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- Former IG of Police, Mike Okiro
The Police Service Commission (PSC), SaharaReporters has been informed, actively works against the interests of well-educated members of the inspectorate cadre as well as the rank and file of the Nigeria Police Force.
This website exclusively gathered that policemen in these categories are routinely ignored by the PSC, despite having obtained higher education, when vacancies exist in the Assistant Superintendent of Police cadre.
The Nigeria Police Force has three entry levels. One is by enlistment into the constable cadre, while another is via enlistment through the cadet inspector cadre. The last is via the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) cadre.
A source told SaharaReporters that the Force has never found it difficult attracting recruits through the constable cadres because of the entry educational requirements are low. For the ASP cadre, however, higher qualifications, including degrees and diplomas are required, a situation that compelled many in the inspectorate cadre as well as rank and file to obtain diplomas from polytechnics as well as first and second university degrees.
Their hopes of absorption into the higher cadre is based on Section 39 of Part IV (Appointments) of the Police Act and Regulation.
"When vacancies in the establishment of Assistant Superintendents of Police cannot, by reason of unavailability of suitable candidates, be filled by promotions from within the Force, the Inspector-General shall so inform the Nigeria Police Council and may request it to arrange for the posts to be filled by direct entry," the section states.
Police sources told SaharaReporters that in the past, when not many within the inspectorate and rank and file cadres had higher education, the PSC justifiably recruited civilians with tertiary educational qualifications into the ASP cadre.
That, however, is no longer the case and implies that the PSC is deliberately disregarding the provisions “unavailability” and “suitability” as conditions for filling the ASP cadre by direct entry.
“These days, members of the police rank and file are well educated, with some having second university degrees. They obtained these degrees in the hope that they would enjoy career progression, which seemed a distinct possibility under two former Inspectors-General of Police. In 2014 and 2015, they were told to participate in a documentation exercise, which they presumed would give their careers the envisaged push, having obtained higher education. That, however, was discontinued in 2016,” a source told SaharaReporters.
As at 2014, said another source, the police rank and file population, which took part in the documentation exercise, stood at 13,386. Because the force could not promote all those eligible at once, it imposed other criteria for qualification. Last year, the process was discontinued, explained the source, because other extraneous factors came into play.
Notable among these, he disclosed, was the hijack of the process by politicians in their bid to ensure that their candidates benefited.
The source said Mr. Mike Okiro, Chairman of the PSC, is running an entity that willfully disregards its own rules by its failure upgrade qualified members of the police rank and file. Mr. Okiro is said to be aware that the ill-treatment of the rank and file has resulted in low morale, especially among those with first, second and even third degrees in various academic disciplines. Many of those in this category are demoralized because they do not earn what is commensurate with their educational qualifications.
“We want the current Inspector-General of Police to, who has shown interest in the welfare of the rank and file, to re-present this issue before the PSC Chairman, so that the yearly enlistment, especially into the ASP cadre, will include batches of in-service graduates.
“Once this is done, a large number of those with tertiary educational qualification within the inspectorate cadre and the rank and file will be absorbed,” reasoned a source.
A major benefit of this approach, he added, is that in-service graduates, who have already undergone basic training, will be cheaper to provide with advanced training than those plucked from the civilian populace.
“The current rank and file have done nothing to deserve this life of servitude. If this trend is allowed to continue, there will be greater dejection and indiscipline. We are already being laughed at by our colleagues with lower qualifications. They are asking what difference exists between them and us. This is demoralizing,” said a policemen ruefully.
BY SAHARA REPORTERS
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