Recent events in Correctional Centres appear to have changed the citizens’ perception of prison confinement. ELEOJO IDACHABA in this piece examines the experiences of persons who have one way or the other been involved.
Before it became known as Correctional Centres, if anyone was incarcerated in any erstwhile Nigeria Prison Service, it was usually understood that the person had been confined to eternal damnation until when events showed that rather than being the most dreaded place, prisons (now called Correctional Centres) are actually reformation centres, especially judging by its name.
The wrong perception was so because in the past, anyone who once went into the prison, but was lucky to come out safely, had one debilitating story or another to tell; however, recently all that seemed like mysteries.
Evidences
A fortnight ago, during the 11th convocation ceremony of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), its vice-chancellor, Professor Olufemi Peters, announced that 25 inmates from across Correctional Centres in the country were part of the graduates. The announcement was taken like a pinch of salt until he further gave the details. Giving a breakdown, Prof Peters said out of the said 25 in number, one of them was a post-graduate student with a master’s degree while the rest were first degree holders.
Prof. Peters said, “We went out of our ways to provide learning tools for those willing to study in those Corrections Centres in line with our mandate of breaking every barrier against education. Detention is not a barrier and thank God the Correctional Centres provided the platform for us to do that.”
That was not all; not too long ago, a viral video of a young lady, Chidinma Ojukwu, took over the social media when she was shown participating in a beauty pageant parade at the Kirikiri Prison in Lagos as against what most people thought are the peculiarities of prison life.
Chidinma, who was implicated in the death of Super TV boss, Michael Ataga, and sent to prison was recently crowned Miss Cell 2022 as part of events to mark the 2022 International Women’s Day. Whoever saw the video would never have imagined that the beauty pageant was actually held within the four walls of Kirikiri Prison, but that was it. Although counter reactions trailed the viral picture/video, especially as it concerns the feeling of the deceased’s family, the video portrayed Correctional Centres as another world of its own where reformation of characters takes place.
Eyewitness accounts
When former President Olusegun Obasanjo came out of prison in 1998, he told the whole world while interacting with some officials of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) that he became a regenerated human being while in prison. Recounting his experiences, the former president said, “I met Christ while I was in prison. There, the only companion I had was my Bible and old newspapers plus frequent visits from prison evangelists. That was how I gave my life to Christ.”
Obasanjo is not alone in this as a former governor of Abia state, Orji Uzor Kalu, once admitted shortly after his release from Kuje Correctional Centre Abuja in 2020 that he met God while in prison. According to him, even though he was treated as an ‘executive’ inmate, his experiences showed that detention centres are also reformatory centres for anyone willing to live a better life after the confinement.
Ex-prisons boss’ opinion
Corroborating this, a former Deputy Comptroller General of Prison, Uche Kalu, said that it was a wrong perception held by many that whenever anyone is held in any of the confinement centres; that is the end of life.
“During my years in service, we made it a matter of policy to ensure that even though most prisons were old in outlook, we ensured that inmates undergo proper reformation programmes in order to avoid being a nuisance when they come into the society. A badly/poorly treated inmate is a potential danger to society if eventually such comes out of confinement. That is why I am happy that today the name now reflects the mandate. Oftentimes, that was part of the memo we presented before the board and graciously the board gave approval even with the limited resources at government disposal,” he said.
When asked if the quality of infrastructure in the country was anything compared to what obtains in other developed countries, he said, “Although one cannot compare the quality of amenities in overseas prisons with Nigeria, we were also mindful of minimum standards in line with available resources.”
Ex-inmate’s experience
A former inmate of Lafia Prison, now a furniture maker in Kugbo, Abuja, Adindu Adinuba, told this reporter that there is a difference between police detention cells and what is known as conventional prisons. He said so in his capacity as someone who had experienced both.
He said, “In 2007, I was implicated in an incident involving burglary at a tyre depot in Mararaba and arrested by the police. Initially, I was locked up at Uke Police Station, but was later charged to court and later sentenced to prison. For the three months that I was in the police cell, life was hell. That was when some human right crusaders who heard about our case insisted that we be charged to court. That was how I ended in Lafia Prison.
“In the prison, we had food; we were trained on various crafts like carpentry, roofing and tailoring apart from going regularly to the prison farm where we also learnt how to cultivate certain crops. I chose carpentry because I was actually interested in it before I got implicated. Luckily in 2014, having found nothing wrong in my case file, the former Chief Justice of the state released me and other inmates, but before then, I already learnt carpentry, so it was not too difficult for me to adjust when I came out. There is a difference between police station detention and prison.”
A cleric’s take
A prison evangelist, Pastor Celestine Mathew, in his view, said contrary to what people think is the state of inmates in prisons, it is actually a reformation centre spiritually and otherwise.
“I have been a prison evangelist since 2007 after the Lord told me that I should close my church in Benin and move to Abuja. Since then, I have been on missionary and evangelical visits to many prisons around Abuja like Kuje, Suleja, Lafia, Koton Karfe and Kabba.
“I discovered that even the prison authorities have a liberal policy of allowing us to visit the inmates with the word of God be and so because of that, I have firsthand knowledge of how inmates are treated. Many of those who later left prisons are preachers today. Some are good members of the society while some are even part of our evangelical team to other prisoners whenever we visit them. Even though I do not pray for anyone to be confined before one can learn, life in prison is not a death sentence, but reformatory,” he said.
An analyst’s view
According to a development architect, Olarewaju Osho, happenings in Correctional Services are shielded from most Nigerians.
He said, “Most Nigerians don’t bother about it until they have a reason to pay a visit to any prison across the country.
“Even as a visitor, you can only see a tip of the iceberg. It is difficult to see or know many of the things going on behind the walls unless one is an inmate or a staff member. One of the other ways to know the truth about the state of affairs is to speak with an inmate or a staff member.
“Nigeria Prisons can truly become Correctional Centres where the return rate of offenders is drastically reduced to the lowest level possible. They can become nurseries of destiny transformation where people go in as offenders but come out as agents of change. To achieve this would never be business as usual. The time to try and force change is now.”
The story of the 25 inmate graduates of NOUN and Miss Ojukwu may have changed the citizens’ perception of Correctional Centres across the country.
