“The legislation bill called “Indecent Dressing Bill”, to be heard by the Parliament on July 2 is terrible, outrageous and simply unacceptable!” declared Steve Onedo, spokesperson of the Raelian Movement in Nigeria, in a public statement he made Friday in Lagos, following the proposition of a bill by the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women Affairs to legislate on how Nigerians should dress.
“The bill defines as ‘a state of indecent dressing which exposes in the public or in the open any of the following parts of the human body’: the breast of a female above the age of 14 years; the laps of a female above the age of 14 years; the belly and waist of a female above the age of 14 years; any part of the body from 2 inches below the shoulders downwards to the knee of the female above the age of 14 years; any part of body of the male person above the age of 14 years from the waist to the knee; or any dressing with a transparent cloth which exposes any part of the body as mentioned above.“This is just a denial of our true self, a rejection of our traditions and values; it is turning the back to what we Africans really are. What African has not seen in the village our parents and grand parents dressed with a simple piece of cloth, leaving uncovered their breasts and legs ? This bill is the very expression of the colonization of african culture and religions by others, a terrible situation that Prophet RAEL, spiritual leader of the Raelian Movement has strongly denounced during his visit in Africa in 2001 in his call to Africans to find back their roots and their culture…” (www.raelafrica.org). I cannot imagine the parliament passing such a bill, for it would mean that all Nigeria is so blind that no one sees the rise of social extremism and intolerance that are behind this proposition” pursued Onedo.
“This kind of bill proposition confirms one more time the failure of our machist governments to bring harmony and peace to the world, and the urgent need to put femininity in power”, commented Mrs Banemanie Traore, Bishop and spokesperson of the Raelian Movement in Burkina Faso. All the women in Kama (Africa) as well as men must stand and protest vigorously against this bill” she added.