The poor and shabby state of the Nigerian prisons came to the fore recently, during the 2018 budget defence of the Ministry of Interior, which took place at the National Assembly. At the budget defence, members of the Senate Committee on Interior were very disgusted at the poor budgetary provision for the feeding of prisoners.
The lawmakers had queried the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Prisons Service, Ahmed Ja’afaru, on the feeding of prisoners. In his reply, Ja’afaru told the lawmakers that N17 billion was allocated for feeding of the prisoners. The prisons authorities will spread the money across its 244 prisons in the country, thus enabling one prisoner to get N450 worth of meal per day.
The opening of prisons to non-governmental organisations has now had a positive effect on the prison system in this clime. In particular, it has allowed NGOs to bring food, educational materials and lawyers into the prisons. They organise religious activities, offer counselling and teach inmates
Members of the Senate Committee were infuriated by the meagre amount allocated to feed the prisoners. Reacting to the Comptroller-General’s reply, a member of the Committee, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, decried the little budgetary allocation to the prisoners, which he had noticed overtime. The lawmakers were further rattled hearing the story of the logic of food rationing in the prisons. The Comptroller-General explained that N300 was the actual cost of each prisoner’s meal per day, while N150 went for cooking.
It is indeed outrageous, despicable, wicked and unacceptable at this point in the country’s existence for the government to expect that an average adult prisoner will exist on N300 food per day. If anything, the poor food ration for the inmates account for the poor health of most Nigerian prisoners.
The poor budgetary allocation to the Prisons Service account for the poor feeding of the prisoners and a major reason many of them, who are often herded out on hard labour, usually beg for alms. When prisoners are poorly fed, overtime, they become frail, haggard and emaciated. This, when added to the almost bare healthcare delivery in the prisons, make prisoners terribly unhealthy and very weak, and thus susceptible to many communicable diseases.
Prisoners have a right to good health, a right to life and to be given adequate food while under government’s incarceration. But a justice system that leaves jailed people at the mercy of benevolent people to send food to prison inmates is not the best. It calls to question the sorry state of the country’s justice and prisons system. In addition, prisons are supposed to be transformational. But if prison inmates are made to face the worst of starvation in the midst of crowdedness and other inconveniencies and diseases as witnessed in the country’s prisons today, it speaks volumes about government’s nonchalant attitude and poor care for prisoners and their health.
The opening of prisons to non-governmental organisations has now had a positive effect on the prison system in this clime. In particular, it has allowed NGOs to bring food, educational materials and lawyers into the prisons. They organise religious activities, offer counselling and teach inmates. But, NGOs are not primarily responsible for the welfare of the inmates. The government must, therefore, shoulder its responsibilities and take care of those under its custody in the prisons.
Indeed, among the yardsticks by which a nation’s true humanity and essence are measured is the quality of treatment meted out to its prisoners; in addition to the quality of life of the citizenry. Nigerian prisons are populated by men and women (some pregnant or are nursing children) who may be there to serve punishment for misdeeds but deserve to do so in the context of reformation. While we condemn the dismal state of Nigeria’s prisons, it is also well known that corruption flourishes in its food contract-award system. Also, inadequate funding of the prison service is condemnable as it has taken its toll on the lamentable state of health and mental fitness of the prisoners.
In addition, the United Nations has its Standard Minimum Rules for the treatment of prisoners and recommends that countries should adopt them to curtail the spate of dehumanising treatment of prison inmates. Nigeria should adopt such rules. Also, in better societies, prisons authorities try to follow approved international standards in the treatment of prisoners. For example, in neighbouring Ghana, the Prison Service is responsible for the safe custody of prisoners, including their welfare, reformation and rehabilitation. A transformational taskforce was recently commissioned by the Ghanaian prison authorities to help upgrade the prisons system to conform to the United Nations’ standards.
In Kenya, the state of the prisons is humane and the kind of food the inmates are fed with is decent. In addition, Kenyan prison farms ensure the steady supply of maize-the country’s staple food-which saves the government huge sums that could have been expended on food purchase. Many other countries have better treatment for prisoners.
Going forward, the prisons authorities must ensure a thorough supervision of the food supply system to the prisons, including the quality of food supplied. Above all, the government must ensure that the Nigeria Prisons Service adopt international best practice in the treatment of its incarcerated citizens.
