Governor Umar Bago of Niger State has denied imposing a new dress code for the civil servants in the state.
A section of the media had earlier quoted Bago banning wearing native attires popularly known as babban-riga while on duty.
The viral video clip of the Governor declaring the ban in Hausa directed those who could not comply to resign, a move criticised by many.
Ja’afar Ja’afar, a Kano State-based veteran journalist commenting on his X account, said Bago imposed the ban without considering those with lower income and the dress suitable for the northern region.
He wrote, “Gov. Bago has decreed that ALL workers in Niger State, including those he is paying N30,000 per month, must stop wearing kaftan or babbarriga to work. In his strange wisdom, anything but English dress is informal and will reduce productivity.
“Before setting this thoughtless sartorial standard, Bago did not consider the fact our native dress is suitable for our tropical climate as it absorbs less heat. The Europeans chose ‘suit’ in dark colours because it suits their weather and keeps them warm.”
A’isha Yesufu, one of the renowned #BringBackOurGirls campaigners, criticised the governor for bringing unnecessary policy in a banditry-ravaged state.
“Do the terrorists in Niger State spare those that wear suit? Are they only after those wearing native? I don’t understand how a man whose State has been under attack by terrorists is focused on the dressing of his civil servants. Is that what he thinks reform is?”
However, the governor, in a press statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary Bologi Ibrahim, said the video making the rounds on social media did not capture the statement in its original context.
Balogi disclosed that the governor was only stressing that his government was already investing heavily in the agricultural revolution, calling on all the people of the state including the civil servants to embrace it.
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The statement read in part: “Mr Governor believes that, as a state, we have no reason to be poor because of the enormous agricultural potentials of the state and that his government was already investing heavily in the agricultural revolution, hence the need for all to collectively embrace farming, including the civil servants”.
It continued: “The governor was only encouraging civil servants to be farmers and to be a good farmer, you will need to dress smartly to farm. The Governor’s statement did not in any way imply that civil servants now have a dress code to the office from Monday to Thursday as erroneously captured in the video making the rounds.
“The Governor did not announce or mandate any dress code for the civil servants, rather he meant every professional should be dressed based on the demands of his or her job. The viral video was curiously and mischievously edited to malign the Governor stressing that the general public must disregard the clip because the full video clearly defines what he meant.”
Also clarifying the purported dress code for civil servants in the state, Bago while hosted by TVC News on Tuesday, said he was bracing the farmers and the civil servants in the state to embrace farming, but mischievously quoted.
He explained, “What I said was we are transitioning into agriculture. There is no nation where people want to farm and wear agbada or kaftan.”
“There is no commissioner or permanent secretary to wear agbada or kaftan and go to the site.”
Niger State is one of the northern states wreaked by the activities of bandits who killed hundreds of locals in the last decade.
In 2022, Nigeria Security Tracker (NST), a website tracking violent incidents reported 1,176 deaths were documented in 90 insecurity-related attacks, according to The ICIR.
Last year, the state government said there were no fewer than 29,774 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the various camps at the moment where primary and secondary school premises were being used as camps.
