THE DEBATE ABOUT DEATH PENALTY

The state should decide whether to kill condemned inmates or to commute their sentences

As Nigeria joins other countries for the 2026 World Day Against the Death Penalty with the theme, ‘Stories for Life’, a decision must be taken on the growing numbers of death row inmates in the country, especially when Zimbabwe and Ghana recently joined 112 other countries to abolish the death penalty. “Beyond the statistics and headlines, the death penalty raises profound questions about justice, human dignity and the possibility of irreversible error,” says the German ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Stefan Rössel, who today hosts an event in Abuja in partnership with Avocats Sans Frontieres (ASF) France, to commemorate the date. “How we report on these question matters—because behind every case is a human story.”

While the last execution was caried out in Nigeria in December 2016, the death penalty remains legal for crimes such as murder, armed robbery, and treason. But the debate on capital punishment as the ultimate deterrence for certain crimes continues to rage among sociologists, moral philosophers and jurisprudence experts. Those who insist on its efficacy argue that the fear of death is man’s highest nightmare and that those who know that their crimes will attract such a penalty would think twice before their action. Those with the contrary viewpoint insist that hardened criminals will not be deterred by the fear of death because of their criminal acts. The knowledge that the consequence of such a crime is predetermined death could in fact make such criminals more brutal.

This latter argument goes further to indicate that the state, by resorting to capital punishment, risks being guilty of the same killing for which it is punishing those condemned to death for crimes involving the loss of lives. If the state kills the condemned murderer, the argument goes, it reduces the population by two instead of one. Moreover, the state ought to exercise greater moral restraint by presenting a more humane, forgiving and corrective disposition even towards those who kill others. Therefore, the moral conundrum of the capital punishment argument encumbers the state with a huge burden.

In the interim, Nigeria has an urgent crisis in its burgeoning numbers of inmates on death row. Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Sylvester Nwakuche, told the National Assembly in March last year that there were 3,688 on death row. He explained that the reluctance of state governors to either execute death row inmates or commute their sentences to life imprisonment is a major reason for prison congestion. Whatever may be the justifications, prolonged solitude is not only detrimental for the psychology of death row inmates but also negates the international treaties, declarations and other documents to which Nigeria is a signatory.

It is an inherent violation on their rights and dignity to keep people interminably on death row, especially for cases that have been concluded by the Supreme Court. Some of these condemned persons have spent decades waiting to die in the hands of the law. They live in uncertainty on a day-to-day basis. Meanwhile, excuses for the delay in executing the death sentences range from shortage of hangmen to the lack of will on the part of state governors who have the ultimate power to confirm, commute or ameliorate the death sentences. Our state governors must see this situation as a serious challenge requiring urgent but delicate exercise and action.

The options are within reach. Governors should consider exercising the prerogative of mercy to commute death sentences to life for these condemned inmates. They must understand that to keep people indefinitely on death row is to kill them by instalments. Besides, it is time Nigeria joined 28 other African countries that have abolished death penalty from their statutes.