Very recently the Nigerian Police put out an advertisement imploring Nigerians to apply for certain positions, the advertised positions available were 10,000 for which 705,352 candidates applied according to the spokesperson of the Police Service Commission. This recruitment exercise was said to have been approved by the C-in-C to reinforce the Nigeria Police for better service.

However this recruitment seems to continue the trend from past governments of throwing numbers at a problem of quality rather than quantity. There is no gainsaying that the Nigerian Police Force is understaffed for the population it is meant to safeguard, however, continuing to add numbers to an already sick institution only increases the number of bribe takers on our streets. Some while back I wrote an answer on Quora as to how I feel Nigeria can be policed better (found here). In that answer, I highlighted what I felt were the issues with our “beloved” NPF some of which I will do a short recap here:

• The NPF at present is a system based on gratuity/bribes/gifts/nepotism and blatant corruption e.g. corporal mounts roadblock and extort/demand/collects bribes from motorists, he pays 60% to his boss the sergeant who in turn pays 40% to his boss the ASP who in turn pays another x% to the DPO till it gets to the top and there is no incentive for any of the parties involved to stop this practice.

• For a job open to hazardous circumstances like the police, the conditions of service are simply horrible. Pay and welfare is horrible, equipment isn’t all that and the training is clearly below global average standards.
While these issues and a myriad of other issues with the NPF remain unsolved, the government decides to recruit another 10,000 persons to fuel this morass of corruption. The issues around the institutionalized corruption in that service are yet to be addressed; however we have seen improvements like a social media presence on Facebook and on Twitter for the Police Complaint Unit through these accounts: @YomiShogunle and @PoliceNG_CRU which are geared towards addressing complaints by the public towards police conduct. These accounts from personal observation have done a lot in repairing the image of the NPF at least in the eye of social media conscious Nigerians and can be seen to be having a positive effect as seen in the drop in complaints reports against the Police by the public since their inception.
Notwithstanding the above, the Nigerian Police Force still requires reforms significantly in welfare, funding, training (particularly around human dignity) and discipline before an increase in numbers. Recently, I asked of the aforementioned Police Complaint Units of the existence or otherwise of an autonomous Internal Affairs unit dedicated to investigation and prosecution of police malfeasance as obtains nearly everywhere else and even in the Nigerian military in the form of Military Police, I am still awaiting a response till date. For while the Police Complaint unit is a welcome and good development, the Nigerian Police Force requires an autonomous well equipped body within the Police itself that can independently root out the bad eggs within, without any hindrance or any form of preference.

I am @OluwaseunEsq

Written by Seun Oyajumo for Stripped Mind
Source: http://strippedmind.com/the-nigerian-police-recruitment-and-other-issues/


Cc lalasticlala

just in case I will be back

just in case I will be back

The system may be corrrupt but could still be managed. Let's stop painting the police bad...It is never better in other government institutions......Police are your friend..support them!!!!

ok

UEK33:
The system may be corrrupt but could still be managed. Let's stop painting the police bad...It is never better in other government institutions......Police are your friend..support them!!!!

Lol, you sound like a police officer or you have a family in the force.
Anyway, the article is not painting anyone bad. It is simply highlighting things that need to be addressed in the system. And you can't deny these things don't exist