Police recruitment: PSC’s alarm on armed robbers

SPEAKING recently at a one-day sensitisation and town hall meeting in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State, the chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Mr. Musiliu Smith, raised the alarm on the nature of the ongoing recruitment into the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). The PSC boss stunned Nigerians when he declared that armed robbers were finding their way into the police recruitment camps. According to him, part of the challenges the commission had faced during recruitment exercises from 2019 related to the academic challenges of applicants, which he described as a sad reflection on the society. The society, he said, must encourage upright and responsible citizens to apply for recruitment into the force. He said: “If our responsible and upright young ones are discouraged from joining the police, where are we going to source for the police officers of our dreams? Policing is a noble profession and deserves the best products of the society to join and change the narrative on the issue of the internal security of our nation. We must raise the alarm if we notice not-so-good persons applying to join the police. There have been cases of robbers finding their way into recruitment camps.

“We must all come together as a community to ensure that only the best apply for and are recruited into the Nigeria Police. Perhaps owing to disenchantment with the police, the inability of citizens to appreciate the value of the police and policing has further impacted the quality of persons applying to work in the force. These challenges must be addressed. This is a herculean task which can only be achieved with the active support of members of the community.” Mr. Smith, whose speech was read by the PSC’s Deputy Director, Hawa Komo, noted that the development called for concern. He said it was a sad reflection on the calibre of officers that would be patrolling communities in the event that the criminals under reference actually ended up being recruited into  the force. According to him, the aim of the sensitisation exercise was to directly engage with stakeholders and listen to their stories and anxieties in order to address them and create deeper relationship with citizens.

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Actually, the poser raised by the PSC boss touches on the most fundamental challenge confronting the police in the entire African continent: they have supposedly morphed from a force of occupation into a force meant to protect the lives and properties of a liberated citizenry without any corresponding change in their orientation.  Elsewhere in the world, the police are an elite crop of excellent, well-trained individuals recruited from the best group of school leavers at different levels, and their recruitment processes are competitive. This is because police formations in those climes are honourable and prestigious. Here in Nigeria, however, the narrative is conspicuously different. With seedy training camps and colleges where the extremely poor facilities available actually divest recruits of whatever iota of self-respect they previously possessed, the police hardly attract the “responsible and upright young ones” that Mr. Smith rightly covets.

To be sure, the police are a reflection of the society which they are meant to protect. If their training camps have been infiltrated by criminals and armed robbers, that says a lot about what is going on in the larger society. We, however, reckon that the PSC is in a much better position than anyone else to identify and ferret out these despicable individuals among the intending recruits. It should do this diligently instead of looking up to traditional rulers for help that is obviously not available. Largely because of its bad reputation, the force as presently configured in the country cannot attract the quality personnel it desperately needs. There must be a complete overhaul of the force before the desired quality personnel can be brought on board. As the PSC boss rightly observed, policing is a noble profession that deserves to have the best products of the society as recruits. Achieving that ideal obviously requires detecting and prosecuting criminals among the intending recruits. Indeed, there may be no better way to demonstrate that it is a serious, focused and disciplined anti-crime outfit.

In any case, the untidy relationship between the NPF and PSC that has resulted in the present slow and phlegmatic recruitment process does not resonate well with the public, from which the PSC seeks goodwill and understanding. The unnecessary rivalry between the PSC and the NPF constitutes bad advertisement for the country. The two bodies involved in the police recruitment process have been at loggerheads for a long time. They have flexed muscles at the country’s expense and created the sad impression that they do not intend to work together in its best interest. Surely, the recruitment exercise would have been concluded by now if there had been a smooth relationship between the two bodies. It is indeed apt to ask the salient question: if the NPF and the PSC are at loggerheads, how on earth can the country be effectively policed?