be taking it will be discovered that just a fraction or a small percentage of students participate in sports to the point of representing the country in both National and International events. Showing the lack of interest or encouragement post by stunts towards sporting activities. This research therefore aims at looking closely into the cases, causes consequences and panacea which will provide modalities for institutions of higher learning to integrate sporting activities into the educational system thereby encouraging a lot of undergraduates or students from various facilities to explore their talents.
