• Super Admin
• 07 Mar, 2026

From whichever angle it is viewed, the matter of state police in Nigeria is one that attracts different reactions from many Nigerians. Against the backdrop of the currently ravaging wave of insecurity across the country, hardly would any other consideration soothe the psyche of Nigerians other than initiatives that strengthen the country's capacity to contain such contingencies. With these contingencies literally featuring daily bloodletting as is the case presently, the nation is seemingly running with a firing gun pointed at its head. From Sokoto to Calabar and Lagos to Maiduguri, the country is literally at war with criminally- minded assailants who hold the citizens to ransom, as on a daily basis, they kidnap, abuse and kill their victims mindlessly. The situation has placed every security agency in the country, as well as the citizenry on edge, with the police being the primary security agency contending with the ever-increasing public scrutiny on its operational circumstances. It is in this context that the recent operationalisation of Nigeria's state police scheme by the newly appointed Inspector General of Police (IGP) Tunji Disu, through the inauguration of a committee to drive the process, remains noteworthy. Recently, the IGP set up a committee to operationalise the state police scheme after so much back and forward swings on the matter by the country. Speaking during the inauguration, Disu asked the committee to propose an operational framework for the establishment and coordination of state police structures. He asked the committee to review issues pertaining to training, recruitment, resource allocation and oversight mechanisms necessary for the state police structures. According to him, the decentralisation of the police will enable state government and local authorities to respond to specific security challenges within their jurisdictions. He said, "It is my greatest privilege to formally inaugurate this committee on state policing. The task before this committee is both significant and timely as it speaks to our reflective demand to strengthen Nigeria's security. The committee we are inaugurating today has a critical responsibility. Your work will help shape the framework through which state policing may operate in Nigeria in a manner that strengthens rather than fragments our national security system. In carrying out this assignment, your deliberations must be guided by professionalism, objectivity and a clear appreciation of the unique complexities of policing a diverse nation such as ours." Among other responsibilities, the committee is expected to review existing policing models within and outside Nigeria; assess community security needs and emerging risks across the country; propose an operational framework for the establishment and coordination of state police structures; address issues relating to recruitment, training, standards and resource allocation. Also included in its brief is the critical task of developing robust accountability and oversight mechanisms to ensure professionalism and public trust. Disu further said, "If thoughtfully designed and effectively implemented, state policing holds significant potential benefits for our country. By bringing law enforcement closer to communities, state police institutions can deepen local knowledge of security dynamics and enable quicker and more targeted responses to emerging threats." Hence, he joins the deluge of proponents of state police to see it as a worthy new deal for the country. Incidentally, Disu's take on the issue of state police in Nigeria has offered a breathing space for the scheme, which had been cocooned for so long in the garb of mixed feelings among generations of public officials, both within and outside the Nigeria Police Force establishment. Specifically, this note of optimism had driven the advocacy for the scheme by various parties interested in state police for Nigeria. Beside the foregoing, Disu's take also tallies with the oft expressed intentions of President Bola Tinubu on the establishment of state police in Nigeria. However, on the flip side of the note of optimism lie the harsh lessons of history, which feature in the main, the numerous instances of systemic abuse of the powers of the police by regional potentates, who willfully and easily personalised the assets of the establishment, comprising personnel and facilities for their personal aggrandisement and to the detriment of the public weal. This singular factor remains so deeply entrenched in the minds of Nigerians all through the years - to the extent of counterweighing the manifest advantages of state police. However, considering the reality that all through the history of the Nigerian police establishment, its operations had featured in the main a blend of shared control and provision of operational resources by both the federal and sub-national authorities, the prospects of evolving sustainable safeguards for formal establishment of state police, exit. This is where the inauguration of the committee for operationalising the state police agenda by the IGP falls into context. However, in the light of the prevailing circumstances, the need for caution by the IGP remains sacrosanct as the exercise seems to be running without adequate safeguards and assurances for the Nigerian public, especially given the absence of clear-cut legal provisions. Nigerians will not accept as a mere oversight by the government that the state police dispensation would be without a formal, duly processed legal framework. The minimum that Nigerians will accept is the enactment of a distinct law, including the amendment of the constitution, pursuant to creating the state police dispensation. This contention remains justified by the trending situation, where virtually most public institutions are now adopting in domino style, the mantra of 'standing on the mandate' of President Bola Tinubu instead of the legal framework that prescribes their operational circumstances. In that context, therefore, lies the question of which mandate the envisaged state police dispensation is running. Source: https://dailytrust.com/on-what-mandate-is-state-police-standing-in-nigeria/