No matter how much the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and
its leaders emote about their resolve to foster a merit-driven system and serve
the whole country, their immersion in winner-take-all politics is obvious to
all. Of course, this is by no means out of sync with the party of President
Muhammadu Buhari who declared that those who voted for him would enjoy the
so-called dividends of democracy more than those who never supported his
election.
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| President Buhari and IGP Ibrahim Kpotum |
While it is
clear that Buhari has floundered in many other areas of governance, he has
demonstrated uncommon fidelity to this commitment since he assumed office. This
accounts for his appointing mainly his family members, political associates and
other close persons.
This
nepotism that has defined the Buhari government is set to interfere with the
recruitment of new police personnel. Such interference is alarming against the
backdrop of the persistent outrage at the unprofessionalism in the police that
is often expressed in their predilection for corruption. They shoot a motorist
who refuses to give them a bribe of N50; they collude with armed robbers to
prey on the citizens; they turn a witness or complainant into a suspect because
of pecuniary gain – and the list of crimes goes on. For all this, the blame
rightly goes to the method of their recruitment that shares no kinship with
meritocracy. Most police personnel join the force to make money through
corruption and not because of the competence and the passion they have for the
job. They easily bribe their way through the recruitment and once they have got
the job, they brazenly pursue an agenda to recoup their investment.
Thus, we would have thought that a time of recruitment of police personnel
would be seized as an opportunity to get citizens who are very competent and
passionate to enforce the law and protect the citizens and their property and
stop the rapid deterioration of the force into a hotbed for the proliferation
of criminals. But now, through the nepotism of the APC, only those who are
close to the ministers and leaders of the party are the ones who would be among
the 10,000 police personnel to be recruited this year. These ministers and
leaders of APC have disrupted the recruitment by insisting that only their
cronies should make the list. To placate them, the Police Service Commission
(PSC) has been removing the names of those who have meritoriously passed the tests
for the recruitment. They have been putting the names of their cronies who have
either failed the tests or did not even apply for the job in the first place.
Consequently, the recruitment that should have been concluded by now has been
stalled.
By their action, the
APC leaders are set to increase the misguided members of the police. But the
APC leaders should not whine later when these policemen use their guns to
extort money from the citizens and mow down those who refuse to give them the
bribe they are asking for. And how do these so-called ministers and leaders
want those who have passed the tests but their names are removed to feel about
the nation? Such victims of nepotism would only remain rankled by a sense of
betrayal and alienation that would drive them into doing anything that would
negate the interest of a nation that does not care for them. Is it such people
that Buhari and his officials would tell that change begins with them and they
would listen when it is clear to them that the so-called change must begin with
the leaders?
This reminds us of the
warning in The Yacoubian Building by the Egyptian novelist Alaa Al Aswany
that the denial of well-deserved opportunities in a post-colonial state is
fraught with the danger of pushing the citizens into working against the
society. Aswany uses Taha who is intelligent and has passion for the job of a
policeman to drive home his point. Taha has opportunities to go to one of the
best colleges in Egypt Police Academy
The
government of past President Goodluck Jonathan has been severely rebuked for
the complicity of its officials in the mismanagement of recruitment of immigration
officials that claimed the lives of some citizens. But the country must free
itself from this corruption that is associated with public recruitment. It is
probably the need to prevent the same nepotism from disrupting the proposed
recruitment of 500,000 teachers that the National Assembly has declared that
the presidency and the office of the vice president lack the expertise to
undertake this exercise. The lawmakers have asked the presidency to allow the
Ministry of Education to carry out the recruitment for a measure of credibility
to be achieved in the exercise.
Buhari and
his APC leaders must develop a broad pan-Nigerian vision that would enable
those who are qualified for offices to be given them. Against his will and that
of his party leaders, Buhari must demonstrate this by insisting that the PSC
follows its initial list. Those whose names have been smuggled onto the
recruitment list must not only be removed, the ministers and the chieftains of
the APC who are behind this manipulation should be punished by the government.
The PSC
should be allowed to be guided in the recruitment of new police personnel by
the dictates of merit and not nepotism. For the sake of the unity of the
country, Buhari and his APC chieftains must embrace an all-inclusive
government. They must break with the obsession that they would only give
appointments to those who are loyal to the party. At a time that the country is
weighed down by a myriad of problems, the public servants who are needed are
people who would provide answers.
Unless
Buhari is irredeemably impervious, he should have been chastened by his
numerous blunders, including his incompetent aides giving him plagiarised
speeches to read in the public, and realised by now the importance of allowing
meritocracy and not cronyism to determine those who should be appointed to
serve the nation.
*Dr. Onomuakpopko is
on the Editorial Board of The Guardian
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