CSOs oppose clauses in proposed amendment of Nigeria Police Act, say more problems in policing will be created
By Jeffrey Agbo
Several civil society organisations (CSOs) have expressed disapproval with some clauses in the Nigeria Police Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024 being considered by the National Assembly for the amendment of the Nigeria Police Force Act, 2020.
The bill has passed for second reading.
The amendment bill seeks to achieve the following objectives: review the service years of police personnel in order to improve the experience and expertise of the police workforce; retain experienced personnel and reduce the cost of training and recruiting new officers; improve morale, performance, and job satisfaction in the workforce of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF); and address the shortage of experienced police personnel.
The Police Act 2020 prescribes a four-year term of office and retirement age of 60 or 35 years in service, whichever is earlier. The bill seeks to amend section 18 of the Nigeria Police Act, 2020, by substituting sub section (8) of the section with the following clause: “(8) Every police officer shall, on recruitment or appointment, serve in the Nigeria Police Force for 40 years or until he attains the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.”
In a statement made available to TheNiche on Monday, the CSOs said the reasons given for the proposed increase in the service years of police personnel are not justifiable.
Explaining further, they said, “In any event, improvement in expertise is not a function of age of service but that of regularity of training and retraining on the job. The extant Police Act already has a provision that makes training and retraining of police personnel mandatory. Therefore, to improve experience and expertise, police personnel should be given frequent training in and outside the country on best policing practices rather than increasing their service years.”
On the retention of experienced personnel and reduction in the cost of training and recruiting new officers, the CSOs said, “This cannot be a justifiable ground for increasing the service years of police personnel. Police personnel are usually recruited annually. At the point of entry, they are not of the same age. They do not retire at the same time. Therefore, there can be no question of depletion of experienced personnel in the NPF as there would always be experienced hands available to discharge police duties even as experienced hands retire. Similarly, the concern about the cost of training does not arise.
“From a cost/benefit perspective, no special cost is required to train new police personnel since the nature of police duties requires regular recruitment of new police personnel. Any gap in recruitment will harm the regenerative capability of the NPF to inject fresh young blood into the force, to cope with the stressful demands of the tasks of policing which cannot be addressed by retaining older police personnel through increase in service years.”
On improving the morale, performance, and job satisfaction in the workforce of the NPF, they said, “This also cannot justify an increase in service years of police personnel. As a matter of fact, because of the stressful nature of work performed by police personnel, increasing their service years may lead to unsavoury consequences, such as serious medical conditions associated with stress and even death on the job.
“Besides, there is a relative lack of mobility and job diversification in the police service. This creates a situation of rank stagnation and a bottom-heavy service with too many officers competing for too few jobs.
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“The lack of advancement or variety leads to what experts have described as ‘the wall’ after a number of years, causing a repetitive and monotonous career routine that can eventually dampen morale and undermine job satisfaction which cannot be cured by increase in service years. Increase in service years may actually exacerbate the situation as police personnel would suffer through the effect of ‘the wall’ for more years than if they retire earlier than pro- posed in the Bill.”
On the shortage of experienced police personnel, they said, “This is another poor justification for seeking an increase in the service years of police personnel. As earlier noted above, the nature of police service creates very limited opportunity for job mobility and diversification.
“The consequence of this is that too many experienced hands may languish in the same position for many years. This is a universal challenge that has been compounded in Nigeria by the challenge of federal character and the quota system required for the promotion of senior police personnel. Therefore, rather than suffer from a shortage of experienced hands, the NPF suffers the opposite; which is that it has too many experienced hands who are grossly underutilised.
“For instance, many Commissioners of Police do not hold command positions, not because of lack of capacity or experience but because of limited command positions in the NPF. Increasing the service years of police personnel will not reverse this situation. It will further create frustration for police personnel who may never gain career advancement until retirement despite their experience, even with the increase in service years.”
The CSOs itemised a number of recommendations for the National Assembly to consider. They said, “The section on recruitment, which was smuggled into the Police Act, 2020, should be expunged; the police should be looking at having a Professional Ethics Department; and the Complaints Response Unit (CRU) should be a stand-alone and not under the office of the Public Relations Officer.”
To ensure that police personnel are able to maximise their years of service in the NPF for the overall benefit of the country, they recommended frequent recruitment of young persons into the NPF; frequent training and retraining of police personnel as mandated by the Police Act 2020; and adequate provisions of healthcare and safety needs of police personnel.
They also recommended diversification of job schedule of police personnel, increase in command positions in the NPF; and improvement in emoluments and pensions of police personnel.
The CSOs who appended their signatures to the statement include Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Lagos; COMPPART Foundation for Justice and Peace building, Akwa Ibom State; Open Society on Justice Reform Project (OSJRP), Lagos; Anthony Opara, Journalist, member, NUJ, Lagos State; Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication -(CCEPE), Kwara State; Foundation: Centre for Community Empowerment in Conflict and Peacebuiding – Kaduna State; Foundation for Environmental Rights Advocacy and Development FENRAD Nigeria, Abia State; Center for Peace Education and Community Development (cepeacecode), Jalingo, Taraba State; African Youths Initiative on Crime prevention, AYICRIP, Lagos; and Conscience for human rights and conflicts Resolution CHRCR, Kogi State.
Others are Initiative for Social Development in Africa (iSODAF), Minna, Niger State; Peace Point Development Foundation (PPDF), Akwa Ibom State; Imam Mahdi Foundation, Abuja office & Adamawa State; IIHRP – Islamic Initiative For Human Rights Protection; Rural and Urban Development Initiative -RUDI, Lagos State; Partnership for Social and Environmental Development Initiative – P4SEDI, Cross River State; Virgin Heart Foundation, Owerri, Imo State; Centre for Justice, Empowerment & Development (C4J), Port Harcourt, Rivers State; Rivers Indigenous NGOs & Civil Society Network (RINGOCS), Rivers State; and Human Rights Social Development and Environmental Foundation (HURSDEF), Rivers State.
The rest are Justice for Peace and Development Initiative; Legal Resources Consortium; Criminal Justice Network of Nigeria; Nde Oduko Foundation, FCT; Center for Global Tolerance and Human Rights, Lagos; Elixir Trust Foundation, Benue/Lagos State; Institutional and Sustainable Development Foundation, (ISDF) FCT Institute for Public Safety and Prevention of Sociopathic Behaviour, Lagos; Legal Awareness for Nigerian Women, Kaduna; Bauchi Human Rights Network, Bauchi; Initiative for Research, Innovation and Advocacy in Development IRIAD, FCT; and Vision Spring Initiatives.