President’s dress code and state visits

[TheNation]

 SIR: It is disgusting to see President Goodluck Jonathan dramatise his ethnic group’s attire (tagged resource control) while attending international events and visits to head of states of international communities. If he can put on the attire of an ethnic group while on a tour of the state(s) to impress them, what prevents him from putting on well tailored suit while on state visits to heads of states or attending events outside the country? It really looks awkward to see the President in his ethnic attire in the presence of white men clad in well fitting or designer’s suits. When the President of South Africa Mr. Jacob Zuma who always puts on suit like every other African head of state, received our President, he was in suit. Why could not our president dress like the minister of foreign affairs, Olugbenga Ashiru who is always in suit and appears smart and elegant? This is how our president should be dressing; he can put on his ethnic attire on his visits to south- south geo- political zone.

President Goodluck Jonathan is not the only president that indulged in this apparent self delusion of dramatizing religious and ethnic dress code as past civilian presidents did so. The fact is that enlightened Nigerians with balanced mind do not like the delusion of competition in dramatizing ethnic attires. Realistically, no one is against any body in an apparent covenant with his ethnic cum religious attire to dress as such but let our elected public officials dress in suit while attending international events. Suit is inarguably a world wide recognized and admired dress code as it allows one to handle office work without distraction which Agbada, Babariga and caftan do. Suit is elegant and it matches every climatic condition in the world, and it is the best dress code believe it or not. Nigerian political functionaries should stop this delusion of show casing the so called ethnic and religious dress code after all Moslems in other countries dress in suit, shirt and tie.

No country has ever admired and copied the so called Nigeria and if people are very much excited over their ethnic and religious attire, let their ethnic and religious groups manufacture the sewing machines and other materials that go into the production of the attires. In other words, there ought to be ethnic and religious sewing machines, ethnic and religious shoes, ethnic and wrist watches, ethnic and religious eye glass etc. Why import the white man’s scientific and technological products to sew the supposed religious and ethnic attire? This fatalistic illusion should stop. News casters in the NTA should be allowed to dress in suit, long sleeve shirt with a tie like their counterparts in the private television stations, in addition to allowing spinsters to be news casters. The management of state government television stations have sheepishly keyed into this naïve practice. Television station is not a medium to dramatize ethnic and religious values, it is a scientific invention and must be used to propagate scientific and technological inventions and internationally accepted values. Our children should be saved from the bondage of ethnic and religious value system. It is a mark of primitive mindset to accord unwarranted priority to cultural and religious value system which has been the bane of socio-economic and political growth and development in Nigeria .

 

• Polycarp Onwubiko

Awka, Anambra State



TheNation