The Serving Overseer of Citadel Global Community Church, formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has proposed Ordinary National Diploma from a recognised polytechnic as the minimum qualification for recruitment into the Nigeria Police Force.
Bakare said, such OND holders should be those who finished in the second-class lower division at the minimum.
He said with this, the Nigeria Police Academy would be compelled “to upgrade to a degree-awarding tertiary institution affiliated with a Nigerian university,” while Nigeria Police Force would “transform into a Nigeria Police Service, and further build the bridge between Nigerians and the Police.”
Bakare made the suggestion yesterday in a nationwide broadcast in his church in Lagos against the backdrop of the #EndSARS protests to call for a reformation of the Nigeria Police Force.
He also advocated a restructuring of the National Youth Service Corps.
He said, “The NYSC provides an opportunity to achieve capacity building for economic development, to beef up our national security and defence infrastructure, as well as build the bridge of trust between the people and the armed forces. At this juncture, I reiterate my recommendation that the NYSC becomes an optional two-year programme with the first year spent on military training for our young people and the second year spent on agro-entrepreneurship.”
The cleric condemned the deployment of soldiers to attack and “unjustly kill” #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos last Tuesday, saying the Nigerian state has blood on its hands.
Bakare said, “In the spirit of the new Nigerian culture, government must jettison the leadership model of the biblical Pharaoh and Rehoboam, who ruined their nations through obstinacy. Leaders must begin to listen to the people and show empathy to their plight. We need leaders like Nehemiah who quelled a protest, not by the force of arms, but by the moral authority of exemplary, sacrificial leadership.
“We need leaders like the late Nelson Mandela, who converted institutions of division and oppression to symbols of unity and empathy. We need sensitive leaders who are not ashamed to shed tears with the wounded and who can tell the broken, ‘Your pain is my pain, and I will do everything in my power to lift your burden.’”
This was as he condemned the destruction of public infrastructure and looting by hoodlums, who took advantage of the protracted protests.