ARE WOMEN TAKING POUND OF THEIR FLESH

ARE WOMEN TAKING POUND OF THEIR FLESH

Start any discussion on the decency - or lack of - of what our ladies wear these days under the guise of being trendy and modern, and you are likely going to generate a debate with sharp divisions, depending on which side of the divide one pitches his or her tent.


In the last couple of years, our sense of decency has gone on a sabbatical and our descent into a state of normlessness is steadily gaining momentum.
Dressing is an aspect of culture. We dress to look good, not awful. The 21st century lady is ultra-stylish, sophisticated, urbane, and surely knows what looks good on her.
Style and fashion go hand-in-glove. Style brings you out of the crowd and makes you look unique. Like a merry-go-round, styles come and go in cyclical trends.
I appreciate beauty, elegance, and style, but I have a problem when it comes to parts of our supposedly reserved crevices and cleavages being generously dished out, as if they were a sneak preview of what a guy is likely going to get if he solicits.
Don't mistake me for a moralist.
The truth is that I can no longer hold my peace, because everywhere I go, I am intimidated by women who unleash their frontal and posterior endowments, the breasts and buttocks, at me and other innocent male homo-sapien.
It appears the ladies have just discovered the ballistic missile in their arsenal and are hell-bent on taking their pound of flesh from the men by lasciviously distracting them with a lewd outlook.
Everywhere you go, you see breasts, breasts, and more breasts. Nothing is left to the imagination any longer as you continue to see these thoracic protrusions in different shapes and sizes. From the cashier that pays you in the banking hall, to the usher that welcomes you to the church, to the front desk officers and secretaries. It is a carnival of breast-flashing.
In these times where there is a flurry of social events from music awards and fashion fairs to corporate events, it is becoming a norm for our dear mothers, sisters, and wives to be decked with boobs-revealing dresses, as if they would be turned back from the event if they don't comply with this awkward ‘dress code'.
In the past few days, I've seen this soft tissue in many forms: cylindrical, cone, rotund, and more, all begging for attention. Some are adorned with tattoo marks and others, stretch marks.
Some are actually pseudo-breasts. Women now go under the knife to have silicone inserted and inflated to their desired specification. If this trend is left unchecked (by women themselves), soon our dear ladies may have to stop over at a vulcanizer's stand to get their stuff inflated in event of having ‘flat tyre'! Simply sad.
As if this seduction in the frontal region is not potent enough, low-waist trousers that reveal the waistline are the in-thing now. It is a common sight these days to see ladies on a motorbike exhibiting the undergarments they are sporting. Like the breast-taking encounters, I've also had a peek at variegated undergarments conspicuously displayed by these daughters of Eve. Some look like a sling, some like beads, and others just outright out-of-the-world artifacts.
A few years ago, I was in a church service in a Ketu neighbourhood and a young girl who sat in front of me had me wondering just how far our values have declined. One of her bums was staring at us in the back row, and it had a rose flower tattoo noticeably engraved on it, as if it were a work of art by the great Picasso exhibited for prospective buyers.
A man who could not contain the raunchy scenario signaled one of the ushers, who then volunteered her shawl to cover the girl's bare areas. By this time, the young woman was experiencing fits of spiritual ecstasy and not minding the opprobrium she was generating with this inappropriate spectacle.
Our so called celebrities and music and television personalities are also caught in the fray. Being a star is now synonymous with getting an automatic visa to ‘Banana Republic'. Highly respected matriarchs of influential families, female lawmakers, and prominent female corporate players have also endorsed this culture-conflict by strutting their obscene stuff all over the place.
The seeming compulsive obsession for anything western is inflicting deep wounds on our collective psyche. No doubt, culture is dynamic and change is constant, but must we sacrifice our values and identity as Africans on the altar of westernisation?
Revealing clothing is worn by people with inferiority complex and a jaundiced cultural background.
African women, in my opinion, are beautiful, charming, gorgeous, and graceful. Let's accord them their pride of place. They must champion the change for posterity's sake.
At the risk of sounding anachronistic, chauvinistic, or like a moral policeman, the thrust of this piece is to make women conscientious about the subtle ploy to objectify women, as perpetuated by other women, in the name of being trendy and fashionable.
Women are the custodians of a society's norms and values. Desecrating these values will bring about cataclysmic effects on the forthcoming generations.
This is a clarion call for self regulation and adjustment by our women folk.

WHO WILL TAME THE NIGERIAN POLICE

'The police is your friend’, so says the jaded cliché. In reality, the reverse seems to be the
case .The irony of this statement is evident in the hostile and aggressive manner that
Nigerian policemen bark out orders to fellow compatriots on our roads and in their stations
while discharging their duties. We are familiar with exclamations such as hold it! Park well!
Put on your inner light! Etc. These commands are rendered in bellicose tones and the
motorist is expected to respond with immediate alacrity in order not to draw the ire of the policeman .An average policeman in Nigeria is unfriendly, perennially angry, haggard,
ill-trained, ill-equipped, and constantly cuts an alienated picture in the eyes of the public.
He is also poorly clad in heat-absorbing black uniform, fagged out, grossly underpaid and
housed in the most squalid, ill-maintained and decrepit habitation known as barracks.
During the last nationwide protest organised by the Nigeria Labour Congress, a
detachment of policemen in Wuse area of Abuja made attempts to dissuade protesters
from marching into a cordoned area. They were not properly dressed as policemen. Most
of them sported jeans trousers and T-shirts. The only paraphernalia that made them pass
for policemen were their rifles and bullet-proof vests. Similar scenarios are commonplace
across the country and are emblematic of the complete breakdown of ethical values and
discipline in our police force. Who really is in charge of our policemen? Who disciplines
them?
The word 'police' conjure different meanings to different people depending on how
pleasant or unsavoury one's experience with the police has been. To some, it is an agency
that visits untold hardship on hapless road users by setting up illegal tollgates otherwise
known as checkpoints.
At these checkpoints, illegal extortion of money from innocent citizens is brazenly
perpetrated with unsanctionable impunity. They do not only collect bribes, but volunteer to
provide change to the motorists in event of him/her possessing only higher denominations
of naira notes. Police checkpoints are business centres run by the police and surreptitiously endorsed by
the police authorities. In Lagos, commuter bus drivers part with varying amount of money
daily to these officers .In a bid to ensure that they are not 'taxed' twice in one location, an
access code is sometimes given to the 'co-operating' drivers so that they will be spared
from 'double taxation' on their return trip. This practice is very popular with the police patrol
team stationed around Jibowu area and Agege motor road. Sadly, this shameful practice
has become the norm and the police authorities are turning a blind eye to this.
A trip to Ladipo automobile parts market in Lagos mainland will further throw some light on
the state of decadence prevalent in the force. At a particular spot, there is a convergence
of these men in black and their counterparts from sister security organizations. They
provide illegal escort services mainly to buyers of used automobile engines and other
sundry wares like refrigerators, television sets etc. They are also hired for a fee by
commercial bus drivers to accompany them in a bid to keep street urchins and touts from
demanding tolls. Few years ago, the police high command had come out to roundly
condemn this practice and warned against it. Yet, it remains a thriving business.
The police have become a beggarly outfit. Majority of patrol vehicles in its fleet are
gestures of corporate social responsibilities and sheer benevolence from philanthropic
organizations and corporate bodies. They are either donated by state governments,
bankers’ committee or public spirited individual .The vehicles are wont to deteriorate to
unserviceable state within a short period of time as they are not routinely maintained and
serviced .The gate of a particular police station in my neighborhood has this inscription-
‘Donated by the Welders Association’. Policemen and military men do not pay transport
fares when they avail themselves of intra-city transport services. The police have become
an orphan that ekes out a living on charity. What happens to budgetary appropriations
meant for the police? Supporting the police is a noble cause, but the stark reality is that
modern policing has gone beyond dependence on voluntary donations and handouts.
The police in Nigeria are an endangered species that may be heading toward extinction if
very urgent and radical steps are not taken to tackle the festering decay bedeviling the
force. The Police Service Commission and the Federal Ministry of Police Affairs must come
up with a pragmatic blueprint that would restore the police to its pride of place in the
nation’s security landscape. Constant training and retraining, proper housing, occupational
hazards insurance scheme, robust salary structure and an effective pension scheme must
be given priorities so as to boost the ebbing morale of the rank and file.
Professional and ethical discipline should be the hallmark of the service. The new acting
Inspector-General must not tread the same path that his predecessors treaded. He must
stamp out corruption in the service. He must wage a war against illegal extortion and police
brutality on our roads. Erring officers must be shown the way out and summarily
prosecuted. The blatant use of command language which was the order of the day during
military rule must be discarded. The police must learn how to behave and function in a
democracy. In sane climes, policemen are civil, decorous and friends indeed. The
Inspector-General, in concert with his commissioners, should revamp the battered image of
the service and provide exemplary leadership.
Special squads should be set up and trained to handle the new wave of crime such as
terrorism and cyber-crimes that are currently holding sway in the country.
Akanimo Asuquo Sunday
Lagos, Nigeria.
akanimosunday@yahoo.com