Nigeria is moving closer to establishing state police as the presidency has confirmed a constitutional amendment to create the long-debated security structure could soon be introduced, signalling a major shift in the country’s approach to tackling rising insecurity.
Femi Gbajabiamila, chief of staff to President Bola Tinubu, disclosed this on Thursday after a high-level consultative meeting on state police held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. He said that months of deliberations involving the executive, National Assembly and security agencies had yielded significant progress toward developing a legal framework for the initiative.
The proposed reform is widely seen as one of the most consequential changes to Nigeria’s security architecture since the return to democracy, with supporters arguing that decentralised policing will strengthen local intelligence gathering, improve response times and enable state governments to address security threats more effectively.
“We started deliberations in the last three or four months on how to go about the establishment of state police as directed by Mr. President,” Gbajabiamila told State House correspondents.
“Establishing state police is not something that you do with the snap of the fingers. There is a lot involved in terms of constitution and legalities, and thank God we have now gained a lot of traction. Hopefully, the amendment will come shortly.”
