State Police Services: What is Nigeria decentralising?

At independence in 1960, Nigeria practised a dual policing structure, with both federal and regional police structures, alongside a Native Authority/Local Police. The first military coup in 1966 abolished regional police for a reason that regional governments abused and used regional police for political manipulation. Eras of military rule returned Nigeria’s policing system to the coercive model designed by colonial masters to protect colonial interests rather than serve the people. Through years of military rule, the military centralised, militarised and systematically reduced the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to a weakened, underfunded, and subordinate institution by suspending democratic oversight bodies, intentionally starving the force of operational funds and training, and aggressively taking over traditional policing duties in order to consolidate political control. This led to 60 years of underpolicing Nigeria, with the resultant security crisis that we face today.

It is therefore refreshing that after years of debates on how every state in Nigeria should police itself, the National Assembly has approved the alteration of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (State Police) Bill, 2026, seeking to return Nigeria to the 1960 policing system by establishing a dual policing structure consisting of the Nigeria Police Service (NPS) and State Police Services (SPSs). Given that in May 2024, the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria announced its support for state police, the focus is not on a possible difficulty in securing the 24 of the 36 states’ endorsement as required for the constitutional amendment to scale through but on institutional and operational efficiencies that will build public trust in SPSs.

The fundamental consideration beyond the symbolic and structural shift in the name of the Nigeria Police Force to Nigeria Police Service and State Police Services is what will be the underlying institutional philosophy and operational policing principles for the SPSs that will enable them to secure every inch of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory without undermining the rule of law, human rights, democracy and accountability. There are many questions that must form the foundations that state police services firmly stand on – how will the SPSs be materially different from the current Nigeria Police Force’s struggles with systemic challenges of corruption, extortion, severe underfunding and understaffing, and documented cases of human rights abuses? Are these systematic and operational issues not seen in the practices and activities of the current regional and state security outfits? What value will state police services add to the ongoing fight against insecurity in Nigeria? Will citizens and crime victims be required by the operatives of state police services to pay to initiate investigations and to cover operational costs as the current Nigerian Police Force will require even before their ‘vehicles are fuelled’? Will officers of the SPSs be assigned for state government or “whoever can afford it” VIP protection? Will police stations in rural communities look like the current NPF stations? If yes, then what is the difference? In 2036, when Nigeria marks ten years of the new constitutional policing framework with a decentralised and dual policing structure, will communities and roads across Nigeria be safer for ordinary Nigerians to freely and safely move and travel around?

These questions are critical in ensuring that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR’s commitment to structural security sector reform to improve localised security and ensure policing accountability is achieved for the benefit of ordinary citizens, who consist of over 65% of Nigeria’s population and who are the most affected by insecurity, particularly in rural and rarely governed communities. While the focus has been on possible abuse by state governors, the real concern must be the prospective recruits into the SPSs. Those who are recruited must have a new mindset of what police service is meant to be; what public service entails; the professionalism to respect and protect the citizens; the understanding that the police serve at the pleasure of the people and not politicians; and the native and emotional intelligence to navigate complex security crises in communities.

What is the exact kind of policing that Nigeria is decentralising? Nigeria’s state police services must have the ambitious model to be globally ranked by bodies like the World Internal Security and Police Index (WISPI) for their principles of high accountability, rigorous education, and policing by consent. States must treat their policing profession as a highly respected profession rather than a mere security job. I suggest each state create a police college for a comprehensive and multi-year policing degree. Another defining legacy of state police services should be police services that derive their power from the public’s respect and cooperation rather than through fear or aggressive enforcement. Since this is a police service closer to the community, officers of SPSs must know their neighbourhood intimately, cultivating a crime prevention culture through community engagement. In the long run, states and military institutions can collaborate in establishing a Police Industrial Complex (PIC) for manufacturing police uniforms, boots, technology and weaponry.

As we envisage an efficient subnational policing system, it is important to frontload what the system must never be – we do not want state police services without functional emergency toll-free contacts; we do not want police stations that function for a few hours; we need 24/7 fully operational and powered police stations; we do not want police stations with analogue records; we need digitised and digital police stations; we do not want another poor policing legacy of begging personnel, worn-out uniforms, angry and aggressive operatives, and officers for hire; we do not need police officers who follow politicians around and carry ‘Madam’s bags; and we do not want to hear that billions have been spent on setting up state police services without achieving globally measurable results of efficient police services.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and may the State Police Services succeed.

Ekpa, Stanley Ekpa, a member of the NBA Rule of Law & Human Rights Committee, wrote via [email protected].