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Between Nudity and Scholarship By Mohammed Abba Sadiq
Whenever the word “half naked” is mentioned, what readily comes to mind is either the stories of the stone age period where people due to lack of clothing used to cover the body with leaves or fun seekers at the beach. If not for the “coma” people in former Gongola State who received the civilization of wearing cloth some years back, man has transformed form the ;animal like” behaviour to a modest way for over two thousand years now. In the 21st century, that characteristic of the “stone-age man” have started resurfacing; but even if it should, why must it be finding its roots in the academic environments where civilization ought to have reach its peak.
Education forms the bedrock for any developed society. It could not be out of place to say that, education is fundamental for any successful living of a person or of a nation; and that is why Government at al levels gives it the high premium. The Doctors, Engineers, lawyers, journalists, Scientists, public administrators and so on that are essential for the growth and well being of any nation are all products of good education. Education is different from literacy or the “so called” westernization” because it is not just about the mere knowledge of how to read and write or to dress western. It includes “good morale” formulation and that is why it is referred to as the best asset anybody can have. And how does one get these? Of course by being to school.
In the educational institutions, it’s been the training of the mind and knowledge all through from the nursery or the kinder garden as the case may be up to tertiary levels, and that is why the certificates attest to one is found worthy but in character and learning. But one thing is now common in the institutions of learning where uniforms are not worn and which has becomes an issue of concern is the form of dressing regarded as “indecent” or rather nudity.
The word “indecent” is subjective, it can see differently by different people in different ways. This is because, what is an obscene to one may not be to others and where one’s thinking stops, some one else’s starts. Even culture may influence one’s definition of the term, but the issue now is not even indecency but nudity. When the various factors come to interplay in ones definition of the former, the later cuts across these parameter.
Some tertiary institutions are now turned by some as jungles sort of a setting where all sort of animal like behaviors are manifested in the name of freedom. In facts, certain forms of dressings particularly amongst the female colleagues cannot be easily described but imagined. Dressing where 80-90% of the body are exposed could not be said to be decent no matter how one believed the natural way. We must not be nude to be educated, wise or civilized. An academic environment where students of different societal, cultural and religious backgrounds are interacting with each other and pursuing the same goal must be decent in all its ramifications. If certain dressings are copied form the movies we watch, theirs is a “stage dressing” and why not ou rs be “academic dressings” so to say.
As measures to check the situation, some universities and other institutions had came up with what is called “Dress code”. The question now is, must we be told how to dress? No! A matured student is expected to know how to appear in public and be identified as one hence the exemption from uniform use if one may say. The code has generated serious debate as to whether it is necessary or people should be left free. Different views were put forward from different quarters on its acceptability or other wise. While some put the blame on the parents, others do not agree. “Charity people say begins at home”, but it does not end there. Our parents never go out half naked, so they never teach their wards such.
Nudity is not peculiar to Nigerians, but the discipline of decency and corporate outing should be copied from us. We all know that different forms of dressings are meant for different purposes and situations. While some are meant for corporate outfit, others are for leisure and these may come under English or Traditional and native dresses. The suites, Shirt Jeans, T. Shirts and the likes take the lead in the former while the later has array of costume depending on the culture of a given society. We also have the National dress.
Certain names are now common descriptions of some dresses use particularly the female colleagues in the tertiary institutions. The likes of the spaghetti, the body hugs. The pedal pushers, flower parts, cropped parts, gypsy tops, hooded gowns, pencil jeans, boob tubes, bell bottom e.t.c can be said to be neither English nor Traditional. If these cannot be used for important occasions like wedding ceremonies, burial ceremonies, Executive meetings and so on, it should not be used to attend class because they signify nothing.
Another argument here is not whether these type of dress tend to make loose the opposite sex or not, because that depends on an individual human tendency. The concern here is the respect for scholarship. As earlier cited, if that types of “nude’ dressings are only used for the purpose they were made like parties, beach outings, theatre shows and the likes, it is preferable, but when it is used in an academic environment, certainly it must be condemned. Therefore there’s the need to draw a line between nudity and scholarship.
MOHAMMED ABBA SADIQ DEPT.OF MASS COMM. UNIVERSITY OF MAIDUGURI PMB 1069. MAIDUGURI BORNO STATE
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