Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, has introduced a new dress code for both students and staff aimed at promoting what it describes as a professional and modest atmosphere on campus.
Outlined in a Special Bulletin dated June 16 and signed by the university’s management, the policy lists a wide range of clothing and grooming styles now deemed unacceptable. These include shorts, skimpy or body-hugging outfits, transparent clothing, tattered jeans, and dresses that expose sensitive parts of the body.
The code also targets personal grooming choices, discouraging bushy hair and beards, earrings for male students, ankle chains for females, dreadlocks, and brightly coloured hairstyles. Male students are barred from plaiting or weaving their hair, and both students and staff are forbidden from wearing shirts without buttons, long eyelashes, tight skirts with slits, and trousers that stop between the knee and ankle.
Additional restrictions include a ban on hugging, kissing, sitting on the laps of the opposite sex, and the unconventional wearing of face caps. Wearing of bathroom slippers, coloured glasses without medical justification, and tattoos or body piercings such as lip plugs or nose rings are also prohibited.
The bulletin warns that failure to comply with the dress code will attract disciplinary action. While the university insists the policy is necessary to uphold decency and discipline, it has stirred debate among the campus community, with critics describing it as an infringement on personal freedoms.
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