Despite President Bola Tinubu’s approval for the recruitment of 30,000 new police officers, the exercise will not happen without proper training grounds for the men and women, Peter Mbah, Enugu State governor, has said.
Mbah, who is the chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC) Adhoc Committee on the Overhaul of Security Training Institutions, stressed that recruitment would not commence soon due to inadequate and dilapidated training facilities in police colleges and some other security training institutions across the country.
He spoke in Port Harcourt during his team’s inspection of the Police Training College at Nonwa, Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Other members of the inspection team were Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara, Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, and some senior security officers.
Governor Mbah explained that the inspection was aimed at effecting on-the-spot assessment of security training facilities in the country before the commencement of holistic renovation as directed by President Bola Tinubu.
“There’s no way that (police) recruitment can happen if we do not have proper training grounds for these men and women who protect our communities. We are here for an on-the-spot assessment to document the level of decay and ensure that this intervention is nationwide. That was the explicit mandate of the President,” he explained.
Mbah said the dilapidated state of the country’s security training facilities necessitated the federal government’s emergency intervention, noting that rebuilding of decayed facilities would commence in one month.
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“This is being treated as a national emergency. The first phase will last one month, during which we will begin rebuilding, re-equipping and restoring the dignity of these institutions,” he said.
Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, said the committee was determined to beat its four-week deadline to conclude inspection and submit its report to pave way for the overhauling of security training facilities and actualization of President Tinubu’s police recruitment drive that gave birth to the committee.
“The President is not a member of NEC, yet he came personally to inaugurate this committee….He understands that you cannot recruit 30,000 policemen and train them in this kind of environment. You cannot incubate policemen here and expect them to behave like professionals when they get out,” he added.
Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, commended President Bola Tinubu for his vision to revolutionize the nation’s law enforcement training system, noting that the move was beyond physical infrastructure.
“This is not just about fixing buildings; it’s about building capacity, restoring morale, and motivating officers to perform like their counterparts anywhere in the world,” Fubara said.
BusinessDay gathered that most of the nation’s security training institutions had suffered neglect over the years, resulting in their dilapidation, while many police barracks are now a shadow of themselves, lacking modern facilities and exposing a recurrent lack of maintenance culture syndrome that has been the bane of Nigeria’s infrastructural development sustainability.
This security training facility’s overhaul by President Bola Tinubu is seen in many quarters as a move that could change the narratives of the country’s socio-economic and infrastructural development sustainability.
