Being text of a Keynote address delivered by Hon. Justice I. A. Umezulike, Chief Judge, Enugu State at the Feast of Barracuda organised by the Enugu State Chapter of the National Association Of Seadogs, in Enugu on 26th February, 2005.
PRELIMINARIES
I am grateful to the organisers of this great event for finding me worthy to deliver a key note address therein. I am not a member of the PYRATES CONFRATERNITY and I know that it has members who are far better qualified to present the keynote address than my humble self.
However my great respect for the Nigerian Association of Seadogs dates back to my undergraduate and graduate days in the University of Lagos in the mid seventies and early eighties. In those days in the University of Lagos, members of the association were highly respected and almost revered. They were the best behaved and even the best dressed. In matriculation, convocation and other university ceremonies, members of the association officially complemented the efforts of the university security unit in the maintenance of discipline, order and decorum. If then, you saw a student who was stopped or kicked by a fellow student but never retaliated, but merely smiled and walked away, chances were, he was a member of the PYRATES CONFRATERNITY. Then, we were told that members were under strict instruction never to engage in public physical confrontations and that severe punishment awaited those who breached this unswerving rule. I hope this noble rule is still extant.
The only time you saw the other side of its members was when any recalcitrant student ignored or disobeyed the clear and sufficient order of the CAMPUS CAPOON to stay away from certain parts of the campus at a certain time of the night to enable the seadogs peacefully ‘sail’.
Myths were woven around members of the seadogs in my university days. Just to name a few; they were supposed to be first class or second class upper brains; supposed to come from or belong to very wealthy homes and must be tolerant, well behaved and have the physical ability to take slaps and whips. Many of us who did not possess the above attributes merely stayed away and admired them from the grand stand.
It was hoped that the calm-sea climate which usually attended your ceremonies has not been disturbed by recent circumstances. Once more I express my respects and I say that I am happy and privileged to be here. I now come to the main issue.
NIGERIAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM, REFORMATORY OR RETRIBUTORY?
In these days when the demand for more effective and efficient administration of justice is finding a response as never before in the Federal and State Governments, it is gratifying and auspicious that the PYRATES CONFRATERNITY in this year’s event is focusing attention on the ‘Nigerian Criminal Justice System’ I do know that eminent persons will deliver strong papers on various aspects of this year’s theme and so our intention is not to preempt them.
But we may state merely in outline that there are two fundamental policy components in the determination of whether our criminal justice system is retributory or reformatory. These are:
1. The court’s sentencing policy or objective of sentencing; and
2. Prison conditions in Nigeria
We must note that Nigeria’s criminal justice system or process distinguishes between a man or woman who could not have prevented his criminal actions and the man or woman who could have. Our society and criminal process justify conviction and punishment by way of imprisonment for the responsible agent who could have prevented his actions. Truth, to tell, punishment by way of imprisonment or fine has always been an incident of responsibility. We should bear in mind that at the sentencing stage we are no longer entitled to invoke the presumption of innocence as a touch stone for evaluating the convict’s disposal conditions. In addition, the state and society as a whole have an unyielding interest in protecting the community from threat of further crimes by those who ought to have prevented or controlled their actions.
We are however aware that psychiatrists and criminologists reject all justifications for criminal punishment and castigate them as punitive and retributive. An expression of the Mosaic Law of ‘An Eye for an Eye’. I will leave subsequent presenters of papers to evaluate the relative success of our sentencing objectives namely, deterrence, incapacitation, reformation and rehabilitation in the overall interest of achieving justice under our criminal justice system.
CUSTODIAL STATUS OF PRISONERS
We may also draw attention to the welfare of the Nigerian prisoners whilst in confinement. It is obvious that they are treated with less than utmost humanity. And it is even much worse for those confined pending trial.
We advocate the provision in our prisons, of modern facilities that offer our prisoners dormitory type rooms except perhaps for those adjudged as dangerous to others. There would also able modern facilities for vocations and non-custodial trainings for some category of prisoners. In this way the prisoner will be prepared or rehabilitated to re-enter the society after the period of incarceration.
We are aware that the facilities available in almost all our prisons are residue of several decades. Because the essential functions at the time these facilities were constructed dictated maximum security measures and an austere existence for prisoners, these facilities have remained so notwithstanding changing times and circumstances. The deprivations and restrictions imposed on a prisoner should not approximate sub-human level at this stage of global civilization.
Regrettably, the horrible conditions and facilities under which our prisoners are kept have not received any judicial intervention and so the urgent need to impose facilities has not received enough response from appropriate government agencies. It may well be that the doctrine of separation of powers and the belief that the judiciary is ill-equipped to deal with the problems of internal prison management, allowed a ‘hands-off’ attitude to grow among the Nigerian courts.
However, government does not need a judicial excessive order to appreciate that the prisons need urgent and broad relief in the areas of housing, training and welfare of prisoners in correspondence with 21 st century standards in developed countries. Wherefore, convicts will leave the prisons better citizens and more equipped to face the challenges of the civil society.
When this is achieved, there is no doubt that out criminal justice system which is essentially retributory will also become essentially reformatory. Then advocates of prisons and criminal justice reforms in Nigeria will obviously feel fulfilled.
And at this point, I seek your permission to feel discharged.
Thank you and God Bless.
