Decency in dressing is known to be a vital
aspect of African, as well as Nigerian
culture. Decency in dressing has so much
to do with the acceptable moral values and
qualities of appearance of an individual or
groups of persons. A dress is said to be
indecent when it is morally or sexually
offensive, or when such dress exposes
some parts of the body that are meant to be
covered. Egwim (2010) referred to indecent
dressing in a more specific term as “the
attitude of someone, male or female that
dresses to showoff parts of the body such
as the breasts, buttocks or even the
underwear particularly those of the ladies
that need to be covered.”
Like other social vices such as drug abuse,
cultism and prostitution, indecent dressing
has become a major moral misconduct
among students of Nigerian tertiary
institutions. Indecent or crazy dressing, also
known as “dress to kill” is rampant among
universities, polytechnics and college of
education students, particularly the female
ones; all in the name of wanting to look
“sexy,” “sensuous,” “tantalizing” and
“stimulating,” forgetting that they ought to
look responsible and sleek.
They deliberately expose some sensitive
parts of their body to draw the attention of
the opposite sex. This pattern of dress has
been condemned by many right-thinking
individuals and has been termed as
“improper and unacceptable” because it
portrays the high rate of moral decadence in
the society.
Today, our society is experiencing decline in
morality. This decline is not only limited to
campuses of Nigerian tertiary institutions,
but the society at large. Along the streets, in
the houses or in higher institutions, it is
very common to see people go almost nude
all in the name of modern fashion. Youths
are fond of dressing half-naked in public,
displaying their private parts to attract the
attention of the opposite sex. Aside wearing
short skirts, female students display their
boobs as a cheap means of getting
attention.
As Richard (1980) observes, “they parade
themselves without any life of shame as
they expose the vital organs of their
physical frame of lookery. It is not only the
ladies who dress indecently today in our
place, as even boys do.”
Wearing of skimpy clothes, also known as
“fitted,” strapless and short blouses and
sagging of trousers – “low waist” or “ass
down,” by boys and even girls, cleavages
and sleeveless shirts, also known as
“spaghetti or off-shoulder,” are the major
moral problems associated with decency in
dressing faced in tertiary institution today.
Apart from the skimpy and tight fitting
nature of these dresses, they are again
transparent; revealing certain parts of the
bodies that under normal dressing patterns
ought to be hidden away from the glare of
people. Ironically, these are the renowned
modern fashion trends among students
nowadays.
Students dress indecently for reasons such
as poor parenting, peer pressure, wrong use
of the Internet, fading values as well as
demonic influence among others. The
negative sides of indecent dressing are that
many of these students become victims of
rape on campus; they are lured into
prostitution by peers because of the way
they dress.
Subsequently, they are tempted and
influenced to become members of one cult
group or the other and these result to poor
academic performance.
In order to curb indecent dressing on
Nigerian campuses, very practical initiatives
must be embarked upon to educate the
student populace about the potential
dangers associated with it. The efforts of
many tertiary institutions to reduce these
immoralities in Nigerian campuses are
highly commendable. Today, dress codes
and strict rule enforcing compliance of
students have been introduced in colleges of
education, polytechnics and universities
across the country in order to reduce
indecency in campus.
Dress codes can be properly enforced on
campuses through the collective efforts of
management, staff and security personnel of
tertiary institutions. As Omede Jacob of the
Department of Educational Psychology at the
Kogi State College of Education, Ankpa
noted in 2011, “Some colleges and
universities in Nigeria have variously
introduced dress codes for their students.
The problem is not just in making the rules
but in their enforcement.
For these rules to be enforced, lecturers
should be made to collaborate with the
college or university management staff and
their security personnel. Lecturers are to be
empowered to prevent indecently dressed
students from attending their lectures,
refuse to attend to such students in their
areas of needs. The administrative staff
should disallow such students from their
offices while the security staff should serve
as watchdogs. They should be allowed to
open a record in their office for immodestly
dressed students and forward such names
particularly those who are not first offenders
to the disciplinary committee of the college
or university for appropriate sanction that
the code must have spelt out.”
To further complement the efforts of the
management of tertiary institution in
reducing the widespread of immorality on
Nigerian campuses, the following measure
needs to be taken: parents should be good
moral exemplars to their children, give them
attention and regulate the films they watch
at homes. Through home videos, satellites
and other media agents, wrong values,
fashions (modern, modest and immodest)
are traded across cultures and nations.
As agents of socialization, the mass media
must promote good moral values. The
display of indecently dressed young girls
(nudity) in advertisement and promotion
should be discouraged. Radio and television
programmes that promote moral values and
the sanctity of sex should always be
transmitted.
There is also the need to regulate the use of
Internet especially among youth, because
majority of the youths are exposes to
different kinds of immoral activities on the
Internet through pornographic videos,
advertisements, fashion parades and music.
Religious leaders must preach against
immorality in the society, counsel and
deliver those under demonic influence.
In addition, there is the need for general
orientation of staff and students on the need
for good moral conduct. Students and
members of staff should be educated on
what is expected of them and why they are
expected. These are required to ensure that
lecturers/staff do not get used to values that
are unduly antisocial as they become older
in the institutions.
Written by Ahmad Muhammad Auwal (400-
level, Mass Comm. student of NSUK)
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