With the move to design the legal and institutional framework for a new policing system in the country, a distinguished historian at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Prof. Emmanuel Olukemi Rotimi, has been appointed to the Policy Advisory Committee of the Presidential Working Group on the National Policing Bill.

The proposed legislation is expected to provide the operational foundation for a dual structure comprising a Federal Police Service and State Police Services, marking what could be the most significant transformation of Nigeria’s policing architecture since the abolition of local police forces under military rule.

The Presidential Working Group, chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, is operating under a seven-week timetable to produce an implementation-ready draft of the Bill for submission to the Federal Ministry of Justice.

The Policy Advisory Committee, chaired by retired Justice Mohammed Abdullahi Liman, is responsible for providing policy direction, issuing drafting instructions, and validating the content of the proposed legislation.

Being one of Nigeria’s foremost scholars of police history, Rotimi’s selection is described as crucial due to his academic career that has been devoted largely to understanding the evolution, organisation and challenges of policing in Nigeria, with his research spanning the colonial era through contemporary federal policing structures.

“I think the reform should be understood within Nigeria’s own historical experience of decentralized policing, which existed before military rule when local police institutions operated alongside the centrally controlled Nigeria Police Force,” Rotimi stated.

According to the historian, the proposed reform represents a return to federalist principles of policing.

Rotimi, a professor in OAU’s Department of History, has areas of specialization that include Nigeria’s colonial and postcolonial history as well as the history of the police and policing in the country.

His engagement with the subject began at the postgraduate level, with his master’s thesis examining the Native Administration Police Forces of Western Nigeria between 1905 and 1951, while his doctoral research traced the history of Native Administration Police Forces across Nigeria from 1900 to 1970.

He is also working on a three-volume history of policing in Nigeria covering the period from 1900 to 1983, a comprehensive project that underscores his deep commitment to documenting the institutional evolution of law enforcement in the country.

One of his best-known works, The Police in a Federal State: The Nigerian Experience, published in 2001, provides an extensive account of the origins, development, organization, and eventual abolition of the Native Authority and Local Government police forces.

The study has remained relevant to the continuing national debate over the ownership, control, and accountability of policing in a federal system, offering historical context to contemporary policy discussions.

Rotimi has consistently stressed that the success of any decentralized policing arrangement will depend on transparent funding, effective training, public accountability, and safeguards against political abuse.

These concerns are central to the work of the Presidential Working Group, which is expected to address national standards, state readiness, inspections, complaints procedures, firearms control, data sharing, federal intervention, and institutional oversight.

Obafemi Awolowo University has congratulated Rotimi on the appointment, describing it as a well-deserved national recognition of his scholarship and sustained contribution to discussions on policing and security reform, stressing that his membership of the committee offers an opportunity to bring historical knowledge into the design of contemporary public policy at a critical juncture for Nigeria’s security architecture.

As Nigeria considers one of the most consequential changes to its policing structure since the abolition of local police forces under military rule, Rotimi’s research is expected to help policymakers draw lessons from the achievements, failures, and institutional weaknesses of earlier policing arrangements, potentially shaping a framework that avoids the pitfalls of the past while building on proven foundations.