Suit And Moslem Bias In Spinsters Dress Code For NTA News Casters By Polycarp Onwubiko

                     

It was a big surprise for the rationally and civilized minded Nigerians when they unexpectedly beheld news casters in the NTA network news at 9pm appearing on suit.

Suit, shirt and tie is unarguably the world acclaimed best mode of dressing but sadly it is scarcely observed among the NTA staff reporters and programme presenters. What television viewers have been accustomed to has been the voluptuous and conservative dress code in the naïve posturing of show casing the supposed rich cultural cum religious attire with cap of three Nigerian ethnic groups and Moslem religion, “hijab”.

Having been utterly disgusted with the ethnic and religious bias in the NTA management directive on news casters dress code which was sheepishly copied hook, line and sinker by state governments and privately owned television stations, this writer wrote an article on the uncivilized state of affairs in 2013 and followed it with petitions to the Director General of the NTA, Minister of Information and President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. In the petitions, I robustly contended that there is a clear and subtle ethnic and religious bias in the dress code of news casters in the NTA. Firstly, the country does not have only three ethnic groups namely: Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba; and only Moslem religion. The practice was no doubt the covert directive of the Northerners who were in the military regimes. It has not been hidden that their dream has all along been to impose its decadent and anti-civilized ethno-religions value systems on the rest of Nigerians. During the infamous autocratic and ruthless regime of General Sani Abacha, it was almost a taboo for anybody going into the Aso Rock or the public servants in Abuja to put on suit, shirt, tie other than babaringa, caftan or agabda, with cap.

The naïve and deceptive impression was that babaringa and caftan with cap are the officially approved Nigeria’s dress code. Consequently, the only way to impress it on Nigerians and corrupt the impressionable mind of children was to direct the management of the NTA to make a rule that compelled news casters, reporters and programme presenters to be putting on the so called rich cultural dresses of the three ethnic groups – Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba. Again, female news casters of Moslem religion proudly show case Moslem religious dress code called “Hijab”; while unmarried female Christians and other ethnic groups are compelled to dress like married women.

This brazen assault on the traditional dress code of other ethnic groups and Christian religion has gone unchallenged due to ethno-religious intimidation of the northerners. Apart from moslem religion which has one dress code for the females, other ethnic groups and Christian religion do not approve of an unmarried lady putting on wrapper, blouse and head-tie. Ladies put on skirt with or without head tie; and of course a married woman is at liberty to put skirt with or without head tie or other modern dresses made by the dynamic and creative fashion designers.

In the naïve and silly rule in the NTA which was thoughtlessly copied by states and even privately owned television stations, ladies are compelled to put on the attire of married women when reading news while males put on cap with all kinds of primitive looking attire with funny cap which make the male newscasters look archaic and old; all in the name of showcasing cultural attire. It is pertinent to stress that cap is not indigenous in all the ethnic groups in Nigeria. Also, Holy Bible enjoins Christians not to put on cap in the worship centres. Rarely one sees men in the southern part of the country putting on cap in public places like market, weddings, funeral ceremonies, rallies etc. It is only in the northern part of the country that cap is deified and regarded as a deity, sacrosanct and an inevitable component of a dress code; and they want to impose the conservative and quixotic preference on all Nigerians. During the military regime when the national football team was travelling abroad, they were compelled to put on caftan with cap as if it is national dress code cherish by all ethnic groups in the country. The question remains: must all Nigerians be wearing cap? I am glad that such brazen religious intimidation has been rebuffed. I am happy that my campaign in the media and petitions has compelled the NTA to allow news casters in the 9 pm news network to be intermingling other attires with suit. I had argued in the petition that it is naïve to leave the impression that suit, tie and shirt is a white man’s dress code. I contended that if over ninety percent of the television news room is the ingenuity of the white man, it is stupid to throw away their dress code and prescribe wobbling and sometimes rubbish dress and cap of some ethnic groups for the news casters. The Minister of Information had feebly defended the discriminatory rule on dress code in the NTA in his reply to my letter but my counter position might have led to the change. There is no text book in mass communication that prescribes trado-cum ethno-religious dress code for television newscasters and programme presenters. The bureau chief of Lagos NTA and others should be intermingling traditional cum cultural dress code with suit.

In Aba, the tailors make suit and shirt comparable to the imported ones in contrast to the contention of the Minister that traditional save the country its foreign reserve. Other creative fashion designs are equally good for newscasters without wearing or head-tie. The so called trado cum ethno-religious attires do not embrace innovation because it is the same style of dress won in the hoary past like 1920 and 40s, which is being put on today. This is not obtainable in civilized countries of the world, even in South Africa whose presidents and public office holders regard suit as official and national dress code. Coat, shirt, tie and trouser (suit) have gone through modifications due to creative minds and dynamics of civilization. Suit is unarguably the best form of dress for civilized mankind in the world, even Moslems in other countries cherish it; unlike Nigerian Northern Moslems who regard it as an abomination. It is nauseating to see children in Almajari schools being clogged with caftan and cap instead of short sleeve shirt and short due to conservative value system in dress code in the northern part of the country.        

The fact must be recognized that the NTA management should allow Christian spinsters who are news casters to be appearing with modern designed dresses without head gear and their ethnic approved dress code for unmarried women. If Moslem religious dress code of “Hijab” is allowed, then Christian and other ethnic groups dress code for spinsters must be allowed in the television news room. Both males and females should be allowed to put on new designs of dresses in the news room in accordance with fundamental human right. In Igbo for instance, there are many creative wearing apparels like trouser material “up and down” being won without cap like the former governor of Anambra State, Chief Peter Obi. This nice attire is good for television news room; cap cannot be a must.

This utter rubbish on ethnic and religious discrimination on dress code for television news casters and programmes should stop in both the NTA and other television stations.

The other sore issue which the NTA and Radio Nigeria should tackle is the deliberate omission of the alphabet ‘H’ by the Yoruba reporters. That there is no ‘H’ alphabet in Yoruba language does not warrant these reporters to be making caricature of English words in their reportage. They proudly pronounce words like house of representatives, Hajji, home, height, hectic, hard, heaven, history etc. as ‘ouse’ of representatives, ‘ajji’, ‘ome’ ‘eight’, ‘ectic’, ‘ard’, ‘eaven’, ‘istory’ etc. This brazen impunity should be sanctioned. If other ethnic group indulge in such impunity then electronic news reportage will be ear-shattering and nauseating. Teachers in the schools in the Yoruba states should stop miseducating the children that ‘H’ is an abomination alphabet. In Anambra State, Anambra East local government area, the people do not have the alphabet ‘F’ but V in their dialect. In Aguata L.G.A., there is no ‘R’ but ‘L’ in their dialect. Even primary school pupils in these two local government areas pronounce F and R when speaking English language. Could you imagine a university graduate from these local government areas employed as a reporter in the NTA and Radio Nigeria emulating the reporters of Yoruba ethnic group pronouncing words like “File” as ‘Vile’, “Follow” as ‘Vollow’; and words like “Arrest” as ‘Allest’, “Role” as ‘Lole’. So as to dramatize their supposed rich language like the Yoruba reporters naively leave the ugly impression for all Nigerians to emulate. The Nigerian Tribune Editorial wrote: “an helicopter” instead of a helicopter; leaving the impression that it is a Yoruba editorial writer committed to compelling everybody to be omitting ‘H’ in spoken and written English language. That it is only two words namely: “honour and hour” that ‘h’ is silent in pronouncement does not matter to the leader writer. This silly ego of reporters of Yoruba indigenes in the NTA and Radio Nigeria must stop. Impunity has become the bane of civilized values and good governance in this apparently accursed country.   

Mr. Onwubiko is an author and commentator on national issues, he wrote in from Awka, Anambra State.