A pro-democracy non-governmental organisation, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to probe the Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Solomon Danlong, over his preference for appearing in red beret cap and dress that “depicts him as a suspected member of one of the banned confraternities/secret cults in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions”.
The Rights group said it was worried that if appropriate clarifications were not immediately provided and the minister asked to desist from dressing comically on national stage, it could be construed that Buhari’s government had officially endorsed the particular secret confraternity that is identified by the adorning of red beret and dresses that looks like military fatigue.
The group said Dalong’s style of dressing violates extant national dress code in a purely civilian-led democratic government and must be checked forthwith.
HURIWA has also asked the military authorities to question the minister for adorning dresses that bear semblance to military combat fatigue.
HURIWA in a statement signed jointly by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Director, Zainab Yusuf, called on Buhari to call Danlong to order and compel him to dress properly and decently so as not to send confusing signal and impression that belonging to any of the confraternities renowned for causing intra-campus uprisings resulting in violence is now an acceptable national past time.
HURIWA said it had no concrete evidence to link Dalong to the membership of any of the campus cults but expressed strong reservations that his choice of dressing in symbolism and tangible costumes closely related to what some of these dreaded groups wear was worryingly traumatic.
“If the minister strongly feels like wearing a distinctive clothes then he can as well adorn himself with the validly permitted legal regalia or alternatively he can take a Chieftain title that will guarantee him a unique dress mode that won’t attract suspicions,” the group added.
The Rights group said it was worried that if appropriate clarifications were not immediately provided and the minister asked to desist from dressing comically on national stage, it could be construed that Buhari’s government had officially endorsed the particular secret confraternity that is identified by the adorning of red beret and dresses that looks like military fatigue.
The group said Dalong’s style of dressing violates extant national dress code in a purely civilian-led democratic government and must be checked forthwith.
HURIWA has also asked the military authorities to question the minister for adorning dresses that bear semblance to military combat fatigue.
HURIWA said it had no concrete evidence to link Dalong to the membership of any of the campus cults but expressed strong reservations that his choice of dressing in symbolism and tangible costumes closely related to what some of these dreaded groups wear was worryingly traumatic.
“If the minister strongly feels like wearing a distinctive clothes then he can as well adorn himself with the validly permitted legal regalia or alternatively he can take a Chieftain title that will guarantee him a unique dress mode that won’t attract suspicions,” the group added.
