Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Outputs, Not Outfits: Why Nigerian Unis must stop policing looks and start enabling ideas

For a split second, I thought this writer would spare a second to acknowledge the imperative need for the censorship of our budding youths population in the Tertiary Institutions. It is unbelievable that the writer should contextualise two non compatible issues to push this "outputs......" theory.

There have been many instances where and when parents visited their children and or wards in the Universities for supervisory or social visits. Their reactions, in most cases ranged from a descent into outright tirades and physical beating of their children who are insanely dressed in weird fashions and which they never saw with them at home even while on semester breaks. 

In other words, parents have become so alarmed at the unfettered freedom being condoned in our University settings. Their impressions range from tagging Universities or Tertiary Institutions as uncoordinated and as concerned with academic works devoid of any value orientation etc.

If a University of the OAU calibre begins to roll out strict dress codes, it is not because the Administration is just waking up to its responsibilities. It is because the Administration is NOW overwhelmed with a generation of Students, whose implacable notoriety and unwillingness to comply with simple rules of decency have reached a crescendo.

As Alumni members of our Universities, we must be seen to be sustaining the much touted legacies. In those days, a mere sight or sighting of a lecturer or lecturers scared students. These days, students compete with lecturers for walking spaces on corridors, beat up any lecturer who interrupts a tik tok session on his way to lecture rooms. Unfortunately,  Lecturers are also subjected to open and social media bullying and judgements on so many unfathomable cases of irascibility among Students.

Sir, our students have aspired to turn our University environment into picnics, carnivals and many other imaginable scenarios as depicted by various styles of indescribable dress and fashion styles. 

Kindly join us to sanitize our Universities. 

Interestingly, serious Nigerian University students, who are in the majority,  are not doing badly in academic engagements and competitions globally.

The issue of transcripts and results was at a low point in some Universities at a time. Today, the situation has improved remarkably. Students who attend convocation ceremonies now go home with their certificates. Once certificates are issued, transcripts are just printed upon requests as all results are already automated. We cannot shy away from the rot in our Universities owing to gross underfunding. Even though it is not yet uhuru, the infrastructure, welfare and Autonomy have improved remarkably. This owes largely to the struggles of ASUU that brought in massive intervention funds, a rejuvenated TETFUND and more dedication from Teachers in all cadres.

One sad development with TETFUND is the rate at which Graduate students in many fields of study abscond in violation of their bonds of scholarship. Recently, the Executive Secretary of TETFUND lamented cases in which medical students absconded with hundreds of millions of naira in scholarship funds. The second problem is the trickling interests of many academics to access the millions of naira in research grants sitting at TETFUND.

 In my conclusion, Nigerian Universities have reached a globally acknowledged level of innovation, discovery and developments in many core disciplines. With the Entrepreneural Departments and Units in all Universities and with renewed vigour,  Nigerian academics and our Students are no longer in the woods painted by this respected writer.

SIKIRU ENIOLA, PhD

Islamic Studies, with specialisation in Islamic Jurisprudence. 

Assoc Prof (On a Visiting Appointment)  Dept of Religion and African Culture,

Adekunle Ajasin University, 

Akungba Akoko, Nigeria.

On Tue, 29 Jul 2025, 11:35 am Ibrahim Abdullah, <ibdullah@gmail.com> wrote:

Unbelievable! 

On Tue, 29 Jul 2025 at 10:03 AM, John Onyeukwu <john.onyeukwu@gmail.com> wrote:

Outputs, Not Outfits

Why Nigerian universities must stop policing looks and start enabling ideas.

John Onyeukwu

(Published in Business AM Newspaper of Tuesday July 29, 2025.)

The recent controversy surrounding the leaked dress code memo from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), my alma mater, is more than a fleeting campus drama. It is a sobering reflection of misplaced priorities in Nigeria's higher education system. That such a document could propose rustication for "tight trousers," "coloured hair," or even "hugging" should alarm any serious observer of Nigeria's education crisis.

While the university has rightly denied that the circulating memo represents official policy, the fact that such authoritarian impulses could be contemplated, let alone drafted, is indicative of a deeper rot in our institutional thinking. As a proud product of OAU, I speak not in disdain, but in disappointment, for a system that taught me to think but now appears obsessed with regulating how students dress, not how they think.

Universities exist to cultivate critical minds, not compliant bodies. Academic freedom is not an indulgence; it is the very oxygen of learning and progress. In the Nigeria of today, where creativity, bold thinking, and entrepreneurial resilience are our last hope, the university should be the engine room of innovation, not conformity.

When a young woman risks suspension for wearing a sleeveless top, or a young man faces rustication for dreadlocks, we must ask: what is the philosophy guiding these institutions? It cannot be the philosophy of progress. It certainly is not the one that raised Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, or the many brilliant Nigerians shaping the world from Silicon Valley to the United Nations. Dress codes do not produce integrity. Obedience to rules does not equate to critical reasoning. Our youth need mentoring, not moral surveillance.

We all know that dress codes in Nigerian universities often have little to do with decency and much to do with disciplinary control. They are part of a larger authoritarian tradition where administrative overreach is normalized and students are treated as subjects, not citizens.

What makes this more infuriating is that these same universities often fail to meet the most basic expectations of governance. Consider this: it can take six months to a year, or more, for a Nigerian graduate to receive an academic transcript. Some are forced to travel in person to their alma mater, only to be frustrated by manual files, uncooperative staff, and opaque processes. For many, postgraduate admissions or job offers hang in the balance.

Why is it easier to draft punitive dress codes than to automate transcript systems?

It is baffling that a university that cannot send a transcript on time somehow has the institutional energy to enforce punishments for hugging, kissing, or sagging jeans. What kind of leadership is this, which prioritizes superficial discipline over operational efficiency?

Nigeria's future depends on the ability of young people to imagine, design, build, and disrupt. The tech hubs in Yaba and Abuja, the creative arts scenes in Lagos and Port Harcourt, the rising tide of startups and digital freelancers, none of this flourished because someone was forced to wear a tie or abandon colored braids.

To criminalize youth expression is to criminalize the very engine of the future economy. And to tie institutional prestige to a false sense of moral control is to remain stagnant while the world races ahead. Our universities must be laboratories of innovation, not sanctuaries of outdated norms. They must produce thinkers, not conformists.

There is nothing wrong with promoting standards. Professional faculties can require dress codes for clinicals, engineering labs, or legal moots, based on function, not morality. But these standards must be co-developed with students, clearly defined, and implemented without gender bias or authoritarian overreach.

And if universities are truly concerned with image and discipline, let them start by fixing the bottlenecks in transcript processing, digitizing records, eliminating delays, and treating students with the dignity they deserve. That would speak louder about their values than any dress code ever could.

As a graduate of OAU, I carry its legacy with pride. But legacy is not a monument; it must be renewed in practice. If we are to build the Nigeria we deserve, our universities must lead by enabling freedom, not by curating fear.

The leaked dress code memo, denied though it was, should be a wake-up call. It is time for our universities to stop moralizing youth expression and start mobilizing youth potential. Because no nation was ever transformed by the straightness of its trousers, but many were saved by the boldness of their minds.

john@apexlegal.com.ng 

John Onyeukwu
http://www.policy.hu/onyeukwu/

 http://about.me/onyeukwu
"Let us move forward to fight poverty, to establish equity, and assure peace for the next generation."
-- James D. Wolfensohn
This message contains information which may be confidential and privileged. Unless you are the addressee (or authorized to receive for the addressee), you may not use, copy or disclose to anyone the message or any information contained in the message. If you have received the message in error, please advise the sender by reply e-mail, and delete or destroy the message. Thank you.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CABsbg_Jt%3DjeWH5uQkyr3BBtA48N9xaOTm6hg-nQHO5%3Dn10rVdA%40mail.gmail.com.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAAtmTC_bBTb19m1MiSSJO_vBUPAsaZPwrZxgJsJrs9Kn%3DwvkjQ%40mail.gmail.com.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAHqryX3Y0SLEJ%2BNU7N7HO7vyfLZsqE4nhuifjAPtVhDiKu3u6A%40mail.gmail.com.