The problem of indecent dressing requires an integrated approach because of its multifaceted causes. According to Nwabuisi (2000) the following are the possible solutions to indecent dressing:
1. Parents are to serve as Role Models:
Children watch their parents and copy their ways of behavior. The behavior of parents impresses on their children more greatly than what they tell them either to do or not to do. Parents are to be obligated to their children by bringing them up properly and in the fear of God. They are to teach them the fundamental things they need to learn about correct values, attitudes and beliefs cherished by the society by being exemplary. Apart from being moral exemplars, parents should have time for their children. Children need the attention and love of their parents more than gifts they think they can buy for them as substitutes. Parents need to occasionally watch home videos with them,
regulate and restrict the films they watch and also run commentaries by condemning and approving certain acts or actions of the actors and actresses. Parents are to be their children’s best friends. A child with proper parental upbringing will not so quickly succumb to pressure from peers especially if it is to do evil.
2. Dress Code:
Some colleges and universities in Nigeria have variously introduced dress codes for their students. The problem is not just in making the rules but in their enforcements. For these rules to be enforced, lecturers should be made to collaborate with the college or university management staff and their security personnel. Lecturers are to be empowered to prevent indecently dressed students from attending their lectures, refuse to attend to such students in their areas of needs. The administrative staff should disallow such students from their offices while the security staff should serve as watchdogs. They should be allowed to open a record in their office for immodestly dressed students and forward such names particularly those who are not first offenders to the disciplinary committee of the college or university for appropriate sanction that the code must have spelt out.
3. Domesticating African or Nigerian films:
The Nigerian celebrities especially the female ones are to be cautioned by the film production regulatory bodies to be modest and dress like the Nigerians that they are. Africa and Nigeria in particular, have very rich heritage of cultures that we should be proud of and also promote. Their wrong dress patterns and the way they openly show love making in their films even though not real, do not suggest that they are Africans. They should domesticate their films by reflecting and promoting the rich culture of Africa - her dress pattern, sanctity of sex, etc.
4. The Mass Media:
The mass media is one strong agent of socialization. Radio houses, televisions, newspapers and magazines should confront rather than support indecent dressing. The display of some indecently dressed young girls for adverts and attraction should be discouraged. Radios and television jingles that promote moral values and the sanctity of sex should always be aired and relayed. Programs that sample opinions of Nigerians on indecent dressing should be regularly put in place in addition to debates on the issue by youths in institutions of learning as means of effective sensitization.
5. Religious institutions:
Through regular sermons or preaching as well as counseling, Pastors and Imams should resist and insist on healthy development of their members. From counseling of some members they may discover those that are demonized or demon possessed and they can by their pastoral anointing deliver such ones and help them to be born again. It is a regenerated person that can act Godly.
6. Formation of campus brigade:
This brigade or club is to stand against indecent dressing by sensitizing and promoting good moral values particularly, the modest African dress patterns. Members of this brigade or club should be empowered by the college or university authority to advise or counsel, and insist that decent dresses are won. Membership of this club is to be limited to students and should be made voluntary. The ceremony for its formal inauguration is however, to be performed by the college or university authority. The office of the Student Affairs is to monitor and supervise the operations of this brigade.
7. Use of uniform:
Students in primary and secondary schools use uniforms to classes and those on the campuses (boarding schools) have compound wears and game dresses. If college and university students are vehement on dressing indecently and provocatively, a viable and very result-oriented option is a legislation that will introduce the use of uniforms in public higher institutions of learning in Nigeria. This I feel is not draconian and absurd because these very students on their graduation use uniform during their National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), or may be privileged to be employed in some establishments and military formations where uniforms are used. Introduction of uniforms on our college and university campuses can be a viable panacea to this mess of indecent dressing that tends to be recalcitrant.
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