In August 2015, at the National Security Summit in Abuja, President Muhammadu Buhari directed the Police Service Commission (PSC) to recruit 10,000 men. Many people had anticipated that the commission would begin the process immediately but for about six months nothing was done in that regard.
The recruitment process did not take off last year, it was learnt, because the funding was not captured in the 2015 budget. The excitement, which greeted the announcement by the President, emanated from the fact that for many years there had not been recruitment into the service.
And secondly, it was seen as a means to reduce the high rate of unemployment whose impact has continued to reflect on the nation’s economy. About seven months after the presidential directive, the PSC announced that the recruitment would commence on April 1.
“The process leading to the recruitment of 10,000 policemen as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari at the National Security Summit in Abuja last year, has commenced,” the PSC Chairman, Mike Okiro, said while unveiling the portal for the exercise.
Okiro, a former Inspector- General of Police (IG), said the exercise was remarkable because there had not been recruitment into the police for more than five years. According to him, thousands of policemen who died in the course of service, were dismissed or retired, had not been replaced in the last five years.
The former IG added that the recruitment would strengthen and re-energise the service to tackle more security challenges facing the country. According to Okiro, the recruitment is in three entry points of Constable, Cadet Inspector and Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), while there is also recruitment into the Specialist cadre.
Despite glitches encountered by the applicants in terms of difficulty in accessing the portal and submitting form after filling it, thousands of people had, within the first three days of the exercise, applied for the police job. By Tuesday (April 19), 705,352 applicants had submitted their applications. In a couple of days over 800,000 applications had been turned in.
The number, which came about three weeks to the close of the application, is 695,352 higher than the 10,000, which President Buhari had given approval for recruitment into the police. According to a statement by the PSC, by that Tuesday, 202,427 applicants had 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. At the close of the application, it is possible over a million applicants would have applied.
The huge response of Nigerians to the recruitment has thrown up a lot of salient issues. One, it shows there is high rate of unemployment and underemployment in the country.
Secondly, there seems not to be clear instruction on the modalities for the screening of the applicants. There are fears, genuine though, of possibility of reenacting the ugly episode of the infamous recruitment into the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) a few years ago where many applicants died while scores of others were injured during screening.
While it is important that those who want to police Nigeria in the 21 Century are physically, medically and mentally fit, picking the best among the thousands of applicants must not lead to avoidable deaths. Proper medical tests must first be conducted to determine the fitness or otherwise of the candidates before subjecting them to rigorous physical screening.
Modern-day policing depends more on scientific approach. It, therefore, thrives on mental alertness. Although Okiro said “the process of receiving the forms has been smooth and transparent,” and assured “the applicants of fairness and equal opportunity,” there are fears that politicians, of course that is natural to them, would hijack the recruitment process.
But if they are allowed to use the recruitment as political patronage, it will rubbish the process and defeat the President’s noble intention to create jobs on the one hand and combat the surge in crime on the other.
This also represents a litmus test for the police hierarchy and the administration of President Buhari because it is the first to be conducted by the Inspector General of Police (IG), Solomon Arase, and the President.
If it fails, it will also be an indictment on the police whose job is it to check crime and police the nation. On the other hand, a proper and successful recruitment exercise will do the sagging image of the police some good.