Dressing and Appearance as Visual Communication: A Study of University Students in Nigeria

Ibikunle Olayiwola Ajisafe PhD; Godsgift Odiepiriye Harrold PhD

doi:10.56201/rjmcit.vol.12.no2.2026.pg34.40

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Dressing and Appearance as Visual Communication: A Study of University Students in Nigeria

Ibikunle Olayiwola Ajisafe PhD, Godsgift Odiepiriye Harrold PhD

Abstract

The importance of dressing to man as an image maker can never be underestimated. Mark Twain, the American novelist wrote: “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society”. The aim of this paper is to analyze the issue of indecent dressing and appearance among university students in Nigeria. There is a new trend in dressing among university students which has evolved for some time now, the type of dressing we see nowadays are totally a break from the trends we had few years ago; body parts that were known as ‘private’ are no longer so. This study intends to address the major issues of poor awareness on the importance of decent dressing among university students in Nigeria and the failure to enforce strict rules on decent dressing. The study reviewed some literature on the effect of indecent dressing and cultural breakdown in Nigerian universities and concludes that it is expedient that decent clothes should therefore be worn in our campuses so as to curb incessant vices like rape, sexual harassment, unwanted pregnancy and the spread of various diseases. Indecent dressing should therefore be considered a deviation from the Nigerian culture and a factor in the breakdown of the Nigerian culture. One’s appearance becomes the window through which the world looks at them. The paper gave some recommendations, part of which is that the university management should re-orientate the students on some of the beliefs that were contrary to the African culture as par dressing and appearance.

References

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Dressing and Appearance as Visual Communication: A Study of University Students in Nigeria

Abstract

References

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