There has been uproar on the prerogative of mercy President Bola Tinubu exercised recently. The exercise followed the report of a committee set up for the purpose. The committee looked into each case meticulously and with care. The most controversial of the cases is that of the young lady who killed her husband.

Predictably, so as murder is a heinous, first degree crime. But the committee report says she has shown tremendous remorse and has changed. If she has changed, why would we still keep her within the prison walls which we rechristened Correctional Centres?

The purpose of punishment or imprisonment is to correct, make a person see his or her errors and be a person, that is, change for good. President Bola Tinubu did the right thing in setting the young lady free.

Hardly does it occur to us that her greater punishment is just beginning. How does she face her children and explain to them what happened? The thought will menace her for several years to come. The husband will appear to her continually in her dreams. He may not have gone far in the beyond and if she is open enough, they may wish to speak during she will need to apologise profusely and regularly to him.

There is an action out of impulse, and there is action that is deliberate. The lady’s case was borne out of impulse which was why it was easy for her to recognise the enormity of her crime and she grew remorseful and Custodian Authority were impressed by her becoming a new person.

In the enlightenment of these times, the higher knowledge spreading on earth today, we learn that the way to go and is already happening in parts of the United States is to give no time limit a convicted person is to stay in prison. He should stay there forever until the fellow becomes a new person, watched over by psychologists and the like along the field to monitor progress of change. Many complete sevrving their sentences without the slightest remorse and in no time they go back into crimes.

All in all, the earthly laws must align with the Creation Laws. The three major Laws of Creation are what unfailingly bring about reward as well as punishment for the human being. It is then, “we shall also understand the real purport of the words of the Old Testament, ‘To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense’ (Deut.32, 35) and “Eye for an eye and tooth for tooth’ (Deut. 19:21) whose deeper meaning has so far never been understood.” (A Gate Opens, by Herbert Vollmann).

To set anyone free, it must be borne in mind that the immutable and self-acting Laws of the Creator are awaiting the criminal unless the guilt and burden have completely dropped off him or her through genuine remorsefulness and change. It is through total change that the threads connected to him or her will not receive further nourishment and not finding any anchorage simply shrivel and slide off!