Good dress sense by command or choice is a clash of models between censorship and mentorship. It is about who manages the freedom capital, which is available to students when they leave their families and join a campus. Freedom can be sweet and tempting but it is also an asset that can either be managed or wasted. Our successful AUN model makes a strong case for why Nigerian higher education should prioritise internal character over external conformity.
A wave of dress code mandates is sweeping through Nigerian higher education. From public to private, secular to faith-based institutions, there is a growing obsession with mandating students on what to wear and how not to appear. Recently, a university, not a monastery, announced a policy prohibiting students from growing or maintaining unapproved hairstyles. Male students are explicitly forbidden from wearing dreadlocks or beards, the Prohibition List is long. Yet, another commands male students to tuck in their shirts and put on a tie, while their female counterparts must avoid excessive jewellery or flamboyant hairstyles. In one or two higher institutions, mobile phones are banned outright, or restricted. These mandates are often accompanied by military-style threats of sanction for defaulters.
While proponents of campus dress codes argue that it instills discipline, the reality is far more sombre: these codes represent what might be termed a “poverty of ideas.” They mistake compliance for character and conformity for maturity. Mandating dress codes is an admission of failure in character education. It treats young adults like children, robbing them of the vital developmental step of choosing responsibility. It is like they cannot be trusted with making the right choices and the authorities have to step in with dress and behaviour codes. But, we are dealing with adults here, right?
For neutrals, there are lessons from Yola. At the American University of Nigeria, we approach matters of discipline differently, holding firmly that freedom, not decrees, shapes the character of graduates. We don’t have a dress code for our students, yet we produce highly responsible adults imbued with high ambitions, who can be found in service and industry, in academia, and in prestigious graduate schools across the globe. This is not a lapse in standards but a deliberate pedagogical strategy. From the moment students arrive at orientation, we teach them how to manage their newfound freedom. We borrow the wisdom of the Superman ethos: freedom, like great power, comes with enormous responsibility.
Instead of policing hairstyles and sartorial quirks, we focus on managing the anxieties of youth and filling their imaginations with purpose and global role models. At the American University of Nigeria, we treat freedom as capital. This is standard practice around the world and wherever education is centred around character development, as confirmed by the President of AUN, Professor DeWayne P Frazier: “In the American model of education practiced around the world, institutions rarely impose strict dress codes. While we encourage students to be respectful (for example, avoiding offensive language or imagery), we firmly believe that personal expression is an essential part of academic freedom and individual development.” In the words of the seasoned academic administrator, “One important aspect of educating young people is helping them learn to express themselves. Self-expression can take many forms, but one we consider particularly important is clothing and personal style. Often, what people choose to wear reflects their personality, values, commitments, and the issues they care deeply about”.
When students understand their purpose and are deeply committed to an ambition, their “dress sense” becomes a natural reflection of their inner essence. It is the responsibility of the university to provide the right institutional structures and support mechanisms for the mental transformation of the young adults entrusted in their care. Breathing down a dress code is the easier path of no-responsibility. The AUN American-style education model is built on mentorship as an agency of enablement. There is an avalanche of mentoring support, from leadership training to entrepreneurship opportunities from student organisations, to soft skill opportunities in public speaking, content creation, artistic expression, and global outreach. Regular and unrelenting education on ethics and dignity educate students on the rewards of making the right choices. Our Student Affairs Division is a professional unit responsible for co-curricular development of students.
We go further to institutionalise leadership and entrepreneurial education, teaching our students to be self-confident and self-reliant. We teach them honour, dignity, and respect for others — starting with self-respect. Our understanding is that a student’s dress sense is ultimately a reflection of his/her inner ambition. When a young person is imbued with high ambitions and a sense of global citizenship, s/he doesn’t need a handbook to tell him/her how to present him/herself to the world. The person understands that his/her appearance is the first chapter of his/her professional story. This phenomenon is particularly true with female students. A female student who has found her calling and is excitedly pursuing her dream is a formidable personality who dresses the part. And her glow is infectious; she influences others. Uniformity of the dress code drains the student space of genuine moral leaders and promotes intellectual laziness; young people are not incentivised but are happy to follow commands. What exactly do we expect our graduates, the leaders of tomorrow to turn out in four or five years – bold, ethical leaders or zombies?
AUN’s mentorship model stands on the shoulders of high intellectual authority. A very important deep research on Nigerian campus cultures by Professor Morolake Dairo submits that many institutions use dress codes as a form of social control. At AUN, we see a student’s dress sense as a work in progress.
By treating students as “kids” unable to distinguish right from wrong, many Nigerian universities are failing to produce the “Total Person” described by Professor Peter Okebukola in “The Quest for Quality in Nigerian University Education” (2015). According to the respected scholar, “A graduate’s worth is found in their ability to navigate a complex, globalised world — a skill learnt only through the exercise of personal agency. If we do not let them choose their clothes today, how can we expect them to choose the right path for our nation tomorrow?” As the eminent administrator rightly noted, global readiness depends on soft skills and internal discipline over superficial compliance.
And what happens when a student is not getting the message and stubbornly continues to dress indecently, despite all the best efforts? He or she sticks out like a sore thumb; you leave the rest to the power of peer pressure. Give her more responsibilities, help her develop a passion and an ambition, and watch a stunning transformation. At AUN, with more than 20 student clubs and societies spanning leadership, technology, politics, entrepreneurship, public speaking change happens faster than you think, and it is holistic, internal, and enduring. “Whether your passion is building ideas, leading people, or expressing creativity, there’s a place for you here”, in the words of Mohammed Bashir Zakari, President of the AUN students body, a very disciplined and astute role model in character, service and learning for other students, who dresses the part, out of conviction, not out of fear or eagerness to impress anyone.
Maturity is not the absence of choice; it is the presence of choice managed with responsibility. Former AUN Law Professor Jennifer Heaven Mike drives home this point in her influential work on African liberal education. In “The Role of Liberal Arts Education in 21st Century Nigeria: Building Civil Character” (2020), Professor Jennifer Mike argues, with much credibility, that the AUN model of freedom prepares students for leadership.
Good dress sense by command or choice is a clash of models between censorship and mentorship. It is about who manages the freedom capital, which is available to students when they leave their families and join a campus. Freedom can be sweet and tempting but it is also an asset that can either be managed or wasted. Our successful AUN model makes a strong case for why Nigerian higher education should prioritise internal character over external conformity.
As the late distinguished scholar Professor Nimi Briggs often argued, “a university must be a sanctuary for the actualisation of dreams. When we dictate exactly what a student must wear, we rob them of the opportunity to mature through the weight of their own decisions”.
Daniel Okereke wrote in from Yola, Adamawa State.