Think before you act prison is not the place to be. (My visit to Ibara prison)

So I visited Ibara prison, Abeokuta, Nigeria yesterday and it was an amazing experience. It was so unbelievable that regardless of situation in the prison, the inmates were still making efforts to live their best lives, that got me so emotional. There were so many talents in there, ranging from artists to actors and actresses.

I made a friend there also, her name is Enitan, she is a 22 years old lady who has been awaiting trial for the past 18 months she was in the drama group of the prison, she was so beautiful and full of life. Let me talk a little about the visit, the visit came as a result of partnership pact signed by two NGOs, Hospital and Prison Welfare Initiative (HPWI) and Hand of Hope Foundation (HHF), which is geared towards giving the female inmates of the prison some relief items such a Sanitary Pad, Bathing Soap and other items, as well as to give a quality training session tagged "THINK FIRST" for members visiting and the inmates. We got to the prison and were welcome into the prison by the Officer In Charge of the Welfare Department of the Prison after thorough searching and checking in processes, he led us to the Workshop of the prison where some inmates were busy preparing for examination.

We went round the workshop seeing the tailoring section, shoe making, carpentry and soap making department. From there we were being led into the open space where the main events will be held, as nice music was being rolled out by a group of talented inmates who formed a musical band in the prison. I am calling on you all to come out see good things coming out of the prisons. We all danced and feel the rhythm forgetting where we all find ourselves and our new found guests with all hearts filled with love and emotions, after that the welfare officer officially welcome us, he gave a brief speech and expressed his gratitude for the gifts given out. He give a clear perspective on how the prison operate and advice members not to see a prison as a place that inmates are being ill treated or where staffs impregnated female inmate's as everything is observed under strict protocol in the prison. The resource persons present, took the gathering through a brainstorming and interactive session tagged "THINK FIRST", focusing on Anger Management as a topic, The session was a powerful interactive session as inmates contributed and participated wonderfully.

They highlighted the reason why every individual must have to manage their anger moderately because of no one know what will happen at the end of the anger, they pointed out to the fact that aside from psychological and mental effect of anger, Anger can also affect somebody physically and it is able to reduce one's lifespan. Contributions came from every sections of the audience as well as questions. After the training, We all continue with our dancing steps as the musical band are on stand by with their instruments. We all dance, while some of us were moved to tears. The place was full of life and at a particular point I was almost in tears because the inmates were such an emotional strong set of people, they kept giving the vibe and were so happy to have us. In the mood of dancing, the overall inspector in charge of the prison came in with his entourage and joined us. After the musicals, He appreciated the visit and call for more of the collaboration. The organisers rounded up with few words, giving the inmates sigh of relief as well as that of hope. It was indeed a blessed and fulfilled day, I realized that I wasn't really better than some of the inmates but sometimes life just put us in situations we have no choice but to live with. Sadly we couldn't go in with our phones to take pictures of the beautiful experience.
Total lockup at Ibara Prison as at yesterday stood at 1,041 against the normal 510 which was the normal capacity of the prison.