The sorry state of the Nigerian economy with attendant poverty ravaging the largest percentage of the populace , was brought to bear Friday, with submission by the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola that the least daily upkeep spent on a prisoner in America is 31,000 in Naira equivalent, as compared to N730 .00 budgeted for similar purpose in Nigeria.
Aregbesola who made the comparison while responding to barrage of questions fired at him by members of the Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Interior during budget defence session of the Ministry for the 2020 fiscal year , added that daily upkeep spent on a prison inmate in America is even as high as N60,000 per day in some states.
The Nigeria economy, he explained, was small to be compared to that of America which made daily upkeep on a prisoner there, not only far higher than what are projected for similar purposes in Nigeria but also higher than the N30,000 minimum wage.
“Comparing Nigeria with countries like America , Turkey and even Egypt as illustrated by some of the federal lawmakers will completely demoralised the morale of any concerned citizen but what we are sure of in the Ministry , is that we shall with the limited resources available make the best for the country .
“At the Federal Executive Council level when the budget being defended now , was to be planned by way of inputs from various Ministers , I kept quiet after listening to the Minister of Finance on the challenges and constraints facing the Nation’s economy .
“One of such challenges is the paucity of fund which has made the Ministry of Interior unable to pay for forty fire trucks manufactured for the country by Turkey since 18 months ago “, he said .
He however assured the committee members that the Nigerian Prisons would not be allowed to degenerate to concentration camps in line with the new mantra of correctional service given to it .
“We are engaging the governors because there is no other way to do it than to work with them. We are working with the Ministry of Justice which already have a committee in place for decongestion of prisons.
“We are also planning a meeting with the Nigerian Governors Forum in order to sensitize them on what they should do to make sure that aspect of criminal justice administration is not neglected.
“There will be serious problems if all of us failed to come together to solve it. No sane person will want to administer or be in charge of a concentration camp in this time and age because of the problems faced by those who last operated a concentration camp. No one will in any way be connected with concentration camp. We are all concerned.
“I have said it in general terms but I will be more specific now . We will think out of the box. Nothing can be done by limiting ourselves to what is available but much can be done by being creative , innovative and very prudent in the management of scarce resources”, he explained .
Aregbesola’s submissions were triggered by comments made by a member of the Committee, Senator Chukwuka Utazi ( PDP Enugu North) on the sorry state of prisons across the country .
Utazi in his comments said there were fundamental issues which the minister must attend to, as regards inhabitability status of the prisons .
According to him, the prisons are overcongested to the point that not only are prisoners , sleeping in turns but their daily ration life threatening which cannot in anyway come out as sane citizens .
“Since our justice system is not helping, the Minister should use his passion to help us get a good feeding allowance for the prisoners, what we give to our prisoners in Nigeria is not acceptable anywhere.
” We also need to address the issue of prison expansion. Most of the prisons in Nigeria were built by colonial administration. Please start thinking of what should be done to address the problems”, he said.
