Celebrating HERstories

A deronk e Egbedun w ri tes about f emal e i nmates i n Ni geri a.

Law is not a respecter of persons when an offense is committed, the offender faces its wrath; which implies that judgments in the court of law is not gender biased, its sword pierces both genders. In Nigeria, however, many people have found themselves in prison for reasons they know nothing about. Some are even awaiting trials for decades for minor offenses. Nigerian prisons are overpopulated and overcrowded and there is an urgent need for intervention by the federal government.

This is a major factor that makes life unbearable for prison inmates. In most Nigerian prisons, there are approximately 2,000 inmates. Out of this number, only about 10 percent are convicts serving their various jail terms. The remaining ones are 'awaiting trial' inmates, the cells therefore are overcrowded.

For example, A cell (1 ward 2 cell) measuring 32 feet in length and 28 feet in width has approximately 100 inmates staying there. It has a capacity for only 40! Almost a hundred prisoners use only one bathroom and two toilets. Because of this people easily contact diseases, especially skin rashes, Apollo , Chicken pus, conjunctivitis and even STDs. Therefore I decided to write about the agony of female inmates in Nigeria , no one seems to be talking about them. These women " are the forgotten ones". I am not here to justify why and how they got there but I chose to lend my voice so we can all rise up to speak collectively and fight for their rights, their fundamental human rights. In Nigerian prison, the quality of food being served to the inmates is nothing to write home about. Their soup is called water soup, for obvious reasons, the beans, rice are nothing but a mess, the sizes of meat and fish served the inmates are as small as candy. Due to the poor quality of food served the inmates, they are malnourished.

The health facilities in prisons are not adequate. It can only bear the care of minor health challenges that women experience, such as headache,