Measured walls, guarded gates and the strange visiting hope in Kirikiri || Minkail Olaitan
pannigeriannews
4 min read
By Minkail Olaitan
The relevance of a true legacy does not end with the generation that first introduced an identity. A genuine legacy flowers across the plane of continuity.
This principle was vividly demonstrated recently in Lagos at the Kirikiri Medium Custodial Centre, where the Anchor Heritage Initiative opened an extension of its three-year-old AHI ICT Hub. The same organisation had originally commissioned the hub, and now its expansion stands as a quiet but bold disruption at the heart of the correctional system.
The significance lies not merely in the fact that it is an ICT-based initiative at a time when technology proliferates everywhere, but in what it declares: even behind guarded fences and locked gates, inmates can still access the tools necessary for mental upkeep and renewal.
Since time immemorial, the words “jail”, “prison”, and “correctional centre” have come to evoke horrific places—where hope fades, minds starve, souls are corrupted into hellish anguish, the will for self-reinvention is suppressed, and genius is repressed. Society rightly needs places, personnel, and systems to uphold sanity, safety, stability, and proportionate punishment for those who violate social codes. Yet we cannot ignore the sheer volume of geniuses, talents, wills, potentials, and lives that have been handicapped behind those same fences and gates.
As depravity of myriad shades deepens in unlikely places, change-makers like the late Mr Bidemi Oladipupo stood deliberately to propagate hope and compassion wrapped in humanity toward people society has, by design, incarcerated. His vision was never to weaken the correctional system or dilute the need for adequate correction. It was to empower and inspire a recognition that the mind and potential of every individual in these facilities deserve deliberate consideration.
Yes, these individuals have committed atrocities—some wilfully, some ignorantly, others as victims of circumstance or misappropriation. But their essence must still be nurtured, and their dreams intentionally tended.
Addressing the audience at the event, CC George Daramola, Controller of Corrections, Lagos State Command, paid tribute to the late Mr Oladipupo. He described him as a man of impeccable integrity, deep compassion, a true Christian, and a genuine lover of God. “His life did not end with his passing,” he said. “His vision did not crumble in his absence. Instead, it grew stronger, taking on a life of its own.”
In honour of that enduring vision, the ICT Hub was officially renamed the Bidemi Oladipupo ICT Hub. Now led by his visionary and dedicated wife, Mrs Ololade Oladipupo, the Anchor Heritage Initiative has, through the hub, introduced the National Open University of Nigeria to the prison walls. This provides the necessary facilities and amenities to ease the educational hurdles inmates previously faced and to bridge longstanding gaps in learning.
As if that were not enough, they launched a brand-new initiative rooted in the mentally empowering essence of chess: “Chess as a Correctional Tool”. The programme is affiliated with Chess to School and draws from its impact-driven focus on nurturing and liberating every mind from the trenches of ignorance, regardless of present circumstances.
Chess, according to the Gift of Chess, is hope for all. It is a powerful gift that offers the underserved—those trapped in the trenches of life—an exit door into a renewed dispensation, a chance to perform at their fullest potential.
Emboldened by this conviction, Chess to School remains driven by urgency to ensure every child severed from education is reconnected. In the same spirit, their recent work inside prisons delivers a bold and deliberate statement: they reject the narrative that once a person enters prison, they are forever broken, forever dangerous, or forever undeserving of redemption.
This work echoes similar efforts elsewhere: Tony Ballard’s continued exploits in prisons across the United States, Susan Namangale’s life-changing chess introductions in Malawian facilities, and Phyllis’s work in Kenyan prisons. Closer to home, Emmanuel Adekunle (founder of Chess to School) and Mr Truth (lead instructor) have made chess a powerful apparatus for learning, mental recalibration, hope, and the curation of temperament.
Speaking directly to the inmates, Emmanuel shared impactful stories from the Custodial Facility in Abeokuta. He emphasised a core principle of the game: every single action on the chessboard is accompanied by a proportional consequence. Translated to life, every man’s actions have brought him to this point. Yet beyond that lies an indisputable truth: the game has not yet ended. Everyone can still play their best moves—make better decisions, change their ways, and embrace new opportunities.
One thing stood out clearly: it is profoundly delightful when a legacy falls into the care of visionary, compassionate, and dedicated successors.
No matter how high the walls rise, how restrictive the gates, or how intimidating the guards, when a man is not locked up in his own mind, he can still thrive—even in the dark. The effort here is to ensure inmates serve their sentences without being made to believe that deadening their hope, detesting learning, or accepting they are broken beyond mending is part of their punishment.
In its commitment, Chess to School pledges to teach “Chess as a Correctional Tool” with the aim of imparting profound chess knowledge to inmates.
According to the organisation’s lead, “Through structured chess training, inmates are also being prepared to participate in Chess for Freedom—an international competition that unites incarcerated players from different countries. This opportunity could allow Nigerian inmates to represent the nation on a global stage and, perhaps, make history.”
Together, the Anchor Heritage Initiative, Chess to School, and Kirikiri Medium Custodial Centre have formed a triad that quickens consciousness among inmates. This honourable action aligns with Carl Jung’s monumental observation: “Freedom stretches only as far as the limits of our consciousness.”
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