A former Nigerian Vice president during the military era Admiral Augustus Aikhomu was once asked about the deteriorating living condition of Inmates. He quickly fired back ” Is prison a hotel?” His response, unfortunately, mirrors the mindset of successive Nigerian governments toward the welfare condition of death row inmates. Four out of every five Nigerian prisons were built before 1950.
The use of the death penalty is no longer fashionable. Today, two-thirds of countries in the world have either abolished the death penalty outrightly or no longer use it in practice. Earlier this year Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic abolished the death penalty. So do over 20 other countries in Africa including Sierra Leone , Chad , and Guinea . Europe remains virtually free of the death penalty. And the US is slowly turning against capital punishment.