IMMORALITIES AMONG NIGERIAN STUDENTS

By Akande Bukky

Immorality has  become a cankerworm that is eating deeply in our social lives. It has become a day to day practice in many of our youths lives. 

 

Moral decadence  is becoming rampant daily. Before now, decency, especially in dressing, is identified as a vital feature of the culture. Decency in dressing has so much to do with acceptable moral values and qualities of appearance of an individual or group of persons.

A dress is said to be indecent when it is morally offensive; that is, if it exposes the vital parts of the body that aremeant to be covered. As the truism goes, “the way you dress, so you will be addressed.” Like other vices, such as drug abuse, cultism and

prostitution, indecent dressings in our land have become the order of the day.

The “dress to kill” syndrome is rampant among students, particularly the ladies. They dress with the aim of looking extremely sensory, forgetting that they ought to look responsible and radiant.

 Today, ladies deliberately expose sensitive parts of their bodies to draw the attention of the opposite gender. This manner of dressing has been condemned by many right thinking individuals who see it as improper and unacceptable, because it portrays the highest level immorality.

This immorality is not limited but also the larger society. On streets and in public places, it is common to see people almost nude all in the name of modern fashion. Ladies dressing in obscene clothes go about without shame.

 Although, it is not only the ladies who dress indecently today, even men have been going nude.

Sagging of trousers known as “low waist” or “ass down” is the order of the day.

 In addition to wearing of skimpy clothes called fitted, strapless shirts which show  cleavages, they are other kinds of wears, such as short blouses, off- shoulder common among students. These are major problems associated with decency in dressing.

Different reasons have been advanced as to why students dress indecently. These include poor parenting, peer pressure, wrong use of the Internet, fading traditional values as well as demonic influence. The negative implications of indecent dressing, especially among female students are that, they fall victims of rape on campus; they are lured into prostitution by their friends, because of the way they dress.

They are also likely to be influenced to become join bad gangs. All these result to poor academic performance.

It's disgusting , seeing a 13yr old girl being impregnated by her boyfriend. It's nonsensical, seeing a 14yr old girl having a boyfriend.

To address these problems, measures need to be taken by government and the authorities of tertiary institutions by increasingly sensitising and educating students about the dangers associated with immorality and indecent dressing. Staff and students should be given periodic orientation on the need for good moral conducts. They should be educated on what is expected of them and why moral values are required in man’s life.

Although it is of note that some schools have made efforts to reduce the cases of indecent dressing through introduction of dress codes for students.

 Stringent regulations to enforce students’ compliance have been introduced in some schools. These rules are strictly enforced, mandating lecturers send student who do not dress in accordance with the code out of lecture rooms. These efforts are highly commendable. But the fact remains that charity begins at home. 

Akande Bukky is the current Miss Iwoland and also a member of Institute of Readers and Writers