Female Officers Face Query from the Nigeria Immigration Service for TikTok Video

Three female officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) were served with a query and possible disciplinary action for “Immoral behaviour” and “Sabotage” after posting a video on social media, participating in the #BopDaddy challenge.

The #BopDaddy challenge started trending on platforms like TikTok and Instagram sometime in early April featuring challenge participants ‘glow up’ as they transformed from their everyday looks into more glamorous attires with the tap of their camera lenses.

These #BopDaddy challenge videos caught-on fast with videos from across the globe going viral including videos of professionals showing their out-of-uniform looks, from doctors on the frontline of the Coronavirus pandemic, to women in the army, police and other agencies. Following the trend, the three female officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service posted the video showing their out-of-uniform transformations. After the video went viral, the officers received a query from the Assistant Comptroller General, Iam Halimu, citing “Immoral Behaviour”, “Sabotage”, and “Any other act unbecoming of a Public Officer”, as their offences.

In the query, the Assistant Comptroller General expressed his discomfort with the video stating that “the video clip… revealed a rather disturbing and embarrassing display of indecent flaunting of your bodies, desecration of Service uniform/beret and the use of inappropriate language thereby, sabotaging the values upheld by the Service”… rather strong claims over an innocent video that did not display any form of nudity or profanity and may have been intended to show the more relatable side of NIS officers.

There is no word yet on the final fate of the three female officers. However, a number of women bodies have come forward to counter this query on behalf of the female officers, complaining that the claims against them are malicious, sexist and originating from a misogynistic standpoint.

The pressing question is... Are female officers in Nigerian executive agencies prohibited from expressing their individuality? How thin is the line of freedom of expression in such agencies for women? Are Nigerian women still being ostracized and discriminated against on account of their choice of outfits. Perhaps the country is still just conditioned to stigmatize young women who are not aligned with the innate dogmatic culture of Nigerians in the baby boomer generation.

Nonetheless, the future of these three female officers in the force remains shaky given the circumstances. Progress on the story continues to be monitored.

Let us know if you think they deserved the query in the comment section.