THE fable behind the pre-independence four-star prison in Ilesa suggested a poignant warning to the equally-fabled stubborn streak of the stock. Nothing disparaging here; I am ancestrally connected. From pre-history, befitting prisons have always been the colonial masters’ aroko (coded message) to those they plan to conquer their souls, spirits and lives and they keep re-jigging the strategy to match changing times, coating the chalice with honey since the dawn of the suspicious campaign for a freer world by the same western world which is always seeking to take prisoners by different but all means. The prisoner-seekers have always found a willing captive in many African countries especially Nigeria who rush at anything packaged in form of aids without second-guessing possible motives that could be everything but altruistic. I think they used to say that there is no free lunch in London and being our colonial masters who didn’t leave by choice, I still can’t see the attraction for the Nigerian government in the offer by United Kingdom to revamp Nigerians jails with Britons’ taxes and then deport 594 Nigerian prisoners in UK, (guess the number included James Ibori) to complete their terms here. UK government said the gesture was “to deport the prisoners without breaching their human rights”. Another segment of the project according to the UK government is “human rights training for prison officers”.
UK said the motif was to plug the £420m hole to its purse by caring for the 11,127 foreign inmates behind its bars, by helping the highest contributors-but poor nations- (importation mine) like Jamaica with highest 900 inmates and Nigeria to house their criminals.
The importation was due to their choice of needy countries. Why picking Nigeria and Jamaica out of others for prison rehabilitation help when countries like Poland-750 and Republic of Ireland-737 were not included?
Jamaica’s story with the English bears resemblance with Nigeria’s. Once a Spanish possession known as Santiago, the fifth largest in the Caribbean became an English colony in 1655 and achieved full independence on 6th August, 1962. But with its entire global brand in Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake et al, it is still an island of 2.8 million people, though third most populous in Americas after USA and Canada. It is remarkable that Osun State’s population is now put at almost 4.2 million. So everything points to Jamaica needing help, especially its possible nuisance proximity to “those controlling global show”. But do we really need UK to refurbish our prisons for us before we can accommodate 594 prisoners when over 25,000 inmates are awaiting trials. What significant increase would the transferees make in the already over-crowded prisons that we are opening a yawning security gap in the system to foreigners? I know our love for hand-outs is legendary because it allows for the operators of such system benefitting from those suspicious interventionist programmes, to simply shovel the funds originally appropriated into personal pouch. Such predilection has turned us into full-blown beggar-nation. Or how does one explain the Central Bank of Nigeria accepting $200,000 computerization aid from United States of America when it probably provided the $620,000 suspicious sting operation fund involving Femi Otedola and Farouk Lawan.
With the prison rehabilitation already on-going, I can place a bet on the Britons supervising the critical aspect, possibly using our huge appetite for corruption as an excuse to do direct monitoring of its investment. Would you blame anyone for putting his mouth where his money is? It would be simple thinking for our leaders to think that our former Lords of Manor just love us and help without any attaching interests and even when it is just a normal free meal, our voracious ways of devouring such free meals, leaves much to desire. Does it occur to the prison managers in Nigeria that the interventionists could also explore security advantages like using hidden security cameras that could further expose our underbelly? What does the intervention even say about our attitude to our citizens; even if they are prisoners? Does it mean we cannot provide prison accommodation for just 594 Nigerians, considering that the prison system has not really be the ideally? I am sure we can receive and keep those prisoners even if they are serving life sentences, without compromising the system. I know there are mega-prisoners who must use comfy arena in the prisons given their large heartedness towards warders but we can still continue with the skewed system without further exposing our filth even if a certain James Ibori is on his way to Nigeria.
Written by Lanre Adewole
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