By Erasmus Ikhide
FOR decades, Nigeria’s security architecture has been trapped in a centralized bottleneck—a “stranger-policing” model where law enforcement officers are frequently deployed to terrains they do not understand, cultures they do not share, and communities where they remain perpetual outsiders.
This detachment has created a profound vacuum of intelligence, efficiency, and accountability. Today, as the nation stares into the abyss of unremitting banditry, kidnapping, and asymmetrical terrorism, the path toward a sustainable future is no longer a matter of debate—it is an existential imperative.
By steering the nation toward the creation of State Police, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not merely fulfilling a campaign promise; he is conducting a fundamental, visionary rescue operation for the Nigerian state.
The Visionary Leadership of President Tinubu
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu deserves profound and unwavering commendation for his relentless, courageous pursuit of this legislative reform. In the face of daunting political inertia and the stubborn resistance of established security bureaucracies, he has consistently identified the decentralization of policing as an unavoidable necessity.
While others have chosen the path of appeasement or opted for the comfort of the status quo, President Tinubu has chosen the path of institutional surgery. He understands a reality that many in the corridors of power have ignored: the centralized security model of the mid-20th century is fundamentally incapable of neutralizing the decentralized, technologically savvy, and hyper-local threats of the 21st century.
By pushing the National Assembly to prioritize the State Police Bill, the President is demonstrating a statesmanlike commitment to preserving the Nigerian project, prioritizing the lives of the citizenry over the comfort of traditional power structures.
The High Cost of the Status Quo
To understand why State Police is the only viable antidote, one must first look at the human cost of our current inaction. For far too long, the primary burden of community protection has fallen on the shoulders of the brave, yet tragically under-equipped, local security initiatives. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Southwest, where the Amotekun Corps has served as the frontline of human resilience.
In Oyo State alone, the statistics are both harrowing and heartbreaking. Nearly 200 Amotekun operatives have paid the ultimate price in the line of duty over the last six years. These men and women, often acting with little more than bare hands, bows, arrows, or antiquated dane guns, have stood their ground against well-funded, foreign-backed, and heavily armed terrorist syndicates.
These terrorists roam our forests with submachine guns, AK-47s, and military-grade weaponry, treating our sovereign territory as their own private killing fields. If the death toll in Oyo State alone is this high, one can only imagine the staggering aggregate sacrifice across the six states of the Southwest. We are losing a generation of local defenders who have been left to face ideological beasts with nothing but courage.
President Tinubu, by championing this bill, is essentially saying: Enough. He is moving to ensure that the protectors of our land are no longer martyrs, but professionals backed by the full authority and resources of the law.
But critics of the State Police bill often raise the governor’s militia argument—the apprehension that state leaders might weaponize police forces against political opponents or the less privileged. While this concern is a necessary component of democratic vigilance, it has been dwarfed by the sheer, overwhelming, and daily catastrophe of our current insecurity.
The status quo is not neutral—it is simply inefficient. Centralization has not prevented abuse; it has only facilitated a level of distance that allows terror to fester. The solution to the fear of abuse is not to perpetuate a broken system that has failed to protect the populace, but to build robust, world-class institutional guardrails into the legislation.
By adopting a framework that includes independent Police Service Commissions, national forensic standards, and federal decertification powers for units that violate human rights, we can create a model that balances local responsiveness with national integrity. President Tinubu’s approach recognizes that we cannot allow the theoretical “what-if” of political friction to paralyze us while the physical reality of bloodshed tears the fabric of our nation apart.
The Institutional Disconnect: The Need for Enforcement
A major obstacle in the current security crisis is not just a lack of manpower, but a lack of will at the federal enforcement level. President Tinubu has, at various times, issued clear executive directives—such as the total ban on open grazing—which, if strictly enforced by the military establishment and the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), would have cured nearly 90% of the rural insurgency and farmer-herder conflicts currently plaguing the country.
However, we have witnessed a frustrating trend where high-level security chiefs, such as the current Chief of Defence Staff, have historically leaned toward a soft approach, characterizing rampaging terrorists as “prodigal sons” rather than the ideological threats they are. This “brotherhood” narrative has been a death sentence for thousands of innocent Nigerians.
By pushing for State Police, President Tinubu is effectively creating a security structure that answers to the needs of the people rather than the ideological inclinations of federal appointees who may be detached from the reality of the killing fields.
*Towards a Techno-Sovereign Future*
The transition to State Police, as envisioned by President Tinubu, is not merely about adding more officers to the streets; it is about shifting from a force to a service that utilizes modern tactics. The modern Nigerian state must embrace a techno-sovereign approach to security. Our forests must no longer be blind spots. State Police forces, equipped with thermal drones and integrated geotagging software, can identify criminal hideouts with surgical precision, effectively turning the tide against forest-based bandits.
Instead of static, extortion-prone checkpoints, State Police should utilize biometric mobile units to verify the identity of those moving through sensitive areas, immediately flagging infiltrators. The most valuable asset in counter-insurgency is the “local eye.” By professionalizing the local vigilante structures into a formal state police force, we integrate the community’s intimate knowledge of their own neighborhoods into the security grid.
*A Final Call to the National Assembly*
The National Assembly under the leadership of Senator Godswill Akpabio stands at a historical crossroads. They are the final gatekeepers between a nation on the verge of total collapse and one that reclaims its sovereignty at the grassroots.
The passage of the State Police legislation—a key pillar of President Tinubu’s administration—is the single most important act of patriotism they can perform in this decade.
President Tinubu has provided the political capital and the legislative roadmap; now, the legislators must act.
Every day that passes without this law is another day of violence, another day of trauma for our rural communities, and another day where ideological beasts believe they are winning the war against our civilization.
Nigeria is eager for peace. Nigerians are eager for a security architecture that reflects their reality and protects their dignity. It is time for the National Assembly to fast-track this bill, save the country from a further bloodbath, and secure a legacy of safety and prosperity for generations to come.
President Tinubu will be remembered in the annals of history as the man who had the courage to pivot toward common sense when it mattered most—now, let the legislature finish the work.
The security of Nigeria is not negotiable. The time to empower our states is now.
Erasmus Ikhide contributed this piece via: ikhideluckyerasmus@gmail.com