The Police Service Commission has lamented inadequate funding and what it described as persistent attempts by vested interests to hijack its constitutional mandate of recruitment, promotion, and discipline in the Nigeria Police Force.
A statement on Monday by the commission’s spokesman, Ikechuwuku Ani, said the PSC Chairman, DIG Hashimu Argungu (retd.), raised these concerns while receiving a presidential delegation led by the Special Adviser to the President on Policy and Coordination and Head of the Central Results Delivery Coordination Unit, Hadiza Bala Usman.
Argungu noted that beyond the commission’s perennial funding challenges, “unnecessary interference” from outside interests had worsened its difficulties.
“The commission is grossly underfunded and incapable of effectively and efficiently executing its constitutional mandate of police recruitment, promotion and discipline.
This anomaly is also worsened by a struggle by different and divergent interests to hijack its mandate and dilute its efficiency and effectiveness,” the statement quoted him as saying.
He warned that such interference, if not curbed, could compromise the commission’s ability to deliver a police force suited for 21st-century policing.
The PSC chairman further faulted the envelope budgeting system, which he said limited the commission’s capacity to fund its core functions.
He called for an independent budgeting process, as provided under Section 15(1) of the PSC Act, 2001, which allows the commission to submit its expenditure estimates directly to the President.
“The envelope budgetary system creates a ceiling in the budgeting process, thereby limiting funding to the core functions of the commission,” Argungu added.
In her response, Bala Usman assured that the Presidency was committed to strengthening the commission’s autonomy and addressing its challenges.
“We will look at your mandate and ensure you are allowed to do your work. We will de-bottleneck the problems and we will have a PSC that stands alone and not an attachment of any ministry,” she said.
She explained that the visit was part of efforts to clarify the PSC’s role in the administration’s security agenda and to ensure greater collaboration between the commission and the Ministry of Police Affairs.
