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Monday,Jul 26,2010
Why the Government May Be Wrong on The New ‘Minimum’ Wage
The recent 63.7 percent increase in the national minimum wage, from N11,000 to N17,000 (or is it N18,000?) has gene....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Saturday,Jul 17,2010
Between Octopus Paul And Nigerian Juju Men And Pastors
One of the celebrities thrown up by the just concluded World Cup tournament in South Africa is the German Octopus P....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Sunday,Jul 11,2010
Igboland: When Did Things Really Begin To Fall Apart?
That the level of insecurity in Igboland has reached unacceptable level is no longer news. In virtually all parts o....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Wednesday,Jun 30,2010
Jonathan, Babangida and the Sword of Damocles
In the Sword of Damocles, the Roman politician and philosopher Cicero tells the story of Dionysius II, a king who r....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Wednesday,Jun 30,2010
Letter To “Father No Shaking” On The September 2010 Festival Of Oath-taking In Umuagwu-Aro, Osuh-Owerre, Isi-ala Mbano Local Government Area (LGA), Imo State
Dear Rev. Father, Greetings! I have to address by the above name since it is the name you are commonly kn....
By Odimegwu Onwumere
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Wednesday,Jun 23,2010
Attahiru Jega and the Search for a Nigerian Hero
Nigerians seem to be in constant search for public heroes - competent little messiahs who will not hesitate to put ....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Thursday,Jun 17,2010
The Return of Mallam Ribadu
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the one time strongman of the financial crime buster EFCC, who sneaked out of Nigeria into self....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Thursday,Jun 17,2010
Too Many Captains…
Two major attributes that have been quite easy to discern about President Goodluck Jonathan are: one, he seems to l....
By Ijeoma Nwogwugwu
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Thursday,Jun 10,2010
Should Suspects Be Paraded?
The above question is generating increasing furore among our intellectuals, and ‘beer parlour’ politica....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Thursday,Jun 10,2010
Nigeria: A Two Party System By Legislation?
Perhaps enamoured by the seeming ease with which two dominant political parties trod the political landscape of, at....
By Joel Nwokeoma
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Governor Fashola and the Nude Dancers
By:
Jideofor Adibe
pcjadibe@yahoo.com
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The recent report that the Lagos state government had shut down four strip clubs around Opebi Street and Allen Avenue in Lagos made headlines and elicited naughty guffaws from people as such stories are wont to do. According to the report, the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Monitoring Unit, which sacked the clubs, whisked off 33 of the nude dancers and two of their managers. Governor Fashola, a man many of us admire, was apparently forced to act following the protest of religious leaders at the increasing number of strip tease and nude clubs in the city. Cardinal Anthony Okogie, the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, was quoted as saying that the rapid increase in the number of nude clubs was a sign that evil had descended on the city and asked the Governor to sack the clubs.
While the Lagos State Government has the right to take measures that it believes will preserve the public good, there is a feeling that the issues involved with strip and nude clubs are not as simple as presented by religious leaders. In a secular, plural and democratic society, an issue like this, however morally repugnant one feels about it, deserves at least a public discussion - as done in many of the countries we often look up to as models of democracy and freedom.
Several arguments used to justify a clampdown on sexually explicit expressions in public places:
One, is the morality argument. Traditionally states have always felt a need to suppress or at least strongly regulate sexually explicit expressions in order to maintain ‘morality’ and ‘standards of decency’. The primary concern of the moralists appears to be that sexually explicit expressions could undermine moral values and the institution of marriage. The British lawyer, judge and jurist, Lord Devlin, articulated this view in his book, The Enforcement of Morals (1965). Lord Devlin argued that since a shared set of basic moral values is essential to a society, public authorities are justified in protecting the society against attacks on these values - such as mounted by pornography and nude dancing.
Opponents of a clampdown also contend that the ‘enforcement of morality’ argument neglects the ‘moral autonomy’ of individuals, namely that it is up to individuals, not the state, to make their own moral decisions on whether they should go and patronise nude clubs or not. They equally argue that a clampdown disrespects the fundamental right of nude dancers over their bodies, especially in a secluded area where people are not forced to watch.
Two, nude dancing has also been criticised from a feminist perspective. The argument here is that permitting sexually explicit expressions such as nude dancing or pornography would amount to a damaging attack on the dignity of womanhood. It is also argued that sexually explicit expressions often have a coded ideological message, namely that the woman is a mere object of gratification.
Supporters of nude dancing however counter that if explicit sexual expressions embody a ‘political message’ as contended by feminists, then it will be wrong for the state to suppress it since such ideological expressions, as unpalatable as they may appear to some, are contributions to the marketplace of ideas that enrich democracy.
Three, critics of nude dancing equally argue that the images people are exposed to bear a causal relationship to their behaviour, implying that permitting nude dancing and strip tease clubs would encourage promiscuity or aggression towards women in the society. Those against a clampdown however rebut this, arguing that if this line of reasoning is stretched, it would also mean banning many films and TV shows as well as sports that depict violence such as boxing and wrestling, since they would apparently also promote violence in the society. They further argue that the offence nude dancing may cause to some is sometimes misconstrued to be a damage it will do.
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