Imprisoning the Future – Worrisome Situations in Nigerian Prisons.

by Eze Eluuchie,

Below is the basic data on inmates at the Owerri federal Prisons in Imo State, South Eastern Nigeria: 
          Prison Maximum Capacity:         540 inmates

          Presently accommodates:         2, 260 inmates

          Convicts:                                       216 inmates

          Non-convicts/Awaiting Trial:    2,044 inmates

The Owerri Federal Prisons presently accommodates 418.5% above the number of inmates it was built to hold. 90.44% of the inmates in the Prison are merely awaiting trial and have no business being in the Prison in the first place – until and if they are convicted.

Some persons awaiting trial have been detained at the Owerri Prisons for over 10 years.

In the course of interviewing some of the inmates or going through their case files (for those who still have case-files). a startling revelations immediately becomes apparent: quite a great proportion of those merely awaiting trial have not only stayed in custody beyond the period they would have served if they had actually been convicted, and secondly, some were just detained, on framed up charges by some 'big-man', which in some cases can be as mundane as an uncle who wants to do away with a 'troublesome' youngster who refuses to let his late fathers property be wrongly taken away. And pronto the youngster is thrown in to the prison and rots away there ad infinitum.

Earlier pro-bono efforts, under the aegis of the Prison Decongestion and Human Rights Program (PDHRP of PADDI Foundation) aimed at ameliorating the dire statistics above and ensuring that at the very least persons awaiting trial who had spent overly long periods in the Prison were released were frustrated by bureaucratic bottle-necks, demand of gratification by officers of the judiciary and the general decay of the Nigerian system.

Though Owerri Prisons stands out as having the worst Prisoner : Awaiting Trial Men (P:ATM) ratio among Nigerian prisons, the pattern is reflected across all prisons in Nigeria to a lesser level.

We shame ourselves and humanity by our treatment of those who we have, rightly and at times wrongly, consigned to the prisons. A place that ought to serve to reform and probably make better, is transformed to a pit where the negative is multiplied and society eventually pays a high price for allowing evil to flourish.  

One really wonders where all the millions of dollars in developmental aids and donor grants accorded to various government agencies and ‘human right protection’ or ‘civil liberty’ non-governmental organizations by foreign governments, development partners and donor organizations filtered to.

The real sorrow for the peoples of Nigeria is that whilst some pick-pockets, small time bandits are wallowing in our jail-houses, the mega criminals who rape the contraption blind, pillage the treasury and launder their loot in foreign territories and sponsor mass atrocities in a desperate bid to hold unto political power are escorted around our poorly paved streets in siren-blaring convoys, maiming and killing at will.  

For the sake of those who are saddled with citizenship of Nigeria, the Nigerian contraption simply needs to be restructured and renegotiated.

Picture: Inmates in a sleeping position at a Nigerian prison.

Travel Ban on Nationals of Seven Muslim-Majority States: Donald Trump, You Got It Wrong!

by Eze Eluchie,

The bombastic that he is, when Donald Trump as a candidate for the US Presidential elections was announcing at virtually all his campaign stops that he would, if elected, ban all Muslims from travelling into America, many an observer felt that such gross talk was merely to key into the base sentiments of the so-called middle-class fellows who had been abandoned by globalization and felt a need to ‘retrieve their America’ from whosoever.

The candidate is now POTUS and to the consternation of the international community, what had been thought of as mere campaign rhetoric has been signed into an Executive Order which bans travel to the United States of America by nationals of the following 7 Muslim-dominated countries, to wit: Yemen, Libya, Tunisia, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq and Iran! By fiat, a blanket embargo had been placed on all individuals whose sole criteria was being nationals of the 7-listed countries irrespective of their personal differences.

Whenever there is a blanket labelling of any group of people based on their religion, race, colour, particular physical peculiarities or other subjective criteria, and such subjective criteria forms the sole basis of apportioning benefits or liabilities, humanity hurts; as fairness, justice and equity takes the backseat. Experts in human psychology will readily confirm the commonality of our humanity. Human beings, of whatsoever race, creed, colour and wheresoever they may be located on earth are comprised of a similar number of basic building blocks, chromosomes. Saintly or criminal dispositions can be found in peoples of all races, nationalities and religions. Just like there are persons of saintly dispositions who happen to be nationals of European and North American countries or of any creed whatsoever, there are also persons of same disposition amongst the countries who are now subjected to very unfair categorizations resulting from the Executive Order, irrespective of creed.

What really did Mr. Trump hope to achieve by this clearly not well thought out blanket ban? Further alienate the nationals of these countries? Increase the recruitment base for extremist Islamist terror organizations? Make nationals of the listed countries who might have contributed or are contributing or intending to contribute to US advancement have a rethink? Ready the minds of other Muslim-dominated countries and Muslims generally where ever they may reside of whatever nationality (including Americans) begin to harbour ill-will against the US? The questions are endless, all in the negative without any likely positive purpose of such blanket ban.

When it is realized that nationals of the embargoed countries have not participated in any terrorist attacks against the US on US soil for the past several decades, as opposed to some other financially and strategically well-endowed countries Muslim-dominated countries within the same region whose nationals seem to have a passion for attacking the US (particularly Egypt and Saudi Arabia whose nationals formed the bulk of the terrorists who participated in 9-11), the use of the guise of security threats posed by nationals of the listed countries as the excuse to place the blanket ban exposes a unique personal flaw of Mr. Trump that had previously only been hinted at – a willingness to move against supposedly weaker states whilst shying away from confronting stronger adversaries – the countries whose nationals are banned from travelling to the US, with the exception of Iran, are relatively weak states.

Immediate dire consequence of this ban will manifest firstly in Somalia, where efforts to shore up the internationally recognized Government will be be dealt a near fatal blow by the blanket categorization of all Somalis.  Al-Shabab will be celebrating the travel ban as most Somali’s will now have no other option than to pitch tents with its ‘the-West-hates-us’ ideology.  The people of Sudan who are now made to join their long-term dictator and fugitive from ICC-trial, Omar al-Bashir in the list of those banned from travelling to the US may begin to rethink their hostility to Al-Bashir who is now made to look like ‘one of them’. The only entities who are celebrating the travel ban will surely include ISIS, AQIM, l Qeida and other extremist Islamist terror groups whose job of soliciting for more converts has suddenly been made easier.

There is no doubt that every country has the right to protect its citizens from harm and terrorists the best way it knows how, but such protections cannot be in a manner that contradicts basic norms of decency and has all the potential of boomeranging  to cause greater harm.  It is difficult to see in any way the travel ban would benefit any interests of the United States or its position as a leading democratic nation or the so-called ‘leader of the free world’.  

On the ban of travel to the United States for nationals of 7 Muslim majority countries, Mr. Trump, you got it woefully wrong!

Picture: Placard at rally protesting the travel ban.

Nigeria's Continuing Manifestations of Religious Bigotry and Intolerance

by Eze Eluchie,

When an ethnocentric and religious bigot presides over a secular country, systematic efforts to outlaw all other religions except the bigots religion takes center stage (such as the present instance of exclusion of all other religious associations except the Islamic Muslim Student Society of Nigeria in a university funded from state treasury).

This effort at religious cleansing by the Umar Musa Yar'Adua University, Katsina State, is merely one of several of its kind going on simultaneously across the country masterminded by government agencies. Other manifestations of religious bigotry (some of which have taken place with explicit support and or encouragement of Nigeria's Federal Government, include: Ethnic and religious cleansing, interference in the management of Christian religious organizations, demolition of Christian places of worship, abolition of Christian association from educational institutions and other public forums, and so on. These efforts will continue and perhaps only abate when frontally confronted.

FREEMIND and the various media associated with it and FB Page had, prior to the 2015 presidential elections, severally warned Nigerians of the character and persona of Mr. Buhari prior to the 2015 general elections. Now as religious bigotry manifests in high political offices in Nigeria, and the highest political office for that matter, Nigerians and the rest of the interested international community should brace themselves for what portends to be a most turbulent period – as there is bound to be resistance to the unfolding evil.

For any still interested in keeping the Nigerian contraption as an entity, the very first steps must be how to, within the provisions of the law, get the Muhammadu Buhari-led junta and its ethno-religious extremist mannerisms out of office as soon as possible.

Restructure and Renegotiate the Nigerian contraption whilst there is yet time.....

Picture: Copy of circular banning all religious except the Islamic Muslim Students Society of Nigeria in a publicly funded university in the home State of President Buhari.