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By Kola Onadipe
The State Police Bill, as passed by the House of Representative at its special priority sitting on June 11, 2026, without specific mention or related rules pertaining to the creation of community policing, is another recipe for baskets of chaos and business as usual. Nothing fundamental has changed.
That the idea of state police is as old as this present democracy is not in doubt. President Bola Tinubu has been an advocate of the proposition for several years, even after his exit from office as Lagos State governor.
Curiously, despite the fact that insecurity had not attained its present level, the vocal voices of that era remained resilient. Therefore, many saw the appointment of former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, a few years back, alongside a committee on state police as novel, but that was where it ended under the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
Several years down the line, Nigeria now seems ready to have state police created, following an unprecedented rise in insecurity across the country.
However, there is a missing link in the attempt by the House of Representatives to pass a bill on creation of state police without the mention of community policing.
Are our legislators satisfying or rubbing the egos of the governors or what again?
A fundamental collective understanding on this issue of state police must be agreed on, in the creation of permanent solutions towards reducing the insecurity across the nation. No nation can survive security challenges in respective federating units, if the architecture is in the full control of a state governor, as it will be from frying pan to fire.
Irrevocable Assertions:
Security and insecurity are all local and cannot happen anywhere else but in various communities, villages, towns and cities. Villages, towns and cities are officially designated into statutory LG/state constituencies in that order, with determining factor as response time to reported crime locations towards solving insecurity as they occur.
Nigeria’s current security officers, especially at the LG/state constituency (divisional police offices) and area command offices have been adjudged to be inefficient, inexperienced and lacking in equipment, tools and trained human resources, to deal/curb insecurity threats as they occur within their respective communities across the nation.
They lack capacity for efficient investigation, surveillance/patrol, arrest, counselling and prosecution to logical conclusion, except at the State Command and National Headquarters, which are too far away to attend to emergency security situations on crimes, kidnapping, banditry, etc, at the nick of time.
Where culprits are apprehended, there are no competent officials on ground to handle the immediate administrative, IT/data correlations, counselling/detention and prosecution at the local level, for justice and closure, without compromise, when transferring cases to state and national levels.
There are fears of state governor’s hijacking the proposed state police as instrument for dealing with suspected political opponents at will, thereby compromising on the genuine intentions of bringing policing nearer to the people from the faraway Federal Government.
With this grave omission, the House missed a golden opportunity to do what is right, in line with our system of democracy, which is the United States model.
It is, therefore, expedient to align with that model which gives the attorneys-general at various levels power to take charge of appointing police chiefs at different levels to prevent governors from hijacking a noble idea.
Going by our experience on the issue of State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs), governors cannot be trusted with wide powers in this country. The SIECs have not only become tools in the hands of the governors, but are ultimately killing democracy at the grassroots all over the country.
If they cannot be trusted with elections, surely, they would become worse with policing powers, as they would ultimately become tin gods in their respective states.
With a scary insecurity situation which has led to an unfortunate situation with over 3,000 people being killed between January 2021 and June 2025 in South-East Nigeria alone, the country has a major challenge at hand.
Worse still, the bill says that the Federal Police cannot interfere in the affairs of a state unless on the invitation of the state governor, which turns the governor into a demi-god.
Going by the tension that gripped some states during the recent primaries of some political parties, another cursory look needs to be taken at the bill as passed by the House of Representatives, to forestall danger.
The solution is to create win-win situation, where the people in respective communities have some form of shared control on the new security architecture as proposed below.
Existing Security Architecture
IGP, DIGs – 2nos, AIGs, commissioners of police – Hq, state commissioners of police – (37), area commanders, DPOs, police stations.
Proposed Security Architecture
IGP – Federal Guards, DIGs – 2nos, AIG Federal Guards, (State Commanders) – 37 nos, Area, Federal Guards,
State Police Council
State Governor – Chairman, State Attorney General, SAG Federal Guards (Commander) State NBI Director, (formerly DSS) State Commandant, NSCDC State Commandant, NDLEA, Speaker of the House of Assembly, Area, Federal Guards, (Commander) SSG – Secretary of Council.
State Police Council must hold statutory and compulsory monthly security meetings or via emergency call by the governor.
District Attorney General – DAG
Security Management, Legal Counsel & Advocacy for the LG…to be elected within nearest and accredited NBA branch.
Service term – four years and renewable for another term only.
Direct Management, Supervision and Control of Community Police Chief – CPC.
Note: All DAGs in each Federal Constituency must hold compulsory bi-monthly Security operation meetings with all the CPC’s within the constituency at the instance of the Area Guard Commanders – in attendance, for situation monitoring/review of area and planning logistics required for emergency intervention.
Community Policing (formerly DPO’s office)
Community Police Chief – CPC
Directorate (Patrols/Monitoring), Directorate (Investigation/Prosecution), Directorate (Surveillance/Rescue Team), Directorate (Intelligence), Directorate (Counselling, Correction & Detention), Directorate (IT & Data), Directorate (Pubic Complaints & Code of Conduct), Directorate (Special Duties/Logistics/Armory-light) ,Directorate (Finance & Administration-Training/Development)
Note: CPC to head each Community Policing office in each LG/State Constituency:
Accounting & Operating officer-reporting directly to DAG
To be prequalified by DAG amongst applications received and endorsed by 50% of all the Community Development Associations (CDAs) accredited in the LG.
Prospective applicants (with written application) must be retired/active security officials or respected leaders/elders in the LG and must have resided in the Community/LG/Federal Constituency (in that order) for minimum of 3yrs continuously before date of application.
Removal shall be via unanimous votes endorsement on petitions, of all CDA’s in the LG, with consent of the Governor via State Attorney – General and District Attorney – General (as the only initiating officer).
Service Term – 3yrs renewable for another term only.
Funding Prospect for Community Policing
Federal contribution – 67%, State Contribution – 30%, LG Contribution – 50% from the State IGR allocation to LG.
• Onadipe, FNIOB, CFPM, writes from Lagos
