The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Indecent

  • Crude and indecent

    Crying hard, very hard to understand what sounds like nonsense. It just doesn’t make any sense. Yet the speaker spoke with the conviction of the sensible. But it was just senseless.

    Why would a party member believe and argue that the man legally recognised as the party’s National Chairman is nothing but a traitor whose intention is to work towards the fall of the party? Does that make sense? How can that make sense?

    But Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a former Minister of Aviation, insists his strange point of view makes sense.  He does not only insist on the reasonableness of his reasoning; he also insists on the alleged unreasonableness of party members who apparently reason differently.

    What makes the drama more dramatic is Fani-Kayode’s employment of abusive expressions targeted at those who are on the other side.  He said in a statement on February 19: “Those that say that they will work with Ali Modu Sheriff are misguided and naive. Worse still, anyone that calls for members of the PDP to rally behind him and recognise him as our National Chairman is a simpleton and a fool.”

    Fani-Kayode added insult to injury: “I say this because the man is evil: he is an agent of destruction and no good can come out of him. I was the first to see him for what he was and I said so publicly…Sheriff is nothing but a traitor who is biting the fingers that fed him…This is a man whose fundamental purpose and ambition in life is to sell the PDP down the river and to help the ruling APC and the Buhari government to destroy us and win the presidential election in 2019.”

    Additional insults: “Sheriff is the Angel of Death to the PDP. He is worse than the bubonic plague: not only is he a curse to our party but he is also an affliction to our nation.”

    Surely, Fani-Kayode could have made his pointless point without being pointlessly crude and indecent. His conclusion:  ”I stand with Ahmed Makarfi and our Caretaker Committee and unless and until the Supreme Court says so he remains our National Chairman.”

    Since he leaves room for the possibility that the matter might go against his camp at the Supreme Court, it is reasonable to ask: “What will he have to say about the man he has so violently violated if that happens?”

  • Indecent dresses against African values

    Viewed from any angle, Nigerians are perhaps the most fashionable set of people in the world. This is evident in every tribe inhabiting the country, irrespective of social status, religion or gender. The three major tribes, Ibo, Hausa and Yoruba are beautiful to behold in their various traditional attires, not to mention hundreds of other tribes.

    For generations, Nigeria, when it comes to fashion, had always been in the eyes of the world; all the best and expensive materials from all parts of the world are made for us. Lace, silk, Guinea brocade, damask, voile, just name it. This is really obvious from the large volumes of imported materials sold in the country. And so, the instinct of looking good, for centuries, had been passed down from generations to generations. Nigerian parties, especially where the celebrating families are wealthy, are carnivals of sorts. In fact, in places of worship where uniforms are not stipulated, one would see an average Nigerian in his or her local attire. Besides, Nigerian campuses are also not left out of this.

    Fast forward to the 21st century and we could ask ourselves what we did wrong. Nigerian campuses today are the picture of what the society has become. To be deemed fashionable and “in town” now on our campuses, one would have to sacrifice one’s morality, especially for female undergraduates. There have been numerous cases whereby parents visit their wards unexpectedly on campus and find them quite different from the person they raised at home.

    For female undergraduates to be trendy and win the coveted “most fashionable diva on campus”, they must dare the impossible. The more provocative, daring and skimpy their clothes are, the more their social status rises. For the guys nowadays, you just have to slim-fit and sag those trousers of yours and wear expensive shirts and jewelry.

    Therefore, it is not surprising anymore to find skimpy shorts and cleavage-revealing dresses on young female undergraduates. The guys now compete with the ladies wearing earrings and slim-fitted trousers. Though most universities, especially private ones, are trying to clamp down on extreme fashion on their campuses by stipulating dress codes for departments and schools, the battle is yet to be won especially after lecture hours, when students are free to dress as they wish. This trend of obscene fashion has made some female students victims of harassment from randy lecturers and other male students. Most times, most ladies who suffer harassment are the ones who dress indecently.

    Conclusively, my advice to parents is that, apart from grooming their wards at home, they should endeavour to visit them in school regularly and to also speak to some of their lecturers to assess their behaviour and performance, so as to reduce the influence of peer pressure.

     

    John, 200-Level Business Administration, AAUA

  • Pro-Jonathan TAN rallies indecent, says APC

    Pro-Jonathan TAN rallies indecent, says APC

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has insisted that the rallies held across the country by the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) represent an assault on the intelligence and sensibilities of Nigerians, at a time of insecurity and health challenges.

    Responding to the defence of the rallies, the party said in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Lagos yesterday that no amount of inversion of reasoning by the TAN foot soldiers could wash them (the rallies) clean of shame and disgust.

    It said only those described as ‘morons and sycophants’ by Prof. Wole Soyinka could engage in celebratory rallies when soldiers were dying on the Boko Haram battle front, when citizens were daily being sent to their graves by insurgents and when the country was still reeling from the challenge of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), which had killed many people.

    APC wondered how the inauguration of its regional executives in Sokoto could be equated with the rallies being held across the country by TAN, which was another name for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), another name for shame, incompetence, cluelessness, cruelty, insincerity and insensitivity.

    The party said if President Goodluck Jonathan had not been running a government hallmarked by impunity, there was no way any party would have begun campaign under the guise of a non-government organisation (NGO) coordinated by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, ministers, governors and other public officials.

    “The PDP-led Federal Government and its ‘NGO’ called TAN are bare-faced liars and cheats. They have seized an undue advantage over every other party by defying the nation’s laws to start an early campaign, and no one, not even the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), dares call them to order! Little wonder, their podiums are collapsing under the weight of their lies,” it said.

    APC slammed TAN’s self-serving Director of Communications, Mr. Udenta Udenta, for attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of Nigerians by justifying the rallies.

    “We have the following posers for the deceptive and pigs-at-the trough TAN organisers: If Mr. Udenta and his co- travellers were parents, relations or friends of any of the over 200 missing Chibok schoolgirls, wouldn’t such TAN rallies offend their sensibilities? If Udenta or any of his co-travellers in TAN had lost a relation or dear one to EVD in Port Harcourt, wouldn’t such a rally in the same city about the same time offend their sensibilities? Can  Udenta tell Nigerians the source of funding of TAN? Can Udenta tell Nigerians how much TAN has spent so far in canvassing  Jonathan’s re-election or for that matter how much it spends daily on radio jingles, television and newspapers adverts, billboards, etc? Can Udenta tender to the public TAN’s audited account?

    “We know Udenta has no answers to these posers, but we have no iota of doubt that Nigerians know that TAN is funded and powered by the massive corruption of this government, including but not limited to the missing $20 billion, the over $1trillion fuel subsidy scam, the kerosene subsidy scam, the hundreds of thousands of barrels of our crude oil being stolen daily, the pension scam, the Malibu Oil scandal, etc. We also know through which top functionaries of government funds are funnelled to TAN,” the party said.

    APC said it would not stop calling for an end to the TAN rallies until common sense prevailed and the President, who waited for an international condemnation of his #BringBackJonathan hash tag before taking action, was again forced to call his selfish sycophants to order.

    “Our soldiers are combating Boko Haram literally with their bare hands and under the most intolerable conditions and our government is partying around town. As we write, a war plane has been declared missing in the battle zone and our government is celebrating. Clearly, if a fraction of the funds TAN has been expending in its multi-billion naira adverts on radio, television, newspapers, billboards, online and on London buses, not to talk of the mobilisation for rallies, can be made available to our soldiers, Boko Haram would have long been forgotten.

    “These times call for deep reflection and not for deep throats. These times call for cool-headed and decent men and women to realise that a nation at war cannot be celebrating, because it sends a wrong message to the men and women deployed in the battle zone to protect our nation. This is not about politics, this is about common sense, sensibilities and decency,” the party said.

     

  • Council warns against indecent waste disposal

    The Head of Environmental Department (HOD) in Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr. Abdulkarim Abdulrazaq, has blamed the improper disposal of waste and refuse in some parts of the council on the nonchalant attitude by some residents who do not care about their health.

    Abdulrazaq, who revealed in Kuje while speaking with reporters said despite the department’s effort in evacuating and keeping the environment clean, some residents do not comply with the sanitation rules and regulations.

    According to him, the leadership of the council is also trying its best in terms of creating awareness on proper waste disposal.

    He further explained that mobile court sitting in Kuje has convicted about 13 offenders of sanitation rules and regulations in the area, emphasising that sanitation exercise should be a matter of necessity which should be observed on a daily basis in every home.

    He warned residents against open defecation and non-provision of toilet facilities by some landlords in the area.

    “Landlords who build houses without toilet facilities have been warned to provide such facility, failure of which will result in prosecuting them. I advise residents to stop dumping refuse in gutters. They should join hands with the administration in the development of the area council,” he said.

  • APC to Jonathan: exchange with Obasanjo is indecent

    APC to Jonathan: exchange with Obasanjo is indecent

    There seems to be no end to the controversy sparked by the exchange of letters between President Goodluck Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    The opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) joined the row again yesterday, saying Dr. Jonathan’s response to Obasanjo’s letter is indecent and has diminished the Presidency.

    The party said the president would have merely explained its position on the issues raised in Obasanjo’s letter rather than a resort to tantrum throwing.

    Also yesterday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said it could not intervene in the matter because it is not a party affair.

    Obasanjo wrote an 18-page letter titled “Before it is too late” and dated December 2 to the President, accusing him of some failings.

    He also alleged that snipers were being trained and 1,000 Nigerians had been placed on a watch list ahead of the 2015 election.

    Obasanjo said Jonathan told the PDP prior to his nomination to run in 2011 that he would do only one term. He said his 2015 ambition would be “fatally wrong”.

    The President denied Obasanjo’s claims. He also challenged him to prove them.

    The President has referred Obasanjo’s letter to the National Human Rights Commission to probe some aspects of it. The letter is also believed to have been referred to security agencies.

    Dr. Jonathan, in church on Christmas Day, also challenged Obasanjo to be statesmanly, adding: “Nigeria does not belong to any politician or a group of politicians… For us at this time, especially we politicians, that we think we own this country to think about next election, and doing what we ought not to do, making statements we ought not to make, writing letter we are not supposed to write.”

    In a statement yesterday, APC National Publicity Secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed said: “Dr. Jonathan’s decision to engage former President Obasanjo in a hot exchange of words in what may now be described as ‘lettergate’ is the latest in a series of scandals to hit the Jonathan Presidency.”

    The party said while it was not interested in joining the fray over the issues contained in the letters written by both men, the decision by the President to go personal in his reaction crossed the threshold of decency and brought the Presidency – and indeed the country – into disrepute.”

    The APC said in other climes, the President would have simply issued a terse response to such a letter, denying the allegations that border on national security, if any; as well as saying the former President’s observations have been noted, and that the government would study them and then engage with the former President in private while assuring that the ship of state is on course.

    ‘’Instead, the President’s response read like the stuff of gossip magazines, and the exchange of words felt like what one would have expected in a beer parlour. At the end of the day, the Presidency allowed Obasanjo to take the higher moral ground by simply insisting on the allegations he made in his letter and saying he would not respond to the Presidency’s reply.

    ‘’The President, who accused Obasanjo of doing him a great injustice, has himself done a great injustice to the Presidency, which is an institution in which he is only a tenant. In the end, the President of Africa’s most populous nation, the leader of the foremost black nation on earth and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria simply desecrated his own Presidency and allowed those who can only be likened to gravy train passengers, rascals and knaves to seize the initiative from him.”

    The APC added: ‘’This is what happens when a President is surrounded by self-serving, boot-licking and dishonest people, at the expense of seasoned technocrats and veteran policymakers, who would have reminded the President that while critics can afford to fire all sorts of darts at him, as the custodian of the Presidency at this point in time, he cannot afford to respond in kind because, in doing so, he would be debasing the presidency as an institution.’’

    The party said the President was not unaware of this because he struggled in his letter to maintain some minimum level of decorum, and then quickly lost control and engaged in a “bare-knuckle fight”.

    ‘’The President himself knows that he ought not to have engaged in such exchange when he wrote early on in his letter: ‘It is with the greatest possible reluctance that I now write this reply. I am most uneasy about embarking on this unprecedented and unconventional form of open communication between me and a former leader of our country because I know that there are more acceptable and dignified means of doing so’.

    The APC went on: ‘’However, he quickly jettisoned such reluctance and, in an unfortunate debasement of the tone and quality of statecraft, went full blast, calling the former president a liar, a conflict instigator and an unreliable ally, among other inferred derogatory labels that may have now shut the window to reconciliation between him and his political Godfather, in addition to portraying Nigerian leaders as delinquents.

    ‘’To worsen matters, President Jonathan could not restrain himself from using even the revered and ecclesial platform provided by his appearance at a church service on Christmas Day to further lambast his critics and spew out hot words. This, surely, is not what is expected of a President, a leader and anyone who wants to be a nation builder. It is time to call a truce!’’

  • Indecent clothes and the youth

    Dress the way you want to be addressed is a popular saying, which is being used to remind people to dress responsibly. As human civilisation evolves through ages, things change in the way we conduct our affairs and express our liberty. The present western civilisation guarantees freedom for all humans, who espouse it. But some have taken the freedom too far.

    In most tertiary institutions today, students are going wild in the way they dress to lecture rooms. Skimpy dresses and sagging are common sights in higher institutions. Students see unAfrican dresses as glamour and style. For female students, the notion is that skimpy dresses make them to look attractive to the opposite sex. For boys, sagging is to show their colleagues that they are current with western fashion code.

    It is quite unfortunate that these young ladies and boys who indulge in this act of indecent dressing fail to realise that it does not add to their beauty neither does it make them look attractive to the opposite sex.

    By dressing shabbily, they have lost their Africaness.

    Fashion, being one of the most fascinating areas of human endeavour, can it be said that its designers and customers are bringing the rest of the world to embrace the western code of dressing? Or are they consciously seeking to return the world to the age when nudity was the order of the day?

    In Africa, people have the belief human society must be governed by decency; every African parent, especially mothers want their kids to be well-behaved and grow up in a morally sound and responsible society. But to what can we attribute the growing trend of skimpy dress in our society? A drift towards immorality and promiscuity?

    It is sad to note that our streets and campuses have been turned into porn-viewing cinemas by misfits whose mode of dressing has brought disgrace to our society. Many parents even help their children to dress indecently and allow them to go to the public half-naked. The most poignant thing to note here is that some parents buy bad clothes for their children.

    This is purely cultural imperialism because our brains have been overwhelmed by western culture. In this regards, the mass media is culpable in spreading the offensive approach to dressing.

    Fashion can help improve appearance and boost self-confidence. The right outfit can help to minimise some physical flaws and enhance beauty. It can also help change how one is addressed by others.

    However, many ladies want to follow the crowd to be in vogue without critically establishing their reasons for dressing shabbily. This is why most ladies that are supposed to be the pride of womanhood walk half-naked on the streets.

    To stem the growing tide of indecent dressing on campus, managements of tertiary institution have established committees to check the act and penalise offenders. Many students have been caught and expelled in various schools.

    Exposure of the body is likened to an advert placement, a notice telling people of the availability of products. Cases of sexual harassment and rape are often traced to the exposure of sensitive body parts. The consequences of indecent dressing are obvious: it debases human beings; it increases crime in the society and attracts insults to the dresser.

    My advice to the youth is that we must return to our African root. We must wear clothes that suit our body and not clothes that look good to our friends. If we dress to expose our sensitive body parts, we would have exposed ourselves to ridicule and embarrassment.

    We have failed to realise that what we see as unfashionable in African dressing style has distinguished our forebears and made our culture to endure through centuries. Generations before us had this inclination to dress nude but we should not forget the curse placed on them in the scripture.

    The government should not wait till rape and sexual assault become the order of the day. The Federal Ministry of Culture and National Orientation should embark on campaign against immodest dressing and show the citizens how such undertaking can be dangerous to our vision and intention as a nation.

     

    Seth, HND II Mass Comm., BIDA POLY