AT a time all state institutions should cooperate to tackle rising criminality, the Nigeria Police leadership is enmeshed in a needless tussle with the Police Service Commission over the recruitment of new constables. The face-off between the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, and the PSC has stalled the planned intake of 10,000 new personnel to strengthen the Force. The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), should step in decisively; rein in the two parties and direct speedy action to take up the force.
The embarrassing squabble is emblematic of the Buhari regime. The President looks on benignly while agencies and officials bicker over turf and impede important national programmes. Insecurity has reached a big proportion never seen in the country before now; the security agencies, including the military, are stretched almost to breaking point, and the sole police force is overwhelmed. This informed the decision to take 40,000 new constables over four years, with 10,000 intakes annually. It is a national emergency deserving of close presidential attention.
But the plan immediately ran into a hitch when the police challenged the authority of the PSC to undertake the recruitment. After initially intervening, Buhari has since reverted to his familiar aloofness.
In the latest round, the commission had published an advertisement calling on interested citizens to apply for the 2022 constables’ recruitment programme. But peremptorily, the Police Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, issued a counterstatement discrediting the exercise. According to him, the advertisement “has no relation with the Nigeria Police Force nor is it in tandem with the police recruitment process and should be disregarded in its entirety.”
This give the provisions of the law and a subsisting Court of Appeal ruling. More curiously, the commission surrendered to the police intimidation and suspended the exercise. In a statement, the PSC asked the thousands of youths who had shown interest not to apply for the job yet “so as to give the commission some time to settle its differences with the police authorities.” It said that all contending issues around the exercise would be resolved between the two parties “in the interest of the nation.”
This is poor governance at play; a country battling the scale of insecurity that Nigeria is witnessing should not tolerate inter-agency rivalry in security issues. Taking advantage of presidential indecisiveness, Baba appears to be acting unilaterally. The PSC too projects a lack of confidence. A subsisting Court of Appeal judgement has validated its exclusive constitutional mandate to take persons into the NPF. It is an egregious affront to the rule of law therefore for Baba to interfere, and PSC to acquiesce in defiance of the ruling.
This makes even more urgent for Buhari to resolve the impasse. Paragraph 30, Part 1 of the Third Schedule of the constitution provides thus: “The Commission shall have powers to (a) appoint persons to offices (other than the office of the Inspector-General of Police) in the Nigeria Police Force; and (b) dismiss and exercise disciplinary control over persons holding any office referred to in sub-paragraph (a) of this paragraph.”
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