The Niger State Governor, Mohammed Bago, has prohibited civil servants from wearing native attire such as kaftans, babanrigas, and flowing gowns during work hours.
The prohibition is effective immediately and applies to both male and female employees.
Civil servants, on the other hand, are permitted to wear traditional garb on Fridays, which is also Jummat prayer day.
Bago made the announcement on Saturday at the presentation of land development and preparatory equipment at the Brains and Hammers Rice City, Mohammed Inuwa Wushishi Farm, Chakwa Community in the state’s Wushishi Local Government Area.
Handing down the directive, the governor said civil servants must dress like workers who work to create wealth and not noblemen.
The governor, who spoke in the Hausa language was captured in a video that went viral.
“From Monday to Thursday, there will be no Kaftan, no Babanriga. We came to work; whoever wants to wear Babanriga should leave work; that’s what we will do,” he said.
He explained that his government was committed to changing the narrative and orientation that civil service was all about sitting in offices with flowing gowns and nice clothes, expending public money and doing nothing to create wealth.
He said the youth, civil servants, politicians and traditional officeholders must all go back to the farm.
According to him, there’s wealth in farming, reinstating his earlier position that the state had no reason to be poor with its vast arable land.
He said the state government was on the right track to establish the Niger State Strategic food reserve and protect land from encroachment.
Bago used the forum to encourage youths to engage in agriculture, saying the government would commence the disbursement of N250,000 each to youths and women to facilitate their farming activities.