CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND STUDY
Education is one of the greatest investments any nation makes to assure her future in terms of economic, socio-cultural and political development. Its importance in translating the future of great nations cannot be overemphasized. That is why every government in our contemporary world makes it a fundamental obligation to provide education for its citizens. The Longman Dictionary defines Education as “the result of the teaching or the training of mind and character” Education apart from inculcating knowledge is also aimed at formulation of character. Education is the formulation of the human person in view of the person‟s final end and the dignity of the society. Education at all levels seeks to draw out the good potential in people, to replace error with truth, ignorance and incompetence with knowledge and competence. Furthermore, education leads to wisdom and discipline which constitute the foundation of human happiness. Education all over the world is expected to produce effective, honest and disciplined citizens.
However, discipline which is the hallmark of our educational system before could be said to be at its lowest ebb in many of our educational institutions today. Students Indiscipline manifest itself in different forms such as dishonesty, lack of respect and consideration for elders and constituted authority, rudeness, absenteeism, lateness to class, examination malpractices, drunkenness, drug abuse, sexual immorality, cultism among others. Indecent appearance has come to characterize the dress pattern of many students on the campuses of higher learning in Nigeria. There is hardly any higher institution of learning in this country that is not faced with this nauseating problem. The way students on these campuses of learning particularly, the female ones, dress seductively leaves much to be desired. What the girls call skirts that they wear is just “one inch” longer than their pants. When they put on such dresses, they struggle to sit down, find difficulty in climbing machines, cross gutters as well as pick anything from the ground. 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. Indecent dressing is a social problem in the society but it is common among our youths. Dressing has lost most of its values in our society. Certain styles of dressing are now a serious threat to our societal cultural values. The menace of indecent dressing is gradually becoming a norm and that which African society is known for, is gradually fading away. It is now becoming a custom that some people do not see anything wrong in dressing seductively. Some forms of indecent dressing are products of modeling top movie stars.
Sometimes, these movie stars dress to complement the parts they play in a movie. As it is today, our girls are known for putting on very short skirts, towel-like linens which barely covered their breasts, leaving the rest of the body untended. Most people put on scandal dresses like sagging, trousers, show-breast and show-belly. In the case of boys, their pattern of dress is different. It makes them to look so dirty and very unattractive with unkempt hairs and dirty jeans having pockets of holes deliberately created around the knees and the lower part of the trousers allowed to flow on the ground because they go through their heals into their legs as socks. The waist of their trousers are lowered and fastened tightly at the middle of the two bottom lobes to reveal their boxers (pants). And when they are walking, they drag their legs and one of their hands particularly, the le one, cupping their invisible scrotum as if they will fall to the ground if not supported. Many of them because of how they dressed had at one time or the other become victims of rape, lured into prostitution, used for ritual purpose, unable to complete their education or training and also engaged in other ancillary social and moral problems like cultism and lying to mention these few. Although, there are no universally acceptable way or ways of dressing, dresses are meant to serve some definable purposes, country or region notwithstanding. They are part of a peoples’ culture and they define their tribal or ethnic identity. Therefore, this study focuses on the attitude and perception of students towards indecent dressing and security harassment, using university of Abuja as a case study.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In recent times, the rate at which indecent dressing is been perpetuated, especially among the female students of the university of Abuja was at an alarming rate. This was so, despite the laid down rules that not only forbids indecent dressing in the university, but also stipulated punishments for offenders Indecent dressing boils to high rates of promiscuity and immoral behaviours. Women have sold their womanhood by exposing their womanhood parts of the body like breasts and buttocks. They are no longer handled with care. They do expose them at random. Indecent dressing becomes obvious through increase of pornography in magazine as Sorensen [2003] states “this is explaining the concept that indecent dressing has turned into an advert slogan”. The youths are always influenced by pornography because they develop desire and need to practice and experience whatever they see in the newspaper, videos, magazines, Televisions and so on. Indecent dressing is the deliberate exposure of one’s body to the public. It is dressing in a way that is likely to shock or offend people.
Orakwelu (2012) collaborates that: Indecent dressing is the act that is against the morality or ethics of a given society, organization or group. In our society any dressing that exposes the nakedness (sensitive parts) of any person is considered indecent. This exposure can be by putting on transparent wears, exposure of breast, navel, Tommy, heap etc. This act is provoking and could trigger some immodest sexual advancement that could lead to assault and rape. Efforts were made by the security officers and staff of Student Affairs Office to enforce the Dressing Code as stated in the Student Handbook. However, most times there has been strong resentment on the part of the erring students which often degenerated into disagreement between these officers and the students. Theses problems make it glaring that there is a need to carry out a study on the attitude and perception of students towards indecent dressing and security harassment.
