State Police Without Reform Could Become Governors’ Tool

Nigeria’s state police debate is fast becoming a referendum on power, not just policing. RULAAC says decentralisation could improve security only if Nigeria builds hard constitutional safeguards first; otherwise, the reform may simply move abuse closer to the people.

Atlantic Post

July 12, 2026

2–4 minutes

Chidi Odinkalu, Nigeria Police Force, Okechukwu Nwanguma, RULAAC, Security Reform, State Police

The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) has warned that Nigeria’s push for state police could hand governors dangerous coercive powers, deepen political repression and worsen insecurity unless it is backed by far-reaching democratic reforms, strict oversight and transparent institutional design.

The group said the debate should not be reduced to whether Nigeria should create state police, but to what kind of state police the country can safely sustain.

RULAAC Executive Director, Okechukwu Nwanguma, said the concerns recently raised by Prof Chidi Odinkalu were timely, especially as the country inches towards another general election.

In comments published this week, Odinkalu warned that the rush to establish state police could, in practice, give politically exposed governors “lawful militias” if the process is driven by electoral calculations rather than careful institution-building.

Nwanguma said Nigeria’s centralised policing structure had already failed to contain the country’s rising security burdens, arguing that the Nigeria Police Force remains overstretched, under-resourced and too distant from many communities to respond effectively to banditry, kidnapping, communal violence and organised crime.

In an earlier opinion piece, he said the current model is “overstretched, under-resourced, and often disconnected from the communities it serves”.

But he insisted that decentralisation without safeguards would simply reproduce old abuses at a lower level of government.

RULAAC argued that many state governments lack the financial strength to fund professional police services, while poorly paid officers carrying state-issued weapons could become vulnerable to corruption, political pressure and abuse.

“Without institutional checks and balances, concentration of coercive power at the state level risks abuse,” RULAAC said in a memorandum on the proposed framework, adding that state police must be grounded in constitutionalism, operational professionalism, civilian oversight, non-partisanship, human rights compliance, transparency and financial sustainability.

The group also said structural reforms should extend beyond policing to include stronger state legislatures, judiciaries, local governments and independent electoral commissions.

The organisation recommended independent State Police Service Commissions with majority civilian membership, independent complaints boards, legislative confirmation for key appointments and clear minimum national standards on recruitment, training, discipline and the use of force.

It also called for a phased, evidence-based rollout rather than an immediate nationwide launch, warning that Nigeria’s history shows poorly designed security institutions often become sources of insecurity rather than public safety.

Nwanguma said the sequencing of reform mattered just as much as the reform itself. “Institutional design must precede deployment. Recruitment standards must precede recruitment. Training institutions must precede policing powers. Accountability systems must precede operational authority,” he warned.

He added that Nigeria should not allow state police to become “an emergency political project driven by electoral calculations”.

The RULAAC chief also linked the policing debate to Nigeria’s broader democratic deficit, arguing that credible elections, stronger institutions and accountable governance are all part of the security puzzle.

Still, he said election reform alone would not solve the crisis, because insecurity is also driven by weaknesses in intelligence coordination, criminal justice delivery, governance and economic exclusion.

RULAAC’s position reflects a wider split in the national conversation: support for state police is growing, but so too are fears that governors could weaponise it in the same way many critics say some state institutions and local structures have been captured for partisan advantage.

In a separate 2026 opinion piece, Nwanguma argued that Nigeria should not replace one failure with many, and urged reformers to ask whether the country is solving the problem or merely redistributing it.