My opinion on the emergence of Miss Chidinma Ojukwu, alleged killer of Super TV's CEO as the Miss Cell, a beauty peageantry which held at Kirikiri Prison in commemoration of the International Women's Day. | Olalekan Olatunbosun

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I have read a lot of banters following the emergence of Chindima as Miss Cell in Kirikiri. A lot of 'netizens' described it as arrant nonsense and a show of shamelessness. I'm still in shock that many of us are still in dark as to what is obtainable in the global best practices when it comes to imprisonment or perhaps, correctional service.

I know that the typical understanding we all have about the prison originated from Nollywood movies where a suspect is pronounced a criminal and sentenced to imprisonment then a family member faints and the court exclaims. More often than not, the next scene we see in such movie is the convict in a uniform cutting grass and lamenting. In some other movies, the new convict is shown in a scene where he/she is initiated by other convicts with severe bullying. In short, Nollywood presents imprisonment as total condemnation.

Sadly, this is the situation in many Nigerian prisons. It's become a dungeon of pain and every terrible inhumane treatment can imagine. Many prisoners in the Nigerian prisons today are awaiting trials and may wait for the rest of their lives. It's that terrible.

Quickly, it might interest you to know that The Nigerian Correctional Service(NCoS), formerly known as Nigerian Prison Service (NPS) is a government agency of Nigeria which operates prisons. The agency is headquartered in Abuja, and it is under the supervision of the Ministry of the Interior and the Civil Defence Immigration and Correctional Service. The name was changed from the Nigerian Prisons Service to the Nigerian Correctional Service by President Muhammadu Buhari on the 15th of August 2019 after signing the Nigerian Correctional Service Act of 2019 into law. The bill was passed by the 8th Assembly of the House of Representatives but the signing was done two months after their tenure had expired. The law divides the Correctional Service into two main areas which are The Custodial Service (taken into custody) and Non-custodial Service (suspect on probation) (Wikipedia 2022).

So, in Chindima's case, let's talk as if we have a functional correctional service. By this, Chindima committed a crime and unless the court pronounced death by hanging, electrocution or firing squad, she will be going through a 'correctional service'. Even if it is life imprisonment, she deserves to emerge as Miss anything as long as it doesn't nullify the court judgement on where she should be.

I'm not pro-crime. This is just a simple reality that the prison should be a place for rehabilitation and correction especially for those with specific prison terms and are likely to return to the society after they finish serving their term. We don't need damaged people returning from prisons, we need rehabilitated and refined people. 

Crime can not be completely wiped out in any society, however, the state must continually channel efforts towards ensuring that culprits are given a chance to be better than they are.

I have read about inmates who gets degrees in prison and come out to be better than they got there. This doesn't negate the fact that necessary punishment shouldn't be melted out on them, but everyone deserves a second chance, a chance to right their wrongs. 

Inmates should be trained on entrepreneurial skills, so they can return as a deduction from crime rate. It's a correctional service not a condemnation service.

© The Catalyst, Olalekan Olatunbosun.