Over 30 Civil Society Organizations and Rights Groups in Nigeria have faulted the Nigeria Police Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024, presently on the floor of the National Assembly, seeking to amend the Nigeria Police Force Act, 2020.
According to the Civil Society, the proposed amendments in the Bill do not cure any perceived problem associated with the present years of service of police personnel in Nigeria but may compound the challenges associated with the work of policing in the country.
The Bill, which has passed for a second reading, also had a public hearing on it in late June 2024.
The amendment Bill seeks to review the service years of police personnel in order to improve the experience and expertise of the police workforce; to 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; and address the shortage of experienced police personnel.
The new bill states that ‘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’, thereby amending section 18 of the Nigeria Police Act, 2020, which stipulates 35 years of service or 60 years of age for retirement.
Reacting to the development in a statement on Monday, the CSOs said the proposal, if accepted, will create special retirement service years or age for police officers different from the general norm in the civil/public service, including personnel of other security services, which is 35 years of service or 60 years of age.
The statement issued by the Executive Director of Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Lagos, Okechukwu Nwanguma, on behalf of the CSOs and Rights Groups, read; “The justifications for the proposed increase appear not to be well articulated.
“With the greatest respect to the sponsors of the Bill, none of these grounds can justify an increase in the service years of police personnel as proposed by the Bill.
“The recruitment age limit into the Nigeria Police Force is between ages 18-25 years. If a police personnel is recruited at 18 years, that personnel would retire at 53 years of age after 35 years of service. If recruited at 25 years, the personnel would retire at 60 years of age after 35 years. Surely, the period of 1-35 years is more than sufficient for the police personnel to have gained sufficient experience and expertise to effectively perform the duties of a police personnel before retirement.
“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 argument that the amendments will help in the retention of experienced personnel and reduce the cost of training and recruiting new officers, the CSOs noted that Police personnel, who are usually recruited annually, are not of the same age at the point of entry, and as such, do not retire at the same time.
They said 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.
“If the attempt to review the age is to give life to the section on secured tenure of office, what should be done is to review the Public Service Rules to include the Inspector General of Police, like it has been done with the judiciary and school teachers.
“The Police Act 2020 needs urgent and critical amendment for improvement but not along the line proposed in the amendment Bill under reference.
“The review of the Police Act should be done without pandering to the personal or narrow interests of any party. The police should be insulated from politics, remain apolitical, and be free from interference and manipulations.
“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. The Police Regulations have put this forward to give life to this.
“The Complaints Response Unit (CRU) should be a stand-alone and not under the office of the Public Relations Officer. CRU is aimed at strengthening the Professional Integrity of the Police. It is not a public relations outfit. It aligns more with human resources management,” the group said.
The civil society said to ensure that police personnel are able to maximize their years of service in the NPF for the overall benefit of the country, there must be frequent recruitment of young persons into the NPF, frequent training and retraining of police personnel as mandated by the Police Act 2020, adequate provisions of healthcare and safety needs of police personnel, diversification of job schedule of police personnel, increase in command positions in the NPF and improvement in emoluments and pensions of police personnel.
Among the CSOs and Rights Groups that signed the statement are Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Lagos, COMPPART Foundation for Justice and Peacebuilding, Akwa Ibom State, Open Society on Justice Reform Project (OSJRP), Lagos, Foundation for Environmental Rights Advocacy and Development FENRAD Nigeria, Abia State, among others.
