Chief of Staff to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said Nigeria can no longer rely solely on a centrally controlled police structure to tackle its growing security challenges.
Gbajabiamila spoke on Monday at a special session of the 66th annual general conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), titled “NBA takes the Mic: Who polices Nigeria?”, in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Delivering Tinubu’s message to the legal community, the Chief of Staff said the administration was committed to addressing what it described as a structural weakness in Nigeria’s policing system.
“A country of our size and diversity cannot continue to depend on a single centrally commanded police institution for all its policing needs,”he said.
Gbajabiamila said the current policing arrangement had been “stretched beyond what any institution can reasonably carry”, arguing that the country’s diverse security challenges could no longer be effectively managed through a single national command structure.
He noted that Nigeria’s model differed from those of other federations, including the United States and Canada, where policing responsibilities are shared between federal and subnational authorities.
According to him, the constitutional prohibition of state police has left Nigeria trying to address varied local security challenges through one national command.
“Further postponement is itself a choice. It is the wrong choice, and citizens have carried its consequences for long enough,” Gbajabiamila said.
He stressed, however, that the proposed reform should not be viewed as an indictment of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), commending officers who continue to serve despite difficult working conditions.
The Chief of Staff said any decentralisation of policing must be backed by professional standards, accountability and constitutional safeguards.
He explained that a dual policing system would allow states with the capacity and willingness to establish local policing structures while maintaining a strong federal police service responsible for national and interstate duties.
“Their sacrifice makes reform more urgent, because courage should not have to compensate indefinitely for structural weakness,”he said.
Gbajabiamila also pointed to the manpower constraints confronting the police, saying Nigeria currently has approximately one police officer for every 650 citizens, compared with the widely accepted international benchmark of one officer for every 450 people.
On concerns that state police could be used by governors for political purposes, he said the proposed framework would include institutional safeguards to prevent abuse.
According to him, both chambers of the National Assembly had approved constitutional amendments providing for the establishment of federal and state police services.
He said at least 24 state Houses of Assembly must endorse the proposal before it can proceed to the President for assent.
Gbajabiamila said the safeguards would be critical to preventing governors from exercising unchecked control over state police institutions.
“No governor should possess the personal power to order the arrest of an opponent, stop an investigation, disperse a lawful meeting or direct how officers act in an election,”he said.
He urged lawyers to play an active role in shaping the proposed policing framework, noting that the NBA is represented on both the presidential working group and its policy advisory committee.
