“… "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." Proverbs 31:8-9.
"....may the groan of the prisoners
come before you: by the strength of your arm preserve those condemned to
die.” Psalm
79:1
Being able to be involved in fighting on
behalf of people for their freedom was not something I anticipated doing in
Nigeria, but has been one of the most rewarding and satisfying endeavors. As most of you know, I have been leading a
bible study in the women’s prison. This has allowed me to get to know the women
and hear their stories. Over the months I have been visiting the prison and my work with ASPIR (Advocacy for
the Support of Prisoners and Indigents Rights), I have heard so many stories of injustice that it
breaks my heart. I have come to learn that the Nigerian justice system sentences people
before trials and then again after if they are found guilty at trial. The
sentence is terminated if found not guilty, but this happens for those ’lucky’
enough to ever be tried at all.
Prisoners are refused bail and kept
behind bas for years without trial. 70% of prison inmates in Nigeria are
awaiting trials, while 30% comprise those under trail and those already
convicted. I have heard and read testimonies of those that have been detained
and waited 9 years for a trial! Most accused will wait between 1 and 5 years
for a trial date, whilst being treated as guilty. I have seen most of the suspects
in the prison isolated, unable to contact family and friends and with few, if any
visitors who remember them. In talking to a lawyer friend who works closely
with the prison system, she expressed her opinion that in Nigeria, incarceration
worsens the condition of prisoners instead of reforming them. She also shared
the truth that most inmates awaiting trial did not commit the offences that they
are accused of; they are mere suspects.
Bearing all this in mind, when I heard the
full story of one of the newer ladies last Monday, I decided to try and do
something about it. Chindu is a mother of 3, recently widowed, and 3 months pregnant.
She was accused of concealing stolen goods and sentenced to 2 years in prison
or a fee of 10,000N (about $75 NZD). In
talking to her, she explained that she was given some curlers to use in her
small hair salon, and was not aware they were in fact stolen. 2 years seemed
like a long time away from her children for such a petty crime, even if she had
committed it!
I made contact with a lawyer that another
missionary had used previously to help in the process of paying the fee to free
prisoners and she did some investigating, found the court she was convicted in
and verified the validity of Chindu’s story and the facilitated the money
transfer on my behalf. I saw her one last time before her release and even
though I’d asked for things to be kept anonymous, she knew I was responsible
and despite the language barrier I could tell she was grateful beyond
expression.
On a very
different note, Fiona and I hosted a birthday party for a Nigerian girlfriend
of ours last Friday. She had never had a party before, so it was a great thing
to be able to do for her. We ended up having over 50 Nigerians attend! Fiona
and I along with 2 Nigerian girls spent the whole of Friday cooking and
decorating, which was an exhausting job but well
worth the effort. We would have been lost without the Nigerians’ as I’ve never
had to cater for 50 before! Learnt a lot about Nigerian culture over the evening
as well. In the West when we host ‘parties’ or gatherings in our homes, people
who attend will stand around, mingle, meet new people, maybe dance a bit to the
music that is playing in the background,
and generally just BE, but Nigerians expect to be entertained! They
expect the party to have a programme, an MC, and a
games master in charge of the evening.
We were busy playing games, had been broken up
into teams and were planning songs and dances to perform for the birthday girl,
but I was getting hungry. It was about 8pm and I was a bot concerned the food
would be getting cold so I quietly suggested we eat (we'd prepared a full
Nigerian meal for guests) but was kindly told that if we served the food,
people would then leave! Sure enough, after we'd played games for
an hour or so and the men started demanding food we ate and by 9pm people
were saying goodbye. Part of this of course is that the public aren't allowed
out on the streets late at night for security reasons but it was just so
bizarre to me because 9pm is when parties really get started back home!
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| Lamella and Nuhu dancing for rapping for Blessing |
We also had a cooking competition at our compound
after church on Sunday. We had teams of about 5-6 people and split into 3 groups: mains, salads and baking. I was in
charge of baking team and I had Nigerian
girls in my team that had obviously never baked before (only very wealthy Nigerians own ovens) and didn't
quite grasp the concept of following a recipe! They all make things by touch,
taste and instinct, from having seen their mothers do it hundreds of times.
They kept praising my ability and were in wonder of how I knew how to make
cookies and brownies, I kept telling them all I was doing was reading from a
book! After we'd iced the cookies, the girls then started asking me about how
to make wedding cake icing…..I had to tell them that I actually had no idea and
my baking repertoire really was limited to cakes, muffins, biscuits and slices!
They have no scheduled me for baking lessons! More fun times ahead.
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| The Baking Team: Winners of the day! |
