Why I Want To Stop Women Nudity On Posters In LAGOS

• LAGOS Lawmaker, Hon. FOLUKE OSAFILE

Few weeks ago, Hon. Foluke Osafile, member of the Lagos State House of Assembly sponsored a bill in the house stopping noise pollution and pasting of posters and banners which show women nudity in public places. The ever-vibrant Osafile was passionate about this, which she sees as an aberration, if not put on check would have a far-reaching effect on the society.  Of course, the bill is in motion and waiting to scale through all the necessary stages before it becomes part of the law. During an interview with City People Nifemi Kazeem and Jamiu Abubakar, Hon. Osafile spoke on the essence of the bill and why she proposed it in Lagos State, hoping for the country as a whole to adopt it and prohibit it in the law of the land.

She said: “A lot of people emphasised more on the noise pollution. It’s more on the obscene nudity of clubs and lounges. Display of nudity on posters, walls. Sometimes you say Friday night, must you project women like that? You know, where they hang banners with nude pictures of women. So if LASAA, LASEPA are up to their game, we need to stop that. We know there is a clubhouse. There might be strippers. Don’t hang the posters, banners, where children in their formative years who are growing up and they are seeing it. What are we projecting? Know that if we don’t stop it, tomorrow it will backfire. We don’t want nude women to be projected that way. You can go to a bar and drink. You’re selling water, for example. Must you show women without bras? That is pure nudity. Must you project it in that way before they could buy water or beer? No!

Speaking further, she said major concern of the bill was the use of women in nudity but also in it is the need to ensure public compliance in the area of noise pollution in the society.  “The noise aspect has to do with conformity. 55 decibels at daytime, 45 at night. Because whether we like it or not, this idea of the zoning, we don’t really follow zoning. If not, the residential area will be different from the commercial area. So, there wouldn’t have been a need for it in the first sense if the commercial centres were strictly commercial. And there are no residents there. So they can blare the noise however. But here we are in Lagos. Even in the residential area, you still find club houses that have lounges and everywhere scattered. So that’s why that motion was raised on the floor.”

Hon. Osafile is a worthy representative of her constituency, Amuwo-Odofin I covering places like Festac Town, Mile 2, Estates, Abule Ado down to the Trade Fair and some parts of Ago Palace Way, Okota. The Ondo born and bred Lagos lawmaker is an ordained pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church Of God. She is a rare breed as she stands out among her colleagues as someone who is very strategic and passionate about what she does. Winning under the Labour Party platform, she knew she can’t afford to derail. She has started well by hitting the ground running. Aside from the afore-mentioned bill she sponsored in the House of Assembly, she has embarked on quite a number of people-oriented programmes such as Back-To-School Initiative where she distributed free basic items for pupils and students who resumed a new academic session in September, 2023. She is also in top gear to ensure that free fibroid surgeries are made available for patients in November. She has more life-changing projects for the people which she said she would unveil in due course.