STUDENTS of the University of Abuja, on Tuesday, protested the enforcement of dress code in the institution by the university authority. The protesters, mostly female students and their male counterparts, insisted that the university authority must allow them to dress the way they deemed fit.
An eyewitness told our correspondent that trouble started when some of the female students who were seen to be wrongly dressed were disallowed from entering the university campus. He said that security personnel at the university main gate stopped female students who bared parts of their bod ies. He said visitors to the university who did not dress properly were not spared as they were also disallowed from going into the campus. The affected students were said to have ganged up to stage a protest against the university authority over what they saw as humiliation. "This is a free world, we are not in primary school, we are adults and we are conscious of what we wear to campus.
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We are not here to dress to please anybody. "We will not allow anybody to enslave us. This policy must fail no matter where it came from. I don't want to live in the past," one of the protesters was reported to have said.
The authorities of the University of Abuja yesterday closed down the institution to avert the escalation of student crisis. A statement issued by the institution disclosed that the authorities resorted to the decision after three day efforts to avert a student crisis proved futile. The University gave an overview of the development as follows:
“On Saturday, a student was involved in a scuffle and suffered some bruises. He was rushed to the University clinic where he did not receive adequate attention. Some leaders of the Student Union in reaction locked the clinic indefinitely. The university regrets this development because at the time of the event, hospital drugs worth N3Million were in the stock of the clinic.
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All efforts by the University authority to re-open the clinic were resisted by the Students Union, leading to untold hardship for the University Community. The authority also opened talks with the management of the clinic and the students. While this was going on, the students this (Wednesday 17 January) morning went on rampage. The authority of the institution took the regrettable decision to close the University to avert further danger to lives and property in the institution and its environ. Dialogue is however going on with all stakeholders of the university to return to normal life and re-open the University.
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