The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has said that between 30 and 50 per cent of offences committed by inmates in correctional facilities across Africa should not result in imprisonment.
Speaking on Wednesday in Abuja at the Regional Conference on the Classification of Prisoners and the Use of Technology in Prisons in Africa, jointly organised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the African Correctional Services Association, the minister urged correctional authorities to critically examine the causes of prison overcrowding.
According to him, prison managers must determine whether congestion in their facilities is justified by the nature of the offences committed by inmates.
“The question is this: Is your correctional centre rightfully overcrowded? When you examine the offences, you will discover that 30, 40 or even 50 per cent of them do not warrant incarceration,” Tunji-Ojo said.
The minister disclosed that 93 per cent of inmates in Nigeria’s correctional centres are state offenders, while only seven per cent are federal offenders. He noted that many of those in state custody were jailed for minor offences that could have been handled through alternative sanctions.
“Before this administration came on board, a large number of state offenders were incarcerated for minor offences that had no business attracting prison sentences,” he said.
Tunji-Ojo revealed that shortly after assuming office, he directed the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Interior and the Controller General of the Nigerian Correctional Service to compile records of inmates detained over unpaid fines or compensation below ₦500,000.
The review, he said, identified more than 4,000 inmates in that category.
Questioning the economic sense of keeping such offenders behind bars, the minister argued that the government spent far more feeding them annually than the value of the fines they owed.
“We asked ourselves what the government stood to gain. The cost of feeding these inmates for a year was more than ten times the fines involved. After reviewing the cases, we were able to decongest our correctional centres by five per cent in a single day,” he said.
Tunji-Ojo also announced a significant reduction in recidivism, saying repeat offending in Nigeria’s correctional centres dropped from about 13,000 cases annually in 2023 to around 1,000 last year. He attributed the decline to expanded access to education, skills acquisition and rehabilitation programmes.
According to him, 62 inmates are currently enrolled in postgraduate studies, 261 are pursuing undergraduate degrees, 1,125 are participating in formal education, while 9,582 are engaged in vocational and non-formal rehabilitation programmes. These initiatives are supported by 18 National Open University of Nigeria study centres located within correctional facilities.
Also speaking at the conference, the Controller General of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Sylvester Ndidi Nwakuche, said Nigeria has continued to strengthen its correctional system through reforms driven by the Nigerian Correctional Service Act, 2019.
He noted that effective prisoner classification has become a vital tool for assessing inmate risks, protecting vulnerable prisoners, improving resource allocation and delivering targeted rehabilitation programmes.
Nwakuche added that no correctional system has all the answers to modern security and rehabilitation challenges, describing the conference as an important platform for African countries to exchange ideas and develop practical solutions.
“We have a unique opportunity to share experiences, learn from one another and collectively develop solutions that will strengthen correctional systems across Africa,” he said.
