The Nigerian Police was recently ordered by president Buhari to begin a recruitment exercise so as to beef up security across the country, this announcement was long expected for many reasons. Firstly, Nigerians across the country believe that the force is grossly under funded and lack the adequate workforce needed to effectively protect Nigerians from the numerous crimes that have taken over the entire country. Nigerian Policemen are overwhelmed with increasing crime rates of numerous dimensions, from fetish killings for money rituals, Fulani herdsmen killings, armed robberies, kidnapping, street fraud – yahoo boys, political thuggery, cultism, militancy amongst others. Hence, many Nigerians welcomed the moves to increase the numbers of policemen in the country. However, some analyst have questioned the rational behind the specific instructions by the president that the 6000 men to be recruited must be drawn from each local government areas across the country.

in making the announcement for the recruitment exercise, the president said, “I have approved the recruitment of 6,000 policemen by the police authorities and I directed that those recruited must come from all the 774 local government areas of the federation. “Even if it means recruiting one person each from the 776 they should do that instead of going to motor parks, railway stations or market for the recruitment exercise. According to Vanguard, the president, expressed reservation on the call for the establishment of state police as being advocated by state governors, said Nigerians must abide by constitutional provision in regard to the matter.

Some analyst pointed out that if the exercise is carried out from every LGA’s some southern states might be shortchanged as northern states are generally luckier than the south in terms of numbers of LGAs. Kano State for instance have 44 LGAs whilst Lagos State with all her population, mega city’s status and unofficially reputation as the most populous city in Nigeria has only 21 LGAs.

Whistle Times analyst pointed out that a senior analyst with TVC, Babajide Kolade-Otitoju wondered how balanced the exercise will be if people are to be recruited from all LGAs in the country. Babajide pointed out that, a state like Bayelsa for instance has only 8 LGAs while Kano has 44.

Invariably, states with more LGAs are likely to benefit more from the exercise than others. If that is the case, then northern states will produce the bulk of the 6000 recruits as they generally have more LGAs than their southern counterparts. However, it should be noted that the Federal Government had released a statement through the Acting Executive Chairman of Federal Character Commission (FCC), Dr. Shettima Bukar Abba,that no ethnic groups will predominance the recruitment exercise. According to Leadership Newspaper, Dr. Shettima Bukar Abba said, “there is need for Nigeria police force to respect the federal character principle in recruitments as that fostered national unity.” According to him, the best and most competent person shall be recruited from each state, he added that “the principle of federal character is to give everyone a sense of belonging. https://whistletimes.com/2018/05/12/police/

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