Uchegbuo, an analyst expresses worry over state of prison nationwide
Prisoners
A frontline analyst of national issues, Engr James Nnadozie Uchegbuo has expressed worries that most ex-prisoners left the prison yards more brutal than before they were jailed because “they did not receive a single behavioural counselling or craftsmanship while serving their jail terms.”
Uchegbuo who was reacting to the recent renaming of Nigerian Prisons Services to Correctional homes by the Federal Government, urged the FG to emulate developed countries like the USA before renaming any public institution.
According to Uchegbuo, “Changing the name of prison to Correctional home has not added any value to why the prisons were established. The first thing that should have been addressed is the exploding unemployment rate in the land and the wide gap in inequality margin between the rich -corrupt leaders and the poor. The second thing is the absence of craft facilities, qualified job trainers and seasoned counselors.
He posited that those who sold the idea of name change to President Buhari may be at home with reality on ground stating that what is on ground is that proper research and installation of the necessary men and facilities were not done before arriving at the decision on name change.
He called for the review of the 1999 constitution to accommodate the tenets of justice and equality and expressed worries on the inadequate craft facilities in prisons, non-availability of qualified job trainers as well as seasoned counselors around the prisons.
His words, “Why should we continue to easily convict an unemployed youth who steals a little item while the politicians and other administrators who refused to create job for such unemployed person is allowed to move around free, even after stealing the commonwealth of the people?
“We should review the 1999 construction to bring in the virtues proposed by the legendary French philosopher, Montesquieu. Changing the name of Nigerian Prisons Services to Correctional home has not added any value to why the prisons were established”
