The Imperatives of Enlisting In Nigeria Police By Enugu State Youths

Recently, the Enugu State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Aka Eze Aka, took a tour of the 17 Local Government Areas of the state, primarily to mobilize qualified and active youths to take the opportunity provided by the on-going recruitment by the Nigeria Police to enlist into the force.

The Commissioner’s action followed a people’s interest directive by the visionary and focused Governor of the state, Dr Peter Mbah, who clearly understands without any iota of doubt, the need for qualified, vibrate and young Enugu state citizens to participate in the Police recruitment excerise and secure enrollment into the service because of its glaring social, economic and security benefits to the country, state and the young population.

Governor Mbah’s charge for the undertake of the mobilisation was among other things; a direct fall out of a report released by the Police Service Commission which painted an abysmal and gloomy picture of poor interest among youths from South East states including Enugu to pursue career in the Nigeria Police despite it’s strategic position in the internal security architecture of the country and employment provision opportunity.

The Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Mr. Solomon Arase, in the report made available to newsmen by the Head, Press and Public Relations of the Commission, Mr. Ikechukwu Ani, made a passionate appeal to Leaders in the Zone to find convincing ways of influencing their youths to embrace the opportunity offered by the ongoing recruitment into the force and be enlisted for service in the Nigeria Police.

It was therefore a quick and honest response to the clarion call by Mr Arase that motivated the ebullient and effervescent Governor of Enugu state, Dr Peter Mbah to mandate the Commissioner for Information to without delay, prioritize the mobilisation of youths in the state to enroll in the Nigeria Police.

The Governor’s directive clearly portrays him as a Leader who demonstrates great interest in the welfare and well-being of his people in the least things that will uplift their lives and further, as one who is wholly committed to ensuring that whatever is due to his people do not slip out of his hands.

Commissioner Aka Eze Aka, immediately on receiving the Governor’s directive, swung into action with his powerful team that included the Permenant Secretary in the Ministry, Dr. Ben Ezema, Motivational Speakers, Security Experts and a creme of seasoned journalists, as the crack team transversed the length and breath of the 17 Local Government Areas of the state through carefully crafted words and figures, drummed the message of His Excellency, Dr Peter Mbah into the ears of the stakeholders and made it pointedly clear that the Governor is highly interested in the matter to the extent that prospective applicants need not to fear about offering monetary bribe or any form of gratification to any individual or persons to be enlisted in the force.

Aka Eze Aka, at each stop during the campaign also dropped Governor Mbah’s promise that the same or even more energy and synergy exerted in carrying out the message of mobilisation of youths to join the Police will be deployed to sensitize the people to participate massively in future federal government recruitment into strategic and juicy agencies such as; the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).

An inquisitive mind may ask,Why is the Enugu state government paying exceptional attention and spending much human and material resources in galvanizing the interest of it’s young population to enroll into the Nigeria Police?. This is especially when there are a plethora of money and financially rewarding ventures it could easily expose them to for better standard of living.

The answers to this question is rather simple and straight forward. Nigeria is a country where positions at the Federal level is based on quota, which in a simple way is the specified number of allocation or share, therefore in the ongoing Police recruitment, each state in the country has it’s quota and Governor Peter Mbah who is always conscious of protecting the interest of his people desires that not one of the numbers alloted to the state will be taken away because a mouse cannot eat the food of a man who is awake.

Also Governor Mbah believes that it is both a moral and social responsibility of his administration not only in the current Police recruitment excerise but in every other national matters to always ensure the full protection and preservation of Oke Ndi Enugu State. Indeed, no responsible and duty propelled government anywhere in the world would shy away from this kind of task especially when it touches the life of its citizens and their progress.

Furthermore the complaints and cries of marginalisation by states in the South East in the country may not be absolutely justified when states in the Zone fail to maximize chances like the ongoing Police recruitment to ensure the full represention of their people in Federal institutions.

The enlisting of Enugu state youths in the police will unavoidably position them as strong and indispensable stakeholders in the internal security architecture of the state.

Today, majority of police personnel who operate in the state are from outside the state, this needs to be balanced but can only be possible when more young population of the state renew their interest in joining the police.

With the assurance received by the Commissioner and his team from the stakeholders during the mobilisation tour that they will take the Governor’s message to the grassroots which many of them had already commenced working on, it is expected that a new dawn has arrived in the attitude and orientation of Enugu State young population towards pursuing career in the Nigeria Police.

Such a change aside other positives will give the youths more job platforms, improve their social and economic conditions and reduce their involvement in Crimes.

There are a good number of Ndigbo and Enugu state indigenes who excelled in the police and made enviable marks.

Among them are former Inspector Generals of Police, Chief Ogbonnaya Onovo, Dr. Mike Okiro and a present Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Mr. Frank Mba.

It is important that our youths should copy the glorious steps of these achievers as they may even surpass their records.

Remember the guarantee of a better tomorrow starts with a mission driven decision taken today.

With this we can confidently say that our Tomorrow is Here.

Author: Nkele Nwaeze