At ARISE Town Hall Meeting, Stakeholders Warn State Police May Fail Without Strong LG System

Linus Aleke in Abuja

Security and legislative stakeholders have stressed that meaningful police reform must go beyond the creation of state police, calling for stronger local government autonomy and constitutionally guaranteed funding to ensure the effectiveness, independence, and accountability of state police formations.

Speaking at the ARISE Town Hall Meeting on state policing in Abuja, the Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, argued that the success of state policing would depend on complementary reforms that empower local governments and establish a sustainable funding framework insulated from political interference.

He said, “The whole essence of advocating state policing is to establish effective community policing, and that is the first step we must take. However, if we fail to address the issue of local government autonomy and strengthen local governments to enable them to discharge their responsibilities effectively, we will have achieved very little, even with the establishment of state police.

“These reforms must go hand in hand. For us in the National Assembly, we have taken these issues into account in developing a legal framework that aligns with international best practices and national minimum standards, below which we cannot go, to ensure that state policing succeeds.”

Senator Bamidele also identified funding as one of the most critical issues that must be addressed in any legal framework establishing state police.

He added, “One of the key issues that must be carefully addressed is funding. Before anything else, we need to understand the political economy of financing the police.

“If state police are not adequately funded, it is not only state actors who could abuse the system. Let me tell you, the business community, other organisations, criminal groups, and powerful vested interests could also exploit it. It is a question of who pays the piper calling the tune. Without adequate funding, state policing could become a highway to nowhere, and that is precisely what we must avoid.

“One of the most critical issues that must be addressed in the enabling legislation is how to guarantee, to a reasonable extent, the fiscal and financial independence of state police. Funding should not rest entirely at the discretion of state governors.

“There must be constitutional first-line charge provisions, similar to those that exist for the judiciary. The Chief Justice of Nigeria, for instance, does not have to submit every procurement request to the President for approval, as ministers do through the Federal Executive Council, because the judiciary’s funding is constitutionally guaranteed. That is the essence of a first-line charge.

“In the same way, state police commissioners and State Police Service Commissions should have guaranteed sources of funding so that they are not subjected to the whims and caprices of state governors. The legal framework should require that a specified percentage of every state’s budget be allocated to the police, while the mechanism for accessing those funds should be clearly defined.”

In his contribution, a Historian, Dr. Bukar Usman, stressed the need for local police, “not necessarily state police.”

According to him, “this arose from my experience as a child back in my village in Borno State, where I observed the native authority police in operation. Also, as a public officer, my schedule has been on security matters. So, I have always advocated for local police.”

He argued that with effective policing at the local level, “there is no way they will not pick out issues that are emanating at the local level before they become a national problem.”

For the Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa, “for us to succeed, our local governments must be up and doing, our communities must be up and doing and we must give opportunities to traditional and religious leaders to also contribute to the success of the community.

“That makes it a lot easier. When you see something and you have a way to report it and these things are addressed immediately, then we are all better for it.”

Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, called for far-reaching judicial, fiscal and institutional reforms to ensure the success of the proposed State Police system, saying the initiative must go beyond creating new security structures to addressing the legal and financial frameworks that will sustain them.

Abiodun, however, stressed that the ongoing legislative process for the policy must answer fundamental questions about why the existing Nigeria Police Force has struggled to deliver optimal results and how both the federal and state police systems can complement each other effectively.

He argued that a more efficient state police system would inevitably lead to more arrests and prosecutions, making it imperative to strengthen the judiciary to guarantee speedy trials and justice.

According to him, lawmakers should consider whether the country needs additional judicial reforms, including the establishment of State Courts of Appeal to handle disputes such as land matters without unnecessarily burdening the appellate courts.

The governor also urged policymakers to tackle the root causes of insecurity, particularly the recurring farmers-herders conflicts that have contributed to food insecurity in several parts of the country.

He said resolving such underlying issues would reduce the burden on law enforcement agencies while promoting peace and agricultural productivity.

On funding, Abiodun warned that disparities in states’ revenue-generating capacities could undermine the effectiveness of state police if not properly addressed.

Also, the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Charles Soludo, said the conversation on state policing should not end at the state level, arguing that local government policing should also form part of the broader security reform agenda.

Drawing a comparison with the United States, he noted that policing operates at the county level and stressed that Nigeria’s debate on decentralising policing must extend beyond the current focus on state police.

He, however, identified funding as the “big elephant” that has yet to be adequately addressed, warning that devolving policing responsibilities to the states without a corresponding devolution of financial resources would undermine the effectiveness of the reform.

Soludo argued that true federalism requires a restructuring of the country’s fiscal framework to ensure that states have the resources needed to discharge their responsibilities effectively.

He maintained that if the federal government retained more than 40 per cent of national revenue, some states might only be able to afford a handful of police officers, thereby defeating the purpose of state policing.