By Omoniyi Salaudeen
The incessant attacks in Benue State, especially the recent horrific killings in Yelwata, which reportedly led to the death of over 2,000 persons with most of them burnt beyond recognition, has thrown up fresh debate about the imperative of a state-controlled policing system for rapid response to security threats.
There have been several historical incidents with similar levels of brutality and loss of lives due to communal, ethnic, or farmer-herder conflicts, leaving state governors helpless for lack of control over the security apparatus. The pattern of attacks on farming communities by suspected armed herdsmen, leading to mass casualties, is a recurring tragedy across Benue and other Middle Belt states.
In the latest incident, the scale and cruelty, including burning of people alive, are chillingly more troubling, making it necessary for stakeholders to renew their agitation for the creation of state police to empower the governors to take charge of their constitutional responsibility as Chief Security Officers in their respective domains.
At a one-day legislative dialogue on constitutional review and national security architecture, organised by the House Committee on Constitution Review in collaboration with the Office of the National Security Adviser, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu called for bold constitutional amendments that would move policing from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List, to enable the states have capacity and political will to establish their own police forces.
He said that such a move would ensure more accountable, community-based policing while preserving federal coordination and oversight.
“We must learn from global best practices, adapting decentralised policing models that enhance local accountability without sacrificing national oversight,” the President noted.
This was in realising that security challenges had become a great concern to all and sundry. Among other possibilities, a review of the present policing system is one alternative solution many people are looking forward to seeing as a way of dealing with the increasing menace of crime and criminality in the country.
There is, indeed, a consensus now that the governors need to be given more power to secure their states.
Similarly, the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF), in a significant shift, recently unanimously endorsed the creation of state police to combat the worsening insecurity in the region.This unanimous endorsement was made during a joint meeting of the Northern States Governors’ Forum and the Northern States Traditional Rulers’ Councils held in Kaduna on May 10, 2025.They cited the need for decentralized security management to allow for more effective and efficient responses tailored to local needs. They also acknowledged the resurgence of Boko Haram in the Northeast and violent killings by bandits in the North-central and Northwest.
The Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Gombe State, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, who presented the communiqué after the meeting, said: “The Forum reiterated its support for the creation of the State Police and called on the National Assembly to expedite action on the enactment of the legal framework for its take-off.”This marks a significant U-turn from their previous position.
In July 2012, the 19 northern governors had formally rejected state police, arguing that Nigeria was not yet ready for it and instead called for police reforms.
Their current stance now aligns with that of Southern Nigeria on state policing.
In this regard, the National Assembly has a constitutional duty to enact laws that can pull back the nation from the precipice.
Over the years, the issue has been brought to the front burner of national discourse. However, successive administrations have always regarded it as a no-go-area.
And so the Federal Government has never deemed it necessary to heed to the call. More than ever before, there is apparent evidence to show that the present centralized policing system is inadequate to frontally address the worrisome security situation in the country.
General Ishola Williams (rtd), while sharing his thoughts on the matter in an interview with Sunday Sun, stressed the need for a holistic review of the security architecture of the country.
He argued that the task of securing local communities should be the responsibility of the state police, the mobile police and not the army.
He said: “I have always maintained that we need a redesign of our security architecture because terrorism can only be eliminated at the state level not at the federal level. It is impossible. It can only be eliminated at the state level.
“If they want to find a way to minimize the situation in which we are, we need to establish state police, which will have community police backed by the mobile police to engage in counter-terrorism. It is not the duty of the military to engage in fighting terrorism.
“We have the structure already; it is only a matter of redesigning the security architecture and making it perform its functions and when necessary coordinates.
“The police have an anti-terrorism unit that has been trained on how to deal with terrorists, but they are not giving them responsibility for what they are supposed to be doing. If the police take up the challenge of fighting terrorists, the military will have time to concentrate on Boko Haram and ISWAT. The state police will focus on prevention of crime at the state and local government levels. That is how security architecture works. If there is law and order at the state and local government levels, there will be law and order throughout Nigeria.
“Boko Haram insurgents have never left Borno and Yobe states because they want to form their caliphate. Therefore, it is the exclusive preserve of the military to curtail them because they are threatening the territorial integrity of the country.”
Gen. Williams blamed the National Assembly for its failure to pass the necessary law to support the creation of state police.
Over the years, the impression the lawmakers have always created with their attitude towards routine constitutional amendments is the seeming absolute powerlessness of the National Assembly to initiate a law that will bring a change of the existing security architecture which has put the policing under one centralized command structure.
Since 1999, no less than five amendments have been made by the National Assembly following which the lawmakers would embark on a series of public hearings to amend the 1999 Constitution.
While the first, second, and third amendments were debated and signed into law during the tenure of the Sixth National Assembly (2007-2011), the attempted process by the Seventh National Assembly between 2011 and 2015 ultimately failed because the proposed amendments were vetoed by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
After him, the last amendment took place during the administration of his immediate successor, Muhammadu Buhari.
In all, the topmost issues that engaged the debate of the stakeholders centred largely on restructuring, electoral reform, local government autonomy, state police, and national security.
Yet, none of these aspirations have seen the light of the day due to the perceived lackluster attitude of the previous lawmakers.
Whether the disposition of the present National Assembly will be any different from the previous experience is a different ballgame.
There is a general lack of confidence in the sincerity of the present lawmakers to push the boundaries of the law in the genuine interest of Nigerians.
Another reasons some amendments have failed to sail through is the grip state governors have on state assemblies.
For this round of amendment, all eyes are now on the National Assembly and their counterparts in the state assemblies to support the creation of state police to deal with the current security challenges without any form of tardiness or hesitation.
According to Section 11 (2) of the 1999 constitution, “the National Assembly shall have the power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation or any part thereof concerning any matter included in the Exclusive, Legislative List set out in Part I of the Second Schedule to this Constitution.”
Senator Gbenga Kaka, speaking with Sunday Sun in a telephone interview, maintained that the creation of state police was long overdue in the face of the rising security challenges.
He said: “The creation of a state police is overdue. I have been an advocate of state police along with so many other eminent Nigerians. If we are desirous of maintaining peace, then the issue has to be looked into. A security architecture that is over-centralised in Abuja can never work, especially considering the various socio-cultural situations in our different environments.
“It is not possible for a Yoruba man posted to Borno or Kebbi to perform because there is a language barrier. He won’t be able to decipher what the surroundings look like. So, there is no way he can be as effective and efficient as expected.
“If we are serious about tackling the security problems, we should once and for all enact a law that will make it possible for state and even local governments to have their security outfits. They can still be reporting to the AIG at the zonal or state level.
“There are those who are saying that the timing is not ripe. I wonder when the time will be ripe. Some have also said that the state governors would abuse state police to pursue their political ambitions. We cannot say because some people will abuse the process and remain in the doldrums forever. They even forgot that even under the existing arrangement, the late former Inspector General of Police, Sunday Adewusi, was used against the opposition in the Second Republic election.”
To curtail the possibility of abuse, he suggested that the governors should be de-robed of their immunity.
“Let’s remove immunity for the governors so that if anyone commits a criminal offence in the name of state police, he can face the music. We don’t need to wait till the end of his tenure. That is the only way to sanitise the system.
“The time is over-ripe for the creation of state police. Those who are using the propaganda that time is not ripe are the ones benefitting from the present security architecture that is not working. A situation where you call a governor the Chief Security Officer of a state and yet he cannot give direct orders to the police in a state is unhealthy. If we are serious, this is the time to get it done.
“You can call it constabulary or whatever, but the truth is that they will have the eyes and the ears to understand the socio-political terrain of their environment better than the ordinary police from different regions. If you are the one aiding and abetting armed robbers, easily, they will get you and identify you,” he added.
Also, Senator Anthony Adeniyi, while sharing the same view in a chat with Sunday Sun, stressed the imperative of state police to restore peace and order in the country.
His words: “The need for the creation of state police has now dawned on us with the present security situation. Some of us believe that security should be localized. The time is now for us to have a state police which will be domiciled within the local people with the governors acting as the Chief Security Officers since they are the ones entitled to security votes. That way, they will have control over the security situation in their state.”
He noted that some governors had used the state assemblies in the past to oppose some amendments made by the National Assembly. However, he said the current situation would not permit such interference in the proposed constitution review.
“As you know, the governors control the state assemblies, but we have got to a situation whereby the houses of assembly which comprise eminent Nigerians who have no less integrity as the governor will be able to look at it (state police) dispassionately without kowtowing the position of their governors.
“What we have seen in recent times has shown that we need to localize security despite its susceptibility to abuse by the governors. We have had governors setting up Amotekun security outfits in the Southwest. We should start it and allow the system to grow gradually. The only thing we need to look at is the areas they can abuse and divest them of such powers,” Senator Adeniyi posited
The Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, its Yoruba counterparts, Afenifere, the Middle Belt Forum, and Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) have vehemently criticized the Federal Government for failure to restructure Nigeria and introduce a state policing system to curb the growing attacks across the country.
This was the position the late President General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Engr. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Afenifere leaders, Pa Ayo Adebanjo and Edwin Clark, who maintained this till their last breathe.
It is worth noting that every region in Nigeria has its peculiar security challenge.
The peace of the South-south has always been threatened by disruptive activities of militants and suspected kidnappers engaging in abduction of oil workers, ransom taking, and crude oil theft.
The Northwest has continued to grapple with banditry, kidnapping, ransom-taking and cattle-rustling, while North-central has remained under siege, as herders-farmers clashes persist.
Boko Haram insurgents hold sway in the Northeast with hundreds of thousands killed and displaced in the region.
These differences and localisation of criminalities support the sustained agitation of the creation of state police for effective crime control and management.
However, despite these peculiarities, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, a prominent statesman in the North, has consistently expressed his reservations about state police, frequently citing historical abuses and potential for political manipulation.
He said in an interview with Sunday Sun: “I have never supported state police. Why? It will bring about chaos in Nigeria. I experienced state police before. I think you were not born then. I know how local police will be manipulated by local powers and they will do their bidding.
“If you allow governors to conduct election and you give them security apparatus, you know as much as I do, you will find one or two or three or more governors who will use the security apparatus in the interest of their parties and not in the interest of democracy or the country and that will lead the country into chaos.
“They will use the police, the court and other institutions under their control to oppress the opposition; to deny the opposition the right to practise politics free of any interference.”
With the current escalating security situation, people are watching Tinubu’s body language to see whether he would be courageous enough to take the bull by the horns.
Urgent steps need to be taken to stop the ongoing bloodbath across the states of the federation.