 It's the breakfast and plus TV Africa, the dress code for police women has been generating a lot of conversation this morning. We look at the legality of all of this. Now finally in Adrian, police force have joined her counterparts in Canada, United States, of America, Sweden, Turkey, Australia and the United Kingdom among others to have a code for dressing. This is as the IGP Usman Akali approves a new dress code for female personnel of the The code allows female personnel to wear stored earrings and hats carved under their barret or pick carbs as the case may be while in uniform. However, the dress code is optional, this is according to the Inspector General of Police and senior female police officers have been taxed by the IGP to ensure compliance with their proof standard for women police officers who have opted to adopt all of this. You also have in the country a senior advocate of Nigeria, who has described a new dress code for female police officers as illegal. Now according to him, the new dress code of Nigeria police is ultra-variance and should be reversed. This morning we take a look at the constitutionality of the dress code for police officers. We do have Mr. Richard Wachotra who joins the conversation this morning, he's a public affairs analyst. Thank you to have you join us Mr. Richard. Thank you. So I'm not sure your thoughts on this now. You already with this new dress code that's been put out, you have Adigba Rua who's actually put out his thoughts as well and he said this is actually illegal and that the police should concede that the police force should concede a change in and reversing this new dress code. What are your thoughts on it? I agree with Adigba Rua on this issue. No matter how good the intention of the IGP, the action he has taken is a bit beyond his powers and in the sense that it violates some sections of the constitution. So that makes it an action that raises constitutional questions. So I would outrightly say it's unconstitutional. You have section 10 of the constitution which points out and that is true. The section enjoys the Nigerian state to ensure that the military maintains neutrality. The military police and public agencies maintain neutrality in terms of religion. And so it's not at all necessary to reflect religion in public offices. I agree in some countries you have all of that but your constitution says you are to maintain neutrality. As a matter of fact religion is what we call personal law, it's part of personal law. Religion is your personal affair. It is what influences your reasoning and how just or how fair you treat people or react to situations. It's absolutely private. It's not what you wear on your face in the public space. No, it's not. And so it violates section 10. It's military, including the police. And there is questions concerning section 42 of the constitution. I was going to put that to you, I guess. Just go ahead. Yes, so I said I was going to, if you say that it contravenes section 10 of the constitution, what happens to section 42, just as you were already mentioning, that the prohibit discrimination? Yes, section 42 ensures that, asks the Nigerian state to ensure that nobody is discriminated against as a result of his gender, religion, where he comes from, or circumstances of his life and all that. Absolutely all right. But to say what it raises concerning the invalidity it raises concerning section 42 is that you have recognized a uniform that belongs to a religion. Automatically, you have discriminated against other religions and the police. So instead of providing for wearing of hijab, you should have provided for police officers to reflect their religion and their dressing. And that would have been general. But when you specifically provide for only one, then you have discriminated against the others. How about the Catholic woman who will want to wear some Catholic apparel, who will want to wear her rosary on her uniform? You've not provided for that. How about the traditional religionist who will want to place on charms, wear some charms on his or her neck, or place some of them in the pocket or pin them to the uniform? You haven't provided for that. So if you want to provide for expression of religion, provide for expression of religion generally, and not one. For in providing for one, you have discriminated against the others. ER stored and ER ins are not religious artifacts. And so what you have provided is recognition of one religion without recognizing the other religions. ER ins has nothing to do with the other religions. So if you want to recognize religion with violation section 10, then you should recognize all religions. So that people of all religions can wear whatever appeals to them according to their religion on their uniform. So it clears discrimination, excuse me, in providing for one religion, expression of one religion without providing for expression of other religions. All right, so but in your thoughts, there's a lot of Nigerians are questioning as well. Do you think that with all of the issues that the Nigerian police forces faced with and the insecurity issue, should we be paying attention to the issue of the dress code? How does this help the fight against crime and criminality? We actually living up to expectation. We have established a long history and culture of creating new problems instead of solving existing problems. We just invent something which will be completely unrelated to the challenges we are facing and which will in no way help the challenges we are facing. As a nation, our airways was not doing well. We thought it was the logo. We changed it from flying elephant to flying eagle and it died completely. Police was not doing well. We changed the uniform. The uniform has not changed the police. We are still in search of solution. And so in the face of extreme helplessness of the police and the severe crisis of security we are having in the country, we are wearing hijab. How does that address any of the problems that Nigerian police forces use in surfacing? It's not going to increase funding. It's not going to improve conditions of service. It's not going to ensure that they are better protected when they face criminals which are bound in Nigeria. It's not going to solve any, absolutely any of the existing problems. So what the IGP has just done is probably create another problem to create some distraction so that we lose focus on the real problems that Nigerian police is facing and debate a bit on the non-issue that he has introduced. It solves no problem. It adds to our problem. If it does not solve a problem and is causing a debate, then it's adding to our problem. So just like you have mentioned, this would further create more problems and further divide us as a country. Now, what happens to those who feel discriminated? I mean, those who feel that their religion has been discriminated and they haven't been carried along. What can they do? What is going to happen moving forward? I think what they should do is try to get the police to stay focused on this mandate. And that is by challenging the action of the IGP. I'm pointing out that in violation 10 of the constitution, it's not necessary to fight that we should all have our religions reflected. What the IGP has done is unconstitutional. And everywhere, meaning our citizen should work towards compelling the IGP to comply with the Nigerian constitution, which is the highest law of the land. So let's just digress away from the dress code. Now, I'm looking at the police following the protests that actually happened, the issue of extortion, because we know that that's still a case that's still ongoing in our country where you have people being brutalized, I mean, badly manhandled in the cause of discharging their duties. And there was a protest that happened, hashtag and police brutality. Now, majorly, one of the recommendation and one of the things that the Nigerian citizens have asked is that there be a reform in the entire police sector. And one would be hoping that we just have these reforms coming very quick and very fast. But moving forward as a people, what would you say that the Nigerian police can quickly do right now? And there's a lot to redeem her image from all of the issues that she has got herself into. And how can the government help? What one expects the police to do is to face the challenges we have. There are, you can classify the challenges in total. There are challenges facing the police and affecting the ability of the police to discharge its mandate to the nation and to its citizens. And there are challenges from the police affecting citizens, which gives them bad image. Now, I can stop you from misusing your uniform and abusing citizens. That is something you need to stop yourself from doing. And we expect that the police will come up with some kind of reform, which will teach the Nigerian police that they are no longer the colonial police that they were at Foundation, that they are a national police and an institution that belongs to a sovereign state whose mandate and critical responsibility or core responsibility is the protection of citizens. And providing for peaceful environment for citizens to do their business. That is your commandment. So we expect that we have reform that will change the orientation of the Nigerian police officer and make him realize proudly that he is at the service of the citizens to protect the citizens and not the reverse where he sees the citizens as a bloody civilian to be dealt with and to protect every criminal in the police force and in police uniform, in the spirit of airspace, the court to protect them no matter the crime they commit. That needs to stop. Those are the reforms you are expecting. And we expect them also to make appropriate contacts to convince the Nigerian state, like citizens have done and the youths have done in the protest we talked about. We do appreciate your time. We seem to have a disconnect with the Trenuan culture. Police found it. Richard, we have to let you go at this point. Thank you so much for being part of the show. We seem to be having some network connection issues, but we really do appreciate your time with us this morning on the breakfast. And we look forward to having more of you. Thank you so much. Have a great day. All right, Richard, is a public affairs analyst, is sharing his thoughts on the constitutionality of the legality if you like to say of the new dress code for police officers in Nigerian, he's rightly aligned with the likes of Adigbo who are saying it's unconstitutional and it's illegal and that the police force should focus and pay attention to the fight against crime and criminality. And that's the size of the show this morning. And it's been a great time, two hours. A fantastic conversation. We look forward to having you tomorrow. Time is seven to nine o'clock. Thank you so much for being part of the breakfast. I am Messi Boko. And if you missed that on any part of the show, it's all right to follow us on Facebook. Twitter and Instagram, what plus TV Africa and plus TV Africa lifestyle and do subscribe to our YouTube channel as well as a plus TV Africa lifestyle. Have a fantastic day.