Jailed for Life: A Reporter's Prison Notes

by K. Ajibade

Wole Soyinka provides a foreword to this visceral account of a prominent newspaper editor's arrest, interrogation and imprisonment between 1995 and 1998 under the regime of Nigeria's military dictator Sanni Abacha. The author captures the loneliness and betrayal of political imprisonment and calls for collective responsibility to guard against tyrannical rulership. Both contemporary political, and journalistic issues are taken.

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another superb memoirs anchored on prison experience by an African...

Of course it is sickening to see refined minds (their corporeal bodies of course!) clamped in jail. Wole Soyinka's The Man Died (prison notes) is an everlasting visceral educational publication. Other literary gurus like Awoonor and Ngugi have also recreated their terrible times in incarceration.

Terrible? We can imagine the basics. Loss of freedom... restricted stringently to a certain soul debasing place. No loved ones, families to lift one's spirits, unedifying unwholesome meals. No walks, no friends or even lovers to call on, horrific loneliness without the things one ordinarily takes for granted. And those tortured in the process? The mind boggles.

And the "auxiliaries" of such restrictions: Mosquitoes, fleas, bugs, lice unlimited as debilitating insects have a field day. Rodents revelling in the nighttime...and probably during the days too.
Trepidation always. Maybe chains and manacles too...

Ajibade's account of course shows that sensitive intellectual minds probably suffer most. Jailed for life - whilst being innocent. Macabre justice and scenario. Not that the shameless "gaolers" including those involved in the pertinent "trial" and verdict did not know better. They are just pawns in the hands of the Tyrant/Dictator- Sani Abacha one of the worst "leaders" in African history....

A harrowing account...two short excerpts here: "When Mayowa (the author's 2 year old son) was eventually brought to meet me for less than 5 minutes, the boy could not recognise me. Apart from my thick beard which I was not wearing at home, pimples had already taken complete possession of my face..."

“Makurdi Prison stank. It stank of rotten flesh, of excrement, of rat urine. It stank of many mouths unwashed for many days. It stank of corruption as well"

A hair-raising, eclectic work.

[Roger B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book one realises what a horrific tragedy it is (especially in Africa) to be under a military regime. All decency, conscience common sense seem to disappear especially when a dictator/tyrant is in power. Alas even well-educated people under such a regime become tools and pawns in nauseating descent into primitive cruel conduct. It must be horrifying to be accused of being a "coup plotter " when one is not only completely innocent, but innocuous. Yet in this case, harmless journalists are clamped into jail (for life!!) and of course great personalities like Obasanjo, Yaradua, Diya etc...as others are bullied and co-opted to give senseless testimony "implicating" hapless innocents. One feels very very ashamed of the well-educated people being used by the state for such rubbish....

[FEMI · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the late Dictator, Abacha, the author inter alia, writes:

"We were no strangers to Abacha. He was a sly sadistic Robespierre who had waited for this moment... Abacha's reign would be characterised by such deceit and incredible capacity for infinite meanness and greed...."

"We soon got to know that at Abacha's death, the jubilant crowd that poured into our nation's unhappy streets was unprecedented in the annals of our history. The dances of joy in the homes of so many people went on for a long time. Hilarious voices across the walls hurling enormous curses at Abacha in his grave..."

[THRILLER · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The book recapitulates, in the best tradition of literary journalism, the experiences of incarceration and resistance during General Sani Abacha's years. On the carpet throughout is the military as an institution, careering from one self-immolating escapade to another and dragging the country down with it along murky alleys of deprivation, torture and murder"
- Odia Ofeimun

[Lupna Avery · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heart rending narrative, as some of us can not even imagine being incarcerated for a day, never mind weeks, months, and years! I struggle for any positives here...well at least the protagonist (Ajibade) got the sympathy of the whole world with messages/ letters of sympathy, strength, solidarity etc being sent to him from all over the world, including Asia and Europe. He became a global person, got prestigous Fellowship (s)... and this book in itself augments his personality

[KUNLE AWONIYI · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author, Mr Ajibade, in this book also reflects on the death of the great musician, Fela Kuti: "On August 2 1997, when the death of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was announced, the entire prison was shaken to its very foundation with dirges and many of Fela's songs, particularly Shuffering and Shmiling; and Zombie. I saw some of the hardened criminals weep. I was told that the free world was engaged in deep mourning for one of Africa's foremost artistes, a thorn in the flesh of military dictatorship..."

[Madolyn Chukwu]

I remember that a lady friend journalist of mine once told me how disturbed she was when she visited a prison where men were incarcerated for serious offences; and how the men drooled at her and teased her in vulgar fashion, obviously very hungry for women. One has to feel for such men - especially in very unfair cases like this one. How they did without women for years? What sort of mental and physical anguish do they undergo daily? ... Just a thought.

[Leke Giwa]

Automatically reminds one of Soyinka's The Man Died