Petty criminals are filling Africa’s prisons, Tunji-Ojo said as Nigeria recorded a sharp drop in repeat crimes

Minister of Home Affairs, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has voiced his concern over the increasing population of inmates in correctional institutions across Africa, arguing that the majority of those behind bars are committing offenses that should not result in prison sentences.

Speaking on Wednesday at the Regional Conference on Classification of Prisoners and the Use of Technology in Prisons in Africa, co-hosted in Abuja by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the African Correctional Services Association (ACSA), the minister urged correctional services to re-evaluate the causes of congestion in prisons across the continent.

He challenged prison administrators to critically examine whether overcrowding in their facilities is truly unavoidable.

“The question is this. Are your correctional facilities really overcrowded? That’s the question. You have to look at specific offenses. You will realize that over 30, 40, 50 percent are offenses that do not require incarceration,” he said.

Tunji-Ojo revealed that state-related offenses account for the majority of inmates in Nigerian correctional institutions, and noted that many of those incarcerated were imprisoned for relatively minor offences.

“93% of our inmates in Nigeria are state offenders. Only 7% are federal offenders. And of this 93%, I want to tell you before this president took office, many of them committed minor offenses that do not require incarceration,” he said.

The minister recalled that shortly after taking office, he directed the leadership of the Nigerian Correctional Service to collect data on inmates jailed on light financial sentences and compensation orders.

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“When I was minister, I called my permanent secretary, I called the Controller General of Corrections, and I said, listen, give me the data, records of people who were in prison with fines and compensation of less than 500,000 or something like that. And guess what? More than 4,000 people,” he said.

Questioning the rationale behind detaining such violators, Tunji-Ojo argued that the cost of detaining them was far greater than the financial penalties imposed by the courts.

“I said, what’s the use of this? Because in a year I feed them more than 10 times the fine. So what’s the benefit for the government? And we can solve it, and in one day we decongest our prisons by 5% in one day. In one day,” he added.

The Minister also announced a significant reduction in the number of repeat offenders returning to correctional institutions, and this was due to the expansion of educational and vocational rehabilitation programs.

According to him, the annual recidivism rate has decreased from around 13,000 cases in 2023 to around 1,000 cases last year.

He revealed that the Nigerian Correctional Service currently has 62 inmates enrolled in postgraduate studies, 261 are pursuing undergraduate degrees, 1,125 are pursuing formal education programs and 9,582 are undertaking vocational and non-formal training. He added that the initiative is supported through the 18 National Open University of Nigeria study centers located in correctional institutions across the country.

While addressing conference participants, the Controller General of Nigerian Correctional Services, Sylvester Ndidi Nwakuche, said the country continues to strengthen its correctional system through reforms introduced under the Nigerian Correctional Services Act, 2019.

He noted that effective prisoner classification is important for assessing security risks, protecting vulnerable prisoners, allocating resources efficiently and implementing rehabilitation programs tailored to individual needs.

Highlighting the importance of collaboration between correctional institutions in Africa, Nwakuche said no single country has the answers to modern correctional challenges.

“We have a unique opportunity to exchange ideas, share practical experiences and collectively develop solutions that will strengthen correctional systems across Africa,” he said.