By Martins Oloja

On Wednesday, November 29, 2025, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared a nationwide security emergency. He ordered the police to recruit 20,000 new officers, bringing the total planned intake to 50,000, and authorised the use of NYSC camps as training depots. He directed that officers withdrawn from VIP guard duties undergo crash training for deployment to “security-challenged areas”. Most significantly, he “appealed to the National Assembly to begin legislative legwork on the imperative of State police at this time”.

I had then captured the national mood on this page the same week in a piece titled, “Enough of lip service to state police”. My argument was blunt: recruitment without structural reform is a bandage on a hemorrhage. The position of the then IGP was unacceptable… I had argued then that if we had state police, we would be able to solve the issues of crime in our nation or reduce it to the minimum. Seven months later, on June 24, 2026, the Senate passed the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Alteration) (State Police) Bill, 2026. The House of Representatives had passed it earlier. The bill now awaits ratification by 24 state Houses of Assembly before presidential assent.

The debate has shifted from ‘whether’ to ‘how’. Yet critics remain. Former Minister and former World Bank vice president, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili insists, “State Police is not the answer, restructuring Nigeria is”. NDC presidential candidate Mr. Peter Obi supports state police in principle but wants implementation deferred until after the 2027 election, warning it could be “used to rig 2027 Elections by proxy”.

This article seeks to deconstruct the points at issue. It is not a polemic. It is a primer on why a central police force of 371,000 officers cannot secure 230 million Nigerians, why the UK’s 43 territorial forces and America’s 18,000 agencies are not anomalies but lessons, and why the safeguards being built into Nigeria’s bill address the exact fears Obi and Ezekwesili have carefully raised. In 2023, as Managing Director and Editor-in-chief of The Guardian, (Nigeria) I was part of the leadership of the Editorial Board and Management that launched a 180-pape book containing a serial of 61 Editorials on Federalism alone titled, “Federalism Is The Answer: The Guardian Federalist Papers”. State Police matters feature prominently in the book, publicly presented when the newspaper marked its 40th Birthday Anniversary on November 28, 2023. In all humility, I have some competence to discuss state police matters arising.

The problem: A Central Police Force is a 19th century answer to 21st century insecurity.

Scale defeats centralisation. Nigeria’s population is more than 230 million. The Nigeria Police Force has about 371,000 personnel. That is 1 officer to 620 citizens, against the UN benchmark of 1:450. But the real problem is not numbers. It is distance. A DPO in Gusau cannot know the alleys of Aba. A police commissioner in Maiduguri cannot map cult routes in Ikorodu. Terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, violent extremism, communal conflicts and organised criminality have “overwhelmed the capacity of a centrally controlled police force. Governors are chief security officers without troops: Former Plateau Governor Jonah Jang called himself “the chief security officer of a state without a troop” after watching communal massacres he could not direct police to stop. A Rivers State Police Commissioner once defied Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s direct order outright. Section 215(4) of the 1999 Constitution subordinates Commissioners to the President via the IGP. As security expert Sule Momodu notes, this clause must be expunged “so that a Commissioner of Police cannot, under any guise, refuse to obey a lawful order from a state governor”.

We already have state police — without law, guns, or standards. Amotekun in the Southwest, Ebube Agu in the Southeast, Hisbah in the North. They are “stopgaps” because “we couldn’t get the state police”. Governor Makinde of Oyo put it plainly: “We wanted state police. It was because we couldn’t get the state police that we established Amotekun”. Formal state police would “simply give legitimacy to security structures that states have already built”.

The precedent in other federations: There are 43 police forces in the UK, They have 18,000 forces in the US. Federalism is not chaos, as some others have perceived.

Critics say state police will fragment Nigeria. The evidence says otherwise.

United Kingdom: 43 territorial police forces for 67 million people. England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland have local accountability through Police and Crime Commissioners. Crime does not respect county lines, yet cross-border cooperation works through national standards and joint units. United States: boasts of over 18,000 law enforcement agencies. Federal FBI handles terrorism and interstate crime. State police handle highways. County sheriffs and city police handle local crime. No one argues that 18, 000 agencies have broken America. They argue that 1 central force would break it.

Nigeria’s history can be a useful guide: Under the 1963 Republican Constitution, regions had their own police. The system “was phased out as military rule centralised authority from the mid-1960s” on the belief “that regions couldn’t maintain disciplined forces independently”. That belief was forged in a unitary military era. Democracy requires the reverse. The fear of abuse by Governors: Abuse exists now, but the bill has guardrails.

The same ‘abuse’ bugbear objection applies to the status quo too. President Shehu Shagari’s 1979 clash with Bendel State over police control refers. We can recall too the alleged use of police to intimidate the opposition that same year.

Besides, the 2003 strange abduction of Anambra State Governor Chris Ngige is instructive. If a centrally controlled force had beeb abused this way, the objection to state police applies just as much to the status quo. But the 2026 Bill builds firewalls, not fiefdoms. Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele said: “We are putting mechanisms in the law as we amend the constitution that would prevent or minimise instances of abuse by state governors”. What are they?

Dual confirmation: Governors nominate State Commissioners of Police, “but only subject to confirmation by their State Houses of Assembly”. Protected removal: “Any removal requires a recommendation from the National Police Council and approval by a two-thirds majority of the state legislature”. Section 17(10) of the bill adds “principles of fair hearing”. Independent commissions: Each state “must also establish a State Police Service Commission to handle recruitment, promotions, and discipline independently”. Federal veto on take-off: “No State Police Service can begin operations until the National Assembly certifies that it meets nationally prescribed operational standards”.

Judicial review: “Nothing in the section shall oust the jurisdiction of the courts”.

As Olisa Agbakoba, SAN proposed, funding should be “a direct charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund” and accountability “under the supervision of the National Assembly or the State Houses of Assembly and not the President or any Governor”.

This safeguard too should not be ignored. The Native Authority Police bogeyman is obsolete: Malam Buba Galadima of the NDC warns that state police will be used “as political thugs to attack the opposition, disrupt the election and kill democracy”, citing the ancient Native Authority Police. But that was 1960s Nigeria: no courts, no social media, no legislative oversight. The 2026 bill requires “written standards for recruitment, discipline, promotion, and oversight to maintain professionalism and prevent politicisation”. Civil society, media scrutiny and judicial review “serve as essential checks on abuse”.

Obi’s fear is valid but he should note that delay is denial. Safeguards are the answer, not suspensions. Mr. Obi’s position is nuanced. He calls state police a “significant legislative milestone” and says “a highly centralised policing structure is fundamentally unsuitable for a country as vast, diverse, and complex as Nigeria”. Yet he urges Tinubu to “defer the implementation of state police until after the 2027 general election”, warning of “political misuse”. My maximum respect goes for this view.

Let’s examine three points at issue:
Timing: Kidnappers do not observe electoral timetables. Deranged traducers of our society do not observe public holidays or grant themselves off days before they carry out their wickedness. Process: There are worries about “disorderly legislation” without public hearings. But public hearings were held “across all six geopolitical zones in July 2025” and “returned overwhelming support”. The bill incorporates “many of its recommendations” from the Nigeria Police Force itself.

Trust: some observers say there is no guarantee that this administration would not use state police to influence the 2027 general election. The guarantee is not trust. It is law. The SP bill bars governors from unilaterally removing commissioners and subjects directives to review by the Police Service Commission.

Seriake Dickson, NDC national leader, backs Obi but adds: “We can start the process. The president has started a good thing. We need to slow it down a little bit”. The process is already delayed. Constitutional amendment requires 24 state assemblies. Implementation requires National Assembly certification. That is not 2027. That is 2028 or later, with built-in brakes. We need to understand this. The cost of centralisation is a critical factor here. The 2026 budget for internal security exceeds N2.8 trillion. Yet “terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, violent extremism, communal conflicts and organised criminality have overwhelmed” the system. Ondo, Rivers, Jigawa, and Oyo governors say, “the centralised policing structure has proven inadequate”.

The cost of delay:
Every month of debate is a month of ransom paid, farms abandoned, schools closed. The cost of abuse is lower than the cost of absence: Critics fear governors will use state police. But even with the federal police, a governor who is the chief security officer in the state can still use the police in a way he deems possible. The difference is accountability. A state commissioner confirmed by a state assembly is more answerable to local media than an Abuja-posted CP. Misuse of state police can be challenged in courts, and public exposure of wrongdoing can act as a deterrent.
What state police should look like: From the bill, Agbakoba’s memo, and global practice, here is the model:
Federal Police Service: Terrorism, cybercrime, interstate crime, VIP protection, immigration, ports.

State Police Service: Local crime, traffic, community disputes, farmer-herder clashes, cultism. State forces would handle local and municipal crime, freeing the federal force to focus on terrorism, kidnapping, and cross-border offences.

Standards: Recruitment, training, firearms, and discipline set by a National Police Council. Funding: “Direct charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund”, plus “State security votes should be dedicated exclusively to supporting state security architecture” and “Security Trust Funds, subject to strict oversight.

Oversight: State Police Service Commissions, Zonal Security Oversight Boards, and courts. This is not “handing state police to governors without these protections”. It is federalism with fuses.

And so, the idea and the hour have met: To those of us who are cynical our fears are legitimate. Abuse is possible. But it is also punishable. The bill does not create “unregulated free-for-all”. It creates “shared constitutional responsibility”.

For us Nigerians: 79% of us fear kidnapping. 63% feel unsafe at home, data have revealed. We deserve police who know our street, speak our language, and answer to our state assemblies. The UK has 43. The US has 18,000. Nigeria has 1. That is not unity. That is paralysis. In the main, this state police issue isn’t about Tinubu who has barely 10 months to spend in office as President. It is about national insecurity that is threatening our existence. The time for communiqués is over. The time for constitutional action is now. State police may not be the answer to everything. It is the answer to the question: Who protects the community when Abuja is 900 kilometers away? That is why it is an idea whose time has come. And why lip service, this time, will cost lives.