Olabisi Onabanjo college’s ‘no-bra, no-exam’ rule sparks Nigeria outrage

A college in Nigeria has sparked outrage after a video went viral displaying feminine college students being touched to see in the event that they had been sporting bras earlier than collaborating in an examination.

Within the footage, feminine workers at Olabisi Onabanjo College in south-western Ogun State are seen touching some college students’ chests as they queue to enter an examination corridor.

The college has not but commented on the video, however a scholar chief defended the bra coverage as being a part of the establishment’s costume code geared toward sustaining “a distraction-free atmosphere”.

Nonetheless, he acknowledged that different methods had been wanted to implement the coverage that has been condemned by critics as archaic, sexist and likened to sexual assault.

A senior official at marketing campaign group Human Rights Community informed the BBC that college students may sue the college for violating their rights.

“Unwarranted touches on one other individual’s physique is a violation and will result in authorized motion. The college is flawed to undertake this methodology to curb indecent dressing,” Haruna Ayagi mentioned.

A scholar who didn’t need to be named informed the BBC that the college enforced a strict ethical code regardless of not being a non secular establishment.

She mentioned their garments had been at all times being checked.

In response to the outcry, the president of the college’s college students’ union, Muizz Olatunji, mentioned on X that the college promoted “a dress-code coverage geared toward sustaining a respectful and distraction-free atmosphere, encouraging college students to decorate modestly and in keeping with the establishment’s values”.

He added that the coverage was not new, and the union had “engaged with the establishment to discover different approaches to addressing indecent dressing, specializing in respectful and dignified interactions between college students and workers”.

He additionally revealed the costume code, which included a ban on any garments “able to making the identical or reverse intercourse to lust after the coed in an indecent method”.

The college was based in 1982 as Ogun State College when Olabisi Onabanjo was state governor. It was renamed after him in 2001.