20 August 2009
editorial
Lagos — Former Defence Minister, now Interior Minister, Dr. Shetima Mustapha has promised to revamp the Nigerian prisons. He said that he suffered unjust incarceration for 12 months during the prolonged military rule in Nigeria and was ready to bring his wealth of experience to bear in tackling the problems besetting Nigerian prisons.
As we have repeatedly said on this issue, the conditions prevailing in Nigerian prisons are degrading to humanity. Not only are Nigerian prisons heavily congested, they lack the minimum facilities suitable for human habitation. Many of the prisons were built during the colonial era and since then no efforts have been made to renovate them. Consequently, the worn-out prison facilities and infrastructure are unable to cater for the increasing population of prisoners.
Whereas the prison systems in most countries are meant to reform the prisoners, the Nigerian prison system is unduly punitive and oppressive. After spending long jail terms in Nigerian prisons, most Nigerian prisoners come out as hardened criminals and terrors to the society. Worse still, the Nigerian prison system operates without the aid of modern amenities. Most are not yet computerized. Statistics and profiles of prisoners are still kept in old and worn out files.
Little wonder the country has consistently recoded jail breaks in recent years. Finding themselves in the hellish places called Nigerian prisons without speedy trial, the prisoners are so desperate to do anything to regain their freedom. The recent Enugu jail break, for example, in which 150 prison inmates escaped after beating up some of the prison officials was an agitation against the horrible conditions prevailing in Enugu prisons.
It is therefore heart-warming that the new Minister is taking up the gauntlet to revamp the Nigerian prisons. Considering his experience as a former prison inmate, he should be able to appreciate better problems such as over-congestion, shortage of personnel, security lapses, malnutrition, corruption.
We are disappointed that several promises had been made in the past about prison reforms which were never fulfilled. The last Obasanjo government, for instance, set up a National Working Group on Prison Reforms to audit the state of the country's prisons and to make recommendations to the government. The former Interior Minster also promised to construct more prisons in Nigeria. But unfortunately nothing fruitful came out of these seemingly lofty initiatives. So the real problem, in the final analysis, does not lie in making promises, but in fulfilling those promises.
More importantly, without adequate judicial reform aimed at complete overhauling of the country's criminal justice system, efforts at decongesting our prisons or ameliorating the plight of Awaiting Trail Inmates in our prisons would come to naught. If crime investigation continues to drag on endlessly, if the police continues to dump suspects in prison on trumped-up charges, if court trial is stalled by endless adjournments at the instance of the prosecution for lack of vital evidence to prosecute the suspects, if the Magistrates who lack the jurisdiction to try certain offences like murder charges continue to remand suspects in prisons under the cover of "Holden Charge', there is no way the Nigerian prisons can be reformed.
The conditions in Nigerian prisons are a symptom of a deep-seated malaise.
To tackle the symptoms without tackling the deep-seated problems would not help. A more holistic approach is needed to effectively reform our prison system.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
