By Linus Aleke
For close to a century, authorities, civil society groups, religious bodies, multilateral institutions, moral scholars, and the media, have waged an intense war against capital punishment.

Regrettably, certain factors, have been identified as the reasons why states that preach against murder have continued to hug the same as a legitimate instrument to prevent violent crimes in society and deter lawless fellows from resulting in killing of fellow humans for whatever reason.

In a panel discussion, organized by Avocats Sans Frontieres France and four others to commemorate the 2022 World Day against Death Penalty in Abuja, scholars and other experts gave reasons why the death penalty has continued to fester despite, coordinated advocacy against its practice.

A panelist and Country Director, Amnesty International Nigeria, Ms Osai Ojigho said, society thinks that the only way victims can have some sought of reprieve when the crime is committed against them is when some punishment is meted out to the perpetrators.

She further postulated that the principle of an eye for an eye is quite prominent in some of these conversations.

The Amnesty International Nigeria boss, averred that the other reason is religion, noting that “in the dominant religions, either Islam or Christianity, there is space for punishment, even though they recognize that there is forgiveness. So, these are reasons that people try to justify”.

She added, “It is also, quite emotive, when people lost loved ones, especially in the most serious crimes, they feel that the perpetrators need to be inflicted with as much pain as possible, even though researchers have shown that the death penalty does not deter most violent of crimes”.

Expressing sadness that Nigeria is a clear example of places where the death penalty does not deter crime, Ojigho said, “Otherwise, we would not be having as much insecurity or violence incidence as we currently witness in the country.”

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Also, a Clinical Psychologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Dr Charles Umeh, the associated death penalty to quest by men to dominate each other.

He argued that those who make laws for others deliberately skew them in such a way that it favour their insatiable appetite to dominate others without considering the common good of all and the acceptable moral standard.

Quoting an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, the Nigerian scholar said, “Human beings are driven by aggression, when we look at it further, in that aggression is embedded dominance and the quest for power and authority.

“If you look at what is happening when it comes to this issue, it is another way of controlling others, one way or the other. Why I said, it is a vexing issue is this, at any stage in human development, a group of persons has been making the rules for others.”

Umeh, however, queried, “Has anybody questioned the emotional and moral standing of those who make the law for others to obey? It evolved, for instance, in the Pretoria area of Rome, some cultures went underground, and things like homosexuality were prominent.

“Today, it is no more the same, but some people made the law then, that gave prominence to homosexuality. So, what was the mindset of those persons? Let us look at our current situation, a lot of people are also, making the laws for us today, that others will study tomorrow.

“What is their mind set? What is their emotional stability? What is the level of their moral decorum? That is the nature of human beings, but what I don’t understand is this, when we have discovered that the death penalty does not serve as a deterrent, why are we still allowing it to go on?”

The Clinical Psychologist again quoted the German philosopher, Karl Marx (1888-1883), when he further queried, “Is it that we don’t have the willpower to speak against it? As Karl Marx said, religion is the opium of the masses.

“It is another instrument of control, what about our psyche? What about the essence of our existence? Why can’t we bring this to the fore and interrogate it properly? Even religion said we should not take life.

“Another angle to the conversation is this, there is nobody who is not prone to error. Does it then mean, that because we made mistakes, our lives should be taken? What if we repent thereafter, and become the person the world needs? Are we thinking about that?”

Meanwhile, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Abuja, Mr Martin Huth, said the death penalty is a hot topic that doesn’t leave anybody in cold.

He said, “I will spice up the discussion a little bit by branching off on the things that are a little behind us. The principle of the French revolution, French revolution brings to us the idea of human rights. The French revolution was far from abolishing the death penalty, it is quite the opposite as we know from literature, history, movies, etc.

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“Before coming here, I did a little research on the topic under scrutiny. When did we abolish the death penalty in Europe? There are different figures quoted, but in my country, the last person executed by the bases on the death penalty was in 1951 in then East Germany.

“But the total abolishment came into force in 1981 in East Germany. But in West Germany, it was as early as 1941. France’s last execution was in 1977, and in 1980 it was abolished. Each society decides to stop it differently and that shows that it is not an easy topic.

“My first point will be to say from the leaders’ perspective, we have to recognise the legality of the death penalty, unfortunately. That might be a shocking statement for you, of course, the statement comes with a big but, only, on what is allowed by international law- that means, only for serious crimes.

“Not on some categories of people, like children, for example, the death penalty within the international legal instrument is still legitimate to an extent. This is a hard pill to swallow but that is the reality.”

The Country Director of Avocats Sans Frontieres France, Ms Angela Uzoma-Iwuchukwu, said the death penalty and torture is a twin evils that must be stopped.

She noted that the theme of this year’s world day against the death penalty, “a death penalty, a road paved with torture,” is carefully coined to signpost the cruelty of torture and capital punishment.

She said that Nigerian authorities lack the political will to implement the Anti-Torture Act, which came into force in 2017.

Positing that torture is still very prevalent in the Nigerian system and used regularly by state agents, Iwuchukwu, averred that it is almost institutionalized in the criminal justice system in Nigeria.

“As we speak someone in some police station is been tortured, not just someone people, detainees, and suspects of crime are been tortured in various police stations across the country, that is the sad reality,” she said.

She observed that before 2017, torture was prohibited by the Nigerian constitution but was not criminalised.

According to Iwuchukwu, “There has been zero implementation of the anti-torture act. This is the same conversation we are having in a project funded by European Union (EU), we are engaging the Attorney General of the Federation.

“A committee has been set up which we are part of an effort to ensure prosecution of indicted police officers, starting with those indicted by various panels that investigated the EndSARS.”

She disclosed that as an organization, they provide legal aid to persons on death row, stressing, “Beyond that, we also equip other lawyers to be able to do the same”.

She further said, when ASF France calls for the abolition of the death penalty, “we are promoting respect for the right to life.”

Iwuchukwu disclosed that Torture and the death penalty are the major thematic area that Avocats Sans Frontiers, France, has been working on in Nigeria.

The European Union (EU), said, it has a strong and indisputable opposition to the death penalty, at all times, and in all circumstances.

It added that the poor are exposed more to the death penalty because they can often not afford experienced criminal defence lawyers.

Head of EU Cooperation, Mrs Cecile Tassin Pelzer, who spoke at the commemoration event in Abuja, said the abolition of the death penalty is a key objective in the EU’s human rights policy.

Available statistics reveal that “More than two-thirds of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. 110 countries abolished the death penalty for all crimes. 8 countries abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes only, with exceptions placed on crimes committed in times of war.

Twenty-seven countries can be considered abolitionists in practice as they have not held an execution for the last 10 years and are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions. In total, 144 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. 55 countries and territories still uphold and use the death penalty. Eighteen counties executed in 2011, while the top five executioners were China, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.”

Speaking specifically about Africa, the statistics further said, “In 2021, the only countries to carry out executions in Sub-Saharan Africa were Botswana, Somalia, and South Sudan. Overall, there was a significant increase. In 2021, 305 death sentences were handed down and 16 individuals were executed compared to 373 convictions and 33 executions, respectively in 2021.

“Additionally, we note the commutation of 83 death sentences in Nigeria and 26 in DRC. Zambia commuted every death sentence inmate that has been on death row for more than eight years (23 commutations).”

While revealing the method of executions, the data noted, “Executions in 2021 were carried out primarily through beheading (Saudi Arabia), hanging (Bangladesh, Botswana, Egypt, UAE, Iraq, Iran, Japan, and South Sudan, etc), lethal injection (China, United States, Vietnam, etc) and shooting (Belarus, China, North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, etc).”

Nevertheless, some of the reasons adduced for not allowing the death penalty to continue include but are not limited to, “No justice system is safe from judicial error, and innocent people are likely, to be sentenced to death or executed.

“No state should have the power to take a person’s life, it is inefficient and does not keep society safer, it has never been conclusively shown that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than life imprisonment, it is inhuman, cruel and degrading, it is unfair, it denies the possibility of rehabilitation and it creates more pains amongst several others.”

It is, however, on the premise of the above-expressed opinions and statistics that it becomes imperative to conclude with the words of British writer, Joe Abercrombie, who said, “We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged.”