How many of those seeking positions in the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) are driven by passion for policing, and how many of them are simply following their existential passion? This question, which may be difficult to answer categorically, is critical to the success of the ongoing effort to fill 10,000 vacancies in the country’s police force.
It is thought-provoking that a statement by the Head of Press and Public Relations Unit of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Ikechukwu Ani, said: “The Police Service Commission as at 7.30am today, Tuesday, April 19th, received 705,352 applications from applicants who are seeking employment into the recently advertised 10,000 vacancies into the Nigeria Police Force. A breakdown of the applications showed that 202, 427 applicants have successfully applied for the position of Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), 169,446, for the position of Cadet Inspector and 333,479 for the position of Constable.”
Given the number of applicants in relation to the number of vacancies, it remains to be seen how a police force battling integrity-related challenges will conduct itself in an exercise that requires zero-level misconduct. It is noteworthy that the PSC Chairman, Mike Okiro, according to a report, “warned its workers, who would be involved in the screening of candidates, to avoid any act that would compromise the integrity of the exercise”. The report added: “He said any worker involved in any misconduct during the exercise would be sanctioned in line with the public service rules and may be prosecuted for sabotage. The PSC chairman urged candidates to desist from indulging or inducing the commission’s workers as anyone caught would be arrested and prosecuted.” Correct talk; but easier said than done.
Apart from the issue of ensuring the integrity of the recruitment process, there is the question of putting the centres where the recruits will be trained in good condition. It is striking that a report quoted the Commandant, Police Staff College, Jos, Plateau State, Mr. Joseph Mbu, as saying that the police colleges were in no shape for the kind of professional training the recruits would need. Mbu, an Assistant Inspector General, said: “Our police colleges, both senior and junior are in very bad state. Most of the structures you see there are dilapidated and the issue of poor staffing is also there. Recruitment exercise into various cadres in the force has begun, but the major lacuna will be where to train the recruits. We need good facilities and atmosphere to make them better policemen. You cannot start exposing recruits by making them pay money indirectly for one thing or the other when, ideally, the government is supposed to provide everything for them. So, I appeal to the president to set up a special committee to examine our colleges with a view to putting them in good shape before the training for the new recruits commences.”
The example of the Police College, Ikeja, Lagos, will suffice. Built to accommodate 700 students, the number of occupants it housed as at January 2013 was reportedly over 2,554. A police trainee in Lagos was quoted as saying: ”The recruitment of new officers is a very welcome development as far as many of us are concerned but the fear we have is that the facilities here at Ikeja would not be able to accommodate even 100 people more because everywhere is filled already. In fact, many of us are just trying to cope with the situation because it is not conducive for us at all…Personally, I am worried because I know how much we would suffer if more people are posted here. It is a very big source of concern for many of us.”
Also, a female trainee at the Police College, Ikeja, said: “We are not saying the police authorities should not recruit more people into the Force, our major concern is how this place would accommodate us if new intakes are posted here. If the authorities can use this opportunity to improve on the existing infrastructure, it would be very good. In fact, it will make many of us happy because we are passing through a lot of challenges at the moment.”
Against this background, there is no doubt that those who are eventually recruited through the ongoing process will face infrastructural challenges as well as instructional challenges. It is clear that the Federal Government needs to act urgently.
Police training is too important to be neglected or left to suffer the consequences of neglect. It goes without saying that the police cannot be properly trained when the facilities for their training are improper. The Inspector-General of Police (IG), Mr. Solomon Arase painted a picture that showed just how under-policed the country is. He said in an interview: “When you say the number of policemen we have is 370,000, you have to take into consideration that we have traffic wardens, civilian staff, medical doctors, engineers and drivers. If you put those ones together and minus it from the 370,000, it will come down greatly. So, it leaves us with few operational policemen who we can give firearms to.” Considering that Nigeria’s population was estimated at 178.5 million in 2014, the extent of the existing policing gap is extensive. There is perhaps a more fundamental issue that must be addressed to achieve reasonably adequate policing across the country. Arase tried to dance around what may indeed be the primary problem. He said: “On the recruitment of new 10,000 policemen that was ordered by the President, we want the recruitment to be state-based because we want to encourage community partnership. If we want to encourage community partnership, for instance, somebody from Kano who understands the language and culture, as a constable, he will be able to serve better and gather information in that area after training instead of taking somebody from Lagos who does not understand the culture to go and dump him in Kano and then take a young boy who has not passed through Kaduna before to be dumped in the South-East. So, we want to discourage those things and ensure that it is local government and state-based by the time we recruit.”
The truth is that no matter how hard the authorities may try to invent a substitute, there may be no real substitute for state police properly so called. It would appear that the concept of state police goes with federalism properly so called, which makes Nigeria’s version of federalism an oddity. The recruitment of 10, 000 new police personnel and the associated circumstances will further highlight the need to think and rethink state police.
