Overcrowding and Inadequate Funding

Nigeria's correctional facilities are operating far beyond their designed capacity. According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, the inmate population has climbed above 80,000, with about 65% classified as awaiting trial. This imbalance has placed enormous pressure on basic services, particularly feeding. Facilities originally built to house far fewer inmates now struggle to cater to swelling populations.

### The Strained Feeding System

Feeding in custodial centres follows a predictable pattern. Breakfast typically consists of pap, beans, or tea and bread. Lunch may include rice and stew, or yam or eba served with soup. Dinner is often a repetition or variation of what was served earlier in the day. Food items are supplied by government contractors and prepared within the prisons, largely by selected inmates using large pots and gas cookers.

### Inmates' Accounts of Poor Food

The food is just routine, not nutrition. It is cooked to fill space, not to sustain health, said Tunde Oyedele, a former inmate of Kirikiri Correctional Centre. His most vivid recollection is the condition of the food itself. Eating beans there is like chewing stones. They don't sort it properly. Sometimes the stones are almost half of what you're given. You spend more time removing stones than eating, he said.

### Health Consequences

For many inmates, the effects of poor feeding go beyond discomfort, they translate into real health challenges. Joyce Edeh, who was held at the Kirikiri Female Correctional Centre, said her time in custody was marked by recurring illness linked to food quality. She said I was constantly going to the clinic for stomach pain, weakness, and sometimes diarrhoea. The food was not balanced, and sometimes it was outright bad.

### Government Intervention Falters

In response to mounting criticism over prison conditions, the Federal Government increased the daily feeding allowance per inmate from less than N700 to N1,500 about two years ago. However, some inmates told Vanguard that the increment has not translated into meaningful improvement. The amount may have increased on paper, but in reality, it doesn't go far, an inmate who did not want his name mentioned said.

### The Reality of Starvation

Eating rice within the facility is often poorly processed and inadequately cooked. The rice can be worse. Some inmates take their portion, wash it again, and recook it. That is if they can afford to buy pepper or oil. That's how people manage, Tunde Oyedele said.

### Alternatives Found

Mike Okoroafor, who was convicted for fraud and later discharged by the Court of Appeal, survived three years inside the Kirikiri Correctional Centre by finding alternative food or going hungry. I made up my mind never to depend on prison food again. That was when I realised that if you don't find alternatives, you can't survive.

### Conclusion is Not Necessary Here