The Nigeria Police begins a nationwide search for qualified retirees to serve as recruitment instructors, directing all commands to urgently submit eligible candidates for training duties.
The Nigeria Police Force has launched a major nationwide exercise aimed at identifying experienced retired personnel who can support the training of new intakes across its colleges and academies.
This initiative follows a formal directive issued from the Department of Training and Development (DTD) at the Force Headquarters in Abuja, which ordered all police formations to immediately compile and forward names of qualified candidates.
The move reflects the growing emphasis on improving training standards, strengthening police reforms, and enhancing the overall capacity of law enforcement institutions responsible for shaping future officers.
Central to this initiative is the Force’s plan to engage knowledgeable retirees as recruitment instructors, ensuring that new constables receive practical guidance from individuals who have excelled in field operations and police administration.
The directive, captured in a wireless message dated December 8, 2025, was circulated to the upper echelon of the police management structure, including Deputy Inspectors General, Assistant Inspectors General across the 17 zonal commands, and Commissioners of Police in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. The memo also extended to specialised police units—such as the Mobile Police Force, the
Terrorism Directorate, Marine and Airwing Units, the Medical Services Unit, Border Patrol, Force Intelligence Bureau, and Force Criminal Investigation Department. Each command was instructed to identify retired personnel within their jurisdiction who meet the strategic criteria laid out by the Inspector-General of Police.
According to the wireless message, the exercise is restricted to officers who retired between 2020 and 2025, specifically those who served from the rank of Inspector up to Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
The selection criteria aim to ensure that the pool of potential recruitment instructors comprises officers with sufficient operational experience, professional maturity, and mastery of policing principles.
To qualify, the officers must demonstrate a strong understanding of essential legal and administrative frameworks, particularly the Police Act 2020 and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, which now guide contemporary policing procedures and operational ethics across Nigeria.
Candidates must also possess demonstrable expertise in at least one of the core training fields such as musketry, drill, unarmed combat, liberal studies, legal studies, or other professional studies offered in police colleges.
This requirement is part of a broader push to modernise Nigeria’s training curriculum by ensuring that foundational knowledge is delivered by instructors with proven competence.
It also reflects the Force’s growing concern over the need to reform and professionalise the training pipeline, a key priority within national security and law enforcement circles.
The proposed engagement of retired officers as recruitment instructors is expected to help bridge existing manpower gaps in the training departments and relieve the burden on overstretched serving officers.
By tapping into the wealth of knowledge accumulated by retirees, the Police Force hopes to preserve institutional memory while exposing new recruits to real-world policing insights that cannot be learned strictly from textbooks.
Police reforms experts have frequently argued that training deficiencies contribute to operational misconduct, and the new initiative is seen as an important step toward reversing such challenges.
Commands have been ordered to compile a comprehensive database of eligible individuals, each with detailed documentation including full name, serial number, highest academic qualification, date of retirement, area of prior service, area of training competence, and the specific police college or training institution preferred by the officer.
This structured approach is designed to streamline the selection process and ensure equitable distribution of instructors across the various training centres nationwide.
In stressing the urgency of the exercise, the wireless message directed all submissions to be forwarded to the designated email address on or before December 18, 2025.
The urgency underscores how critical these appointments are to the police recruitment calendar, especially as the Force prepares for a new phase of mass recruitment expected to support Nigeria’s security architecture.
A stronger and more competent training structure is central to national security, particularly at a time when police operations are under greater public scrutiny.
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