June 14, 2026
At last, members of Nigeria’s House of Representatives have passed the bill for state police in the country. The proposed new policing system which is aimed at addressing rising insecurity across the country saw 289 out of the 290 members in attendance voting in favour of state police while only one member abstained. But because no reason was given for the absence of about 69 other members, we cannot assume that they would have also voted in favour of the bill. We can only hope that they were not absent because they wanted to avoid being exposed as among those opposed to the idea of allowing state police to stop the current nation’s insecurity. Perhaps that is why some members of the ruling party are reluctant to support the policy, otherwise why are they toying with a project President Bola Tinubu seems to wholly support?
The state police policy is not just one of the policies that Tinubu supports, he has had cause to show severally that the policy is close to his heart. At the 14th meeting of the All-Progressives Congress National Caucus held at the Conference Centre, State House, Abuja in December 2025, the President urged state governors and members of his party caucus to support the proposal for the establishment of state police and full implementation of local government autonomy. He recalled his earlier extensive discussions with officials from the United States and Europe, during which he expressed confidence that the passage of state police would be achieved to strengthen national security.
