Many Nigerians have observed the need to review some of the provisions of the constitution; such observation is based on some of the lacunae discovered in the course of the practical application of its provisions.
The perennial power tussle between the Police Service Commission and the Nigerian Police Force was created by such lacuna and ambiguity in the sense that the 1999 Constitution provides in Section 30(a) and (b) :-
(a) The commission shall have power to appoint persons to office (other than the office of the Inspector-General of Police) in the Nigeria Police Force.
(b) Dismiss and exercise disciplinary control over persons holding any office referred to in sub paragraph (a) of this paragraph.
In the constitution and most statutes, there is what is referred to as the Interpretation Section where the words used and their denotative meanings are defined to avoid ambiguity and scope of operation of the words to prevent their connotative meanings and scope of application.
Each word used is defined in terms of scope of meaning and application. The interpretation section of the 1999 Constitution is to be found on: – ORDER 1 PAGE 360 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AS AMENDED.
It extends the scope of the words to include specific areas of the operations or limit the scope of its application.
The express provisions of Section 30(a) as stated above in the constitution failed woefully to define the meaning of “appoint” as differentiated from “recruit”.
Everybody who has passed through the civil service will recall that civil servants are appointed into the service as from Grade Level 8 and above and not recruited.
Appointment is for the administrative cadre while recruitment is for Grade Level 7 downwards. It is similar in the police from the rank of Inspector down to Non-Commissioned Officers i.e. NCOs are the executive cadre. Any Police Inspector who is lucky to scale through the departmental selection board constituted purely by the police, once elevated to put on one star and is later confirmed after passing the common Civil Service Examination is no more an NCO (Non–Commissioned Officer) but henceforth an administrator for the institution.
There is a mechanism for sanitising the police which is vested in the Inspector-General of Police. It is called: -ENGAGEMENT AND RE-ENGAGEMENT defined by FORCE ORDER 431; it states:
THE PRESCRIBED AUTHORITY:
(a) For the authorising of the continued period of service in the Force of a member of the rank and file, or
(b) For the authorising of the continued service in the Force shall be the Commissioner of Police in charge of THE AREA COMMAND (NOW STATE) in which the member of the rank and file is serving.
The purpose of the provision of this Force Order is to enable the Inspector-General of Police acting through his STATE COMMISSIONER weed out bad eggs who by disposition and conduct are found within the first two years of enlistment to be neither suitable nor cut out for the police profession whose foundation is the rule of law. This power is not subject to the approval of the Police Service Commission.
The Inspector-General of Police is the closest to the activities of all policemen. I joined The Nigeria Police in the 1981 after graduating from University of Ibadan. I passed through two major screening exercises which I consider pertinent to the present tussle. I recall that we were invited to Police Headquarters then at KAM-SALEM HOUSE, LAGOS where we all passed through screening of our height, legs and other physical features. All the members of the panels that screened us were senior police officers in their well starched and shining uniforms.
I recall vividly what one light senior officer who took my measurement said after stretching the tape rule over the width of my chest. He remarked: “Haba! You just narrowly escaped. If it had been one inch short we would have rejected you”.
I later asked myself, “What has the width of the chest got to do with maintaining law and order and arresting thieves and miscreants?”
The point is that after the police screening, all of us selected throughout the federation were given a date to appear before the Police Service Commission that was to ratify our selection and ensure compliance with Federal character, quota system and in line with civil service rules.
No serving policeman was in the panel except some elderly retired ones. It is to be noted that policies and provisions are not made only for circumstances but to take care of even future unforeseen and unforeseeable events.
Now that the Nigerian Police is lucky to have an incorruptible, easy going and God-fearing chairman and a team that includes well respected police officers, we may be satisfied with the supervisory role of the PSC taking over recruitment. But this should not be regarded as a policy; if it is a policy it is wrong because:-
(a) Tomorrow M.B Smith may not be the chairman of the commission. Someone without any knowledge of the police system may come and recruit cripples for the Inspector-General of Police to execute his job. We shall suffer it.
Indeed, not all previous chairmen of the PSC were former policemen. The likes of Chief Sam Okeke were not policemen and there have been others like them. To divest the Inspector-General of Police of the power of recruiting suitable persons for the performance of his job is to emasculate the police.
All the above is without prejudice to the intervention of he PSC when a complaint is brought to its attention in its supervisory role.
A clear distinction must be drawn between appointment which is for the Police Service Commission and recruitment which is purely the duty of the Inspector-General of Police. Under FORCE ORDER 430, recruitment of officers is defined below:
(3) The officers responsible for the enlistment of recruit constables to the force shall be:-
(a) The Commandant, Police College Ikeja, hereinafter called the recruitment officer, Ikeja in respect of candidates from Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Anambra, Imo, Bendel, River, Cross-River State and Abuja.
(b) The Commandant, Police College Kaduna, hereinafter called the recruitment Officer in respect of Kaduna in respect of Candidates from The Kaduna, Sokoto, Bauchi, Borno, Gongola, Benue and Plateau, Kwara and Niger states.
It is pertinent to state that the lacuna created by the constitution may not be without some latent intention to create confusion and tension within the institution that some subterranean forces are trying to destroy. Such crevices give them in road into the institution which they are not prepared to strengthen but eager to destroy. However the police institution is based on the rule of law and therefore difficult to emasculate. We are witnessing the effects already.
Let there be mutual co-operation between the Police Service Commission and the Police Force for the purpose of discipline.
The police commissioners should not sit down and leave the issue of recruitment to their staff officers. It will damage the good name built over the years. The rumour is rife that the list from the state police commands is riddled with irregularities and unmerited influence. A police commissioner must use his SIB (Security and Intelligence Bureau) to monitor money-for-recruitment and expose and punish such unscrupulous officers. It is not easy to become a command Commissioner of Police. No one should allow those whose consciences do not worry them in collecting money from a candidate who has been without employment for the past five years and is now desperate for one.
Commissioner of state commands have a duty to monitor the process of recruitment to ensure it is transparent or be prepared to lose their relevance in that area.
- Akeremale, a retired Commissioner of Police, practices Law in Abuja.
