President Bola Tinubu has said the creation of a decentralised police force has become inevitable as part of efforts to tackle Nigeria’s worsening insecurity.

Speaking on Tuesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while receiving a delegation of prominent Katsina citizens led by Governor Dikko Radda, Tinubu directed security agencies to review their operations in the state following rising banditry. He also ordered daily feedback on operations.

The president said the federal government would deploy advanced military hardware, drones, and surveillance gadgets to strengthen security in Katsina, while forest guards recently deployed to the state would be upgraded to boost operations in the North West.

“The security challenges that we are facing are surmountable. Yes, we have porous borders. We inherited weaknesses that could have been addressed earlier. It is a challenge that we must fix, and we are facing it,” Tinubu said.
“I am reviewing all aspects of security; I have to create a state police. We are looking at that holistically. We will defeat insecurity. We must protect our children, our people, our livelihood, our places of worship, and our recreational spaces. They can’t intimidate us.”

Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, in a statement after the meeting, noted that Tinubu decried the politicisation of state police and stressed that security outfits rooted in local communities would better understand the terrain, respect culture, and connect at the grassroots.

The call for state police has been a recurring subject at the National Economic Council (NEC) meetings, though deliberations have been repeatedly deferred despite majority support from the 36 states. In March 2024, Vice President Kashim Shettima disclosed that 20 states were yet to submit their reports on the proposed decentralised police system, even as all governors expressed support for the idea.

The president assured Katsina leaders that his administration would continue to strengthen security architecture and also promised that former President Muhammadu Buhari would be immortalised to preserve his legacy.