FG has increased prison inmates feeding allowance by 50%, says Tunji-Ojo

Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, minister of interior, says the federal government has increased the daily feeding allowance of inmates in correctional facilities by 50 percent.

In 2023, Haliru Nababa, controller-general of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS), said the service spent more daily on feeding a security dog than feeding an inmate.

“We feed each inmate with N750 daily and they are fed three times daily (N250 for each meal),” Nababa said.

“We have 900 security dogs and to feed a dog each day we spend N800.”

The news elicited criticism from Nigerians at the time.

However, speaking at a media parley in Abuja on Tuesday, Tunji-Ojo, said the increase in the daily feeding allocation “demonstrates President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to improving the welfare of inmates and ensuring value for the allocated funds”.

The minister said the NCoS has trained and rehabilitated no fewer than 3,030 inmates on various skills across the 256 custodial centres between July and December 2024.

He said the inmates acquired skills in carpentry, tailoring, poultry, hairdressing, and fishery, among others.

He said that 50 other inmates are pursuing various academic programmes at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).

“Correctional centres are now places of hope and transformation. This is to make sure that when people go in there does not mean it is the end of their lives, they can learn,” the minister said.

“People can go in there and go to schools, get certificates or get hands-on skills.

“So that when they leave the correctional centres, they can be useful to themselves and will not see crime as the only option for survival.

“Over 50 inmates in our correctional centres are presently under various academic courses at the NOUN special study centres in our correctional facilities.

“I’ll give you an example. I think there’s a boy in one of our centres who wrote about five books while in the correctional centre.

“You see, the difference between the Nigerian Prison Service (NPS) and the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) is that prison is just a place of incarceration.

“While the Correctional Center is a place for correction, a place for transformation, and a place of hope.

“It’s a place where you give people, you train people, you make them better people so that when they go out, they can add value, and it’s impossible to do that if you do not rehabilitate them.”

The minister said the e-library in Kuje Custodial Centre has been functional for the inmates to use and equip themselves with knowledge.

“This government is providing that platform to ensure that people that go in there come out better than the way they went into those places,” he said.