Varsities seek spiritual help to fight rising Campus Prostitution
Nigeria - Worried by the high rate of prostitution among students of universities, authorities of higher institutions and religious fellowships across Nigerian campuses have started prayer sessions to fight the scourge.
Besides, some institutions have strengthened their counseling units to cage the vice, while the National Association of Nigerian Students has called on the Federal Government to do something urgent to rid the nation’s campuses of prostitution and social vices.
Also, universities in Ibadan, Ife, Ago-Iwoye and Lagos, campus fellowships including the Christ Apostolic Church Students’ Association, Baptist Students’ Fellowship and fellowships of Pentecostal extraction have, declared war on the scourge. They described it as an “assault unleashed on God’s creatures from the pit of hell.”
However, the spread of the scourge has set one of the fellowships, Believers’ Loveworld, against the Chaplain of the University of Ibadan Chapel of Resurrection, Venerable JAF Olusola, who accused the fellowship of being the breeding ground for prostitutes. But the President of the fellowship, Pastor Kunle Michael, has denied this, saying that the group has never been a haven for prostitutes.
However, Olusola insisted that some of the campus fellowships, particularly, Believers Loveworld, served as a haven of prostitutes and cultists.
“They have found a haven in that fellowship. We have done our facts-finding and we discovered that place is their haven. They are quite comfortable there and they do all sorts of things. The cultists are there and when the young girls get there, they recruit them into prostitution,” he said.
But, Michael said the accusation was totally false and malicious. He said the fellowship and its members would do no such thing.
“The church is not a place for perfect people,” he said.
“It is a hospital for curing sick people. If someone who is spiritually sick comes here, we will not turn such a person back. Look at the life of Jesus when he was working on the earth. He didn’t turn back all those who had questionable characters and came to him for help. I have seen terrible people who have been branded ‘sinners’ come here, give their lives to Christ and become totally changed. The only thing is that people do not give them a chance to prove that they are new beings. They still brand them as prostitutes.”
The president, who swore to defend the integrity of his fellowship members before anybody and anywhere, said the fellowship had held healing services and people had been healed by the power of God.
“People have left their churches to come here and have found acceptance in Jesus. We don’t condemn people, we allow God to work on them and, many times, that is what happens. God changes them by Himself. This place is not a breeding ground for prostitutes and cultists. If they try to go against what God is doing here, they will find themselves fighting against heaven.”
But in spite of accusations and counter-accusations, religious groups on various campuses in the country have taken up spiritual arms against the scourge. At universities in Ibadan, Ago-Iwoye, Lagos and Ife, the authorities have urged the religious communities in their institutions to step up spiritual wars against immorality. At UI, for instance, fellowships, particularly the Chapel of Ressurection and the university’s mosque, have been urged to take the issue up spiritually.
Confirming this, the chaplain said, “I can tell you it is the work of Satan. He wants to destroy the youth because they are the future, but we will not allow it. We will war against it. It can’t be allowed to continue. It is a terrible thing for girls to come here and turn prostitutes.
“Some parents don’t even know what their children do in school. I normally advise them to pay unscheduled visits to their schools. Something decisive should be done about it and immediately too.”
The cleric acknowledged the fact that the hands of the university were tied in fighting student prostitution as it could not fight it without trampling on the students’ rights.
“That is why the Bible says, ‘If the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The righteous can pray, that is what we can do very well. We can pray and we will pray against it. The Bible says the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much. We will pray and I know God will answer our prayers,” he said.
He also expressed regrets that the new wave of prostitution had crept greatly into the house of God and the student prostitutes mingled freely with the flock of Jesus.
According to him, prostitution is a consequence of cultism as the cultists are the ones who usually recruit young, unwary and innocent girls into the act of prostitution.
But he expressed the readiness of the chapel to declare days of prayer and fasting against the vice and other anti-social behaviors among students.
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