Politicians Should Go To Prison For One Or Two Days To Be Good Leaders – Sen. Suswam

The lawmaker representing Benue North-East federal constituency, Senator Gabriel Suswam, has dropped a bombshell, the lawmaker in his statement noted that politicians in the country should spend one or two days in the Nigeria Correction Service to be a good leader.

The Peoples Democratic Party chieftain stated that the decision would make Nigeria political leaders understand what the masses go through in the country.

The former Governor of Benue State stated this on Tuesday while speaking on a motion on the need to upgrade, decongest and disinfect the correctional centres across the country.

The lawmaker recalled that the two days he spent in the Kuje Prison, taught him a lot of lessons about life.

The Senate President, however, noted that his view or suggestion should be for people who have served as Governors or Deputy Governors of a state.

“I want to support this motion based on my experience and when I left, I recommended that for people to be proper leaders in this country, at least each and every one of us must spend one or two days in prison,” Suswam said.

The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, however, interjected and said: “Anyone who served as a governor, yes and deputy governor probably.”

Suswam continued: “I went there, they took me there in the night. The following day in the morning, the entire prison knew I was there”

“I sat down there from morning to evening because there were a lot of young people there and it might interest you to know that they spend years in prison, their demeanour, you can’t easily dismiss.”

“There was a young man who has spent 10 years there for just a problem of N10,000. Various individuals were there on very minor offences that the police can afford to correct them and send them home.”

“I made it a point of duty that when I left that place, for the next month, I took close to 20 young people out of that place. It didn’t take anything, just pay the money and send them back to court.”

The Senator representing Sokoto East senatorial district, Ibrahim Gobir, noted that the correctional centres in the country are “colleges for hardened criminals”

“People become hardened criminals. Prisons are owned by the government and the correctional centres should be owned by individuals,” Gobir said.

The former governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, while speaking noted that the Nigeria prisons are the worst kind of man’s inhumanity to man.

The Senate stated that the Federal Government should encourage private participation in the development of Correctional Centres nationwide.