The reported apathy to recruitment into the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) by youths in the South East and South West is not surprising to any keen observer of the Nigeria police and the general perception of the force by Nigerians and outsiders. It is a further pointer to the fact that the force is no longer attractive to youths from the two zones. It underlines the obvious fact that certain things are wrong with the police and policing in Nigeria.
The reported shunning of police recruitment by the youths in the two regions in the ongoing recruitment exercise for other ranks cannot be limited to the aforementioned two geographies. It may be the general situation across all the six geo-political zones because of inherent inadequacies in the force riddled with brazen corruption and other oddities associated with Nigeria, but more noticeable in the South East and the South West regions. It is understandable that in terms of job preference, the youths from the zones mentioned would like a career in the military or any other para-military agency in the country except the police force. Why the apathy towards the force? We shall come to the answers in the course of the discourse.
Before the Nigerian civil war and shortly after, eligible Nigerian youths will go with pride to enlist in the police force. Not any more, especially from the late 90s and now when the police force has become the butt of comics and jokes by comedians in view of their shortcomings in policing the society. Police representation in Nollywood films cannot be said to be entirely good and positive. The image of the police in some of these films is never in good light except for occasional PR stunts where their gallantry exploits are portrayed in some selected films but few.
The image of the force in Nigerian novels is that of a taker of bribe and a never do well and bad officers of the law. Such sordid images are replete in early novels of Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease and The Man of the People, two of his works that eloquently dramatized postcolonial disillusionment.In cartoons, in newspapers and magazines, the police are daily lampooned for bribe taking and other negative attributes.
The police image problem may rank as the foremost reason why some youths from the zones mentioned are exhibiting apathy towards recruitment into the force. Beyond the image issue, the police salary is nothing to write home about, especially for those in the lower cadre, the teeth of the force. At officers’ level, the salary is tolerable but not the best. Our police personnel are among the worst paid and equipped globally. In Africa, they are not the best in terms of salary and equipment. There may be peculiar reasons why the youths in the South West shun enlistment into the other ranks in the police force which I may not know.
But for the Igbo, there may be some reasons why the youths from the zone do so. Let me discuss some of them. Just like any other thing Nigeria, there is no assured future for the Igbo in the force since after the civil war in the 70s. Progression in the job cannot be guaranteed to Igbo people in the force and indeed any other force in the country or para-military force but it appears the discrimination and the man-made glass ceiling for Ndigbo is worse in the police force. How many IGPs have Ndigbo produced since 1970? How many Igbo officers are within the rank of commissioners of police or deputies? I can go on and on and on.
With only five states and fewer local government areas out of the nation’s 36 states and Abuja, and the 774 local government areas, the Igbo is highly disadvantaged in terms of any police recruitment whether based on equality of states or local government areas. While other five geo political zones have at least six states, only the South East has five states. The North West zone has seven states.
The Nigerian present structure of 36 states and 774 local governments is anti-Ndigbo in terms of development and progression in all sectors of the economy as well as recruitment in the military, police and other para-military forces, federal ministries, departments and agencies. Politically, it is even worse for Ndigbo. It was this skewed structure that gave birth to the cry of marginalization by Ndigbo and the need for restructuring the country.
The attendant preferential treatment in force in favour of people from a section of the country does not so much recommend the force to people from the South East and some other regions.
The zeal by some youths to join Amotekun, Ebubeagu and other regional security outfits is a veritable sign that Nigeria’s centralized policing is no longer attractive and popular. Since every crime is local, policing in Nigeria must be localized for us to overcome our pressing security challenges. The Federal Government treatment of the police in terms of welfare and equipment cannot make the force attractive. The frequent loss of personnel in the force due to insecurity in almost all the zones in the country makes it not the preferred force to be joined by the youths.
The low morale among police personnel does not readily recommend it to the youths generally. I don’t know how many middle class family that will allow their graduate children to enlist in the force where some criminals are alleged to have been enlisted. Because of the low prestige in the force and the corruption in the force, many Nigerian youths of Igbo extraction now loathe to enlist in the force.
If the government wants the scenario to change it should work towards the decentralization of the police so that Nigeria can have at least four layers of policing such as federal, state, local government and community policing. I believe that doing so and quickly so would make the police attractive. If the nation’s police force is decentralized, it will be easier to organize and administer. It will make crime detection and prevention easier.
Let the government remove forthwith the identified barriers that make enlistment into the force unattractive to youths from the South East. Before then, the government should embark on enlightenment campaign for the youths in the South East to see the need to enlist in the Nigeria Police Force. With only five states in the zone, if we fail to fill our quota, it is likely that others will take our slots and the marginalization will widen the more. The governors of the South East states must take the enlightenment campaigns to the grassroots and ensure that we fill our quota before it is too late. The South West governors should appeal to their youths to enlist for almost the same reasons adduced above.