For a credible police recruitment

FOR the Buhari administration that is under pressure to deliver on its promise of change, the ongoing recruitment of 10,000 youths into The Nigeria Police goes beyond mere fixing the personnel gap that exists in the force.

It is an opportunity that the administration has readily latched on to provide it a quick win in the area of job creation. The Police Service Commission’s (PSC) portal has reportedly been receiving online applications for potential recruits into the police. This is sequel to the approval earlier given to the commission by the Federal Government to recruit 10,000 personnel to strengthen the existing workforce. And as would be expected, applications have been coming in torrents from the teeming population of unemployed and underemployed Nigerian youths. The last information made available to the public by the PSC on the exercise was that some 843,000 applications had been received by May 2, 2016.

It is only the uninitiated about the parlous state of the Nigerian economy that may be surprised by the huge number of applications already received by the PSC. The deluge of applications simply exemplifies the current state of joblessness among the nation’s youths.

As the first open and mass employment of youths by the Buhari administration, the recruitment exercise should be tightened to ensure that only competent and credible persons are brought on board. There should be a clear departure from what obtained in the previous exercises that were allegedly bastardised and tainted with allegations of corruption and nepotism, a situation that allegedly resulted in shady characters finding their way into such an important institution as the police. We urge that deliberate effort should be made to ensure that the screening of the candidates is rigorous, thorough and transparent, so that, at the end of the exercise, only fit and proper Nigerians of verified high standards in character and conduct are recruited.

The objective of the PSC is to meet the shortfall in its personnel requirement so that it can effectively deliver on its mandate to maintain internal security and protect life and property but that objective cannot be achieved if criminals are recruited to help maintain law and order. This is why we see a brighter side to the preponderance of applications chasing the relatively few positions in the force. Out of the huge number of applicants, a transparent process should be able to throw up 10,000 qualified, honest, credible Nigerians who are ready to be professionals and earn honest incomes as policemen. The candidates to be recruited should be teachable as the police require a paradigm shift in the mindset of many of their officers who see the service as a platform that insulates them from the consequences of breaching the law, especially their penchant for accessing filthy lucre under the seeming protection of the law. In other words, recruiting 10,000 personnel in one fell swoop offers the police a rare opportunity to have a crop of personnel to help drive its reforms aimed at making it a people and service-oriented public institution.

Perhaps it is about time the service appreciated the bitter truth that the shortfall it is currently grappling with is not just in terms of number but more in terms of character deficit and professionalism that have been largely vitiated by the weak moral fibre of many of its personnel. Consequently, the police must get it right this time round. If the Police College syllabus has to be reviewed so that it is in sync with the international best practices that also fully reflects local peculiarities, it should be done.

Information from the PSC that the screening exercise will be done in batches and that it will brook no underhand dealings during the entire process appears reassuring. By the time this recruitment exercise is concluded, the number of policemen in the country will be about 380,000 vis-à-vis an estimated population of 170 million people. This still falls short of the 222 police officers to 100, 000 people recommended by the United Nations. However, if the current recruitment exercise produces 10,0000 credible persons who are subsequently well trained, re-oriented and ready to be released on the workforce as reformists, then, the country may have started the journey to re-enact the halcyon days of selfless service, relative probity and integrity in The Nigeria Police.

Source: tribuneonlineng