How Nigerian student fraternities turned into powerful and well-armed gangs

This is an incredible article.

In the 90s, Nigerian military leaders provided these once run-of-the-mill fraternities with money and guns to suppress pro-democracy, leftist, student unions. In return, they’re paid, they’re able to threaten their teachers into giving them passing grades, and when they leave university they’re often hooked up with good jobs through a network of gang alumni. An okay deal when an unemployed and impoverished future is looking pretty likely, with or without graduating university

So what’s wrong with a few students trying to get ahead in life by blowing up their professors’ cars or kidnapping their kids just to pass a class? Well, the foresight that these West African military leaders are usually known for somehow lapsed when they decided to hook up a bunch of different confraternities with the scrill and drill. Now they’ve turned against each other, resulting in auditoriums of their peers getting shot the fuck up in gang wars while trying to write their Econ final.