Again, the federal government has announced the abolition of the dichotomy between holders of Bachelor’s Degree and Higher National Diploma in the Paramilitary Services under the ministry of Interior.

Recall that on May 14, 2019, the federal government made the same announcement in a statement signed by Al-Hassan Yakmut, secretary of the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services Board (CDFIPB), stating that the then Interior minister, and chairman of the services, Lt. Gen Abdulrahman Dambazau (retd), gave the approval at the board’s meeting held between May 9 and May 10, in Abuja, abolishing disparity between HND and Degree holders.

But the current decision was contained in a memo signed by the same secretary of CDCFIB, Alhassan Yakmut, with reference number CDCFIB/1001/vol1/110, dated October 16, 2020.

The board chaired by the minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola gave the approval at the board‘s meeting which took place on September 24 and 25, 2020, in Abuja.

“Consequently, a technical committee was immediately set up to work out modalities for the Implementation including the harmonisation of ranks in accordance with the abolition”, the memo stated.”

According to the memo, “All candidates recruited by the board with HND will be placed as Assistant Superintendent II CONPASS 08 level and can rise to the highest position in their respective services without discriminatory ceiling or hindrance.”

The memo further directed all the paramilitary agencies under the ministry to immediately abolish all inspectorate ranks and convert those previously on those ranks to superintendent ranks.

The memo reads in part, “The board has withdrawn the ranking and career progression disparity between Degree and HND holders”. LEADERSHIP gathered that with this development, all ranks in the four services will be aligned with that of the Nigeria Police, as the new ranking system and badges of the rank would be introduced soon.

On maintaining seniority of officers,  it read, “Officer’s level of conversion and effective date will be worked out by the board and the various agencies in due course.”

“We are consulting with relevant government agencies on how best to go about the alignment of salaries of personnel with the Nigeria Police structure. Henceforth, promotion of officers shall be based strictly on productivity, successful attendance of mandatory courses and exams and good annual assessment of their performance.

The CDIFIB had under the chairmanship of the immediate past minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau rtd approved the regularisation of the dichotomy between holders of university degrees and HND in all the Services in 2017.