UI Vice-Chancellor, Experts Advocate Cautious Implementation of State Policing in Nigeria

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Kayode O. Adebowale, mni, FAS, fspsp, has warned that the implementation of state policing must be approached carefully to prevent abuse by political actors, jurisdictional conflicts and threats to democratic governance.

He stressed the need for constitutional safeguards, harmonised training systems, sustainable funding models and community-based policing structures to ensure effective implementation.

Professor Adebowale gave the warning while declaring open a one-day roundtable organised by the TETFund Centre of Excellence in Security Management (TECESM), University of Ibadan in partnership with the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria Commission (DAWN).

Professor Adebowale proposed constitutional amendments to establish a two-tier policing structure comprising federal and state police systems, alongside civilian oversight mechanisms and independent police service commissions.

He further advocated pilot implementation in selected states, standardised operational training and collaborative funding arrangements involving federal and state governments.

stated that the question before Nigerians is no longer whether the country should consider state policing, but how such a system can be implemented with adequate safeguards.

He described the Roundtable as a critical national conversation on one of the most consequential issues confronting Nigeria, noting that the country’s current centralised policing structure has become overstretched and operationally limited in addressing growing security challenges.

Professor Adebowale submitted that the Nigeria Police Force remains overstretched due to inadequate personnel and the operational limitations of the current centralised structure.

He said that Nigeria’s current centralized policing structure has become ineffective in tackling widespread insecurity, including banditry, kidnappings, communal violence, piracy, and separatist unrest across different regions of the country.

The Vice-Chancellor noted that the Nigeria Police Force, with fewer than 400,000 officers serving a population of over 200 million people, is overstretched and hindered by bureaucratic delays. 

He said the current arrangement, where state police commissioners depend heavily on directives from Abuja, has slowed emergency responses and weakened local security operations.

Professor Adebowale highlighted several potential benefits of state policing, including faster local response times, improved intelligence gathering, enhanced accountability, and reduced pressure on federal law enforcement agencies.

He cited the South-West security outfit Amotekun as an example of how locally driven security initiatives can complement federal policing efforts.

However, he also warned of major concerns surrounding state policing, particularly the possibility of political abuse by governors, poor funding, overlapping jurisdictions, and constitutional complications. 

The Vice-Chancellor stressed the need for safeguards to prevent state police forces from becoming “private armies” used against political opponents or minority groups.

He recommended a phased implementation framework built around constitutional amendments, civilian oversight boards, harmonized police training, joint funding arrangements, and community-based policing structures. He also proposed pilot schemes in six states, one from each geopolitical zone, before any nationwide rollout.

The Vice-Chancellor also called on participants at the Roundtable to produce a draft implementation blueprint on state policing for submission to the National Assembly, the Nigeria Police Council, and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, adding that Nigeria must reconsider its centralized security framework if it hopes to build a more effective federal system.

A former Presidential Candidate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Kowa Party 2019) and CEO, Motherhood Consulting Ltd, Dr. Adesina Ayodele Fagbenro-Byron was the Lead Speaker at the Roundtable.

He stated that state policing was no longer optional, no longer an academic proposition but that it has become a strategic national imperative.

According to Dr. Fagbenro-Byron, no nation rises beyond the strength of its security architecture and no government can sustainably deliver prosperity where fear has become normalised, adding that Nigeria is at such a moment and across the nation, insecurity has evolved beyond isolated criminality into a layered national challenge.

He lamented that today in Nigeria, terrorism persists, insurgency adapts, banditry mutates, kidnapping has become industrialised, organized criminals are increasingly sophisticated, cyber-enabled crimes are growing and insecurity is spreading geographically with disturbing velocity noting that what was once perceived as a regional security problem has become a national systems problem.

Dr. Fagbenro-Byron identified ownership matters, management matters and control matters as the limitations of the current policing framework.

He recommended that the South-West must build its own architecture, one that is regional in scope, intelligence-driven, community-integrated and professionally managed saying that the alternative is not stability but a slow, silent acceptance of a new normal of rural insecurity, economic disruption, and escalating violence that will ultimately consume the region's hard-won prosperity and peace.

He stated that insecurity in Nigeria has evolved into a complex national challenge involving terrorism, insurgency, kidnapping and organised criminal activities, warning that the South-West can no longer assume immunity from violent insecurity.

Dr Fagbenro-Byron advocated a phased implementation framework involving constitutional reforms, operational capacity development, technology integration, intelligence-driven policing and community participation.

He stated, "this is not about creating another policing institution but about renewing the Nigerian state; strengthening federalism; restoring citizens' confidence; improving response capability; enhancing intelligence; protecting communities; securing our lands, lives, livelihoods, and most especially the future of our children"

The Director of the TETFund Centre of Excellence in Security Management (TECESM), University of Ibadan, Professor Benjamin Adeniran Aluko, fspsp, said the roundtable was organised to generate practical ideas on implementing constitutional state policing in Nigeria.

Professor Aluko noted that the initiative emerged following engagements between the Centre and the DAWN Commission on the need for robust discussions on security reforms and decentralised policing.

He assured that recommendations from the roundtable would be forwarded to governors and leaders in the South-West for necessary further action.

The Director-General of the DAWN Commission, Dr. Seye Oyeleye, FIAP, FIIHP, fspsp, stated that the Commission has consistently advocated community and state policing as part of efforts to strengthen regional security architecture in the South-West.

He noted that the current centralised policing system has become overwhelmed by the scale and complexity of insecurity across the country, stressing that state policing represents a long-standing regional aspiration for greater local control of security management.

He said security has always been a cardinal pillar of the DAWN Commission as far back as 2011, and the journey to the roundtable has been deliberate and sustained.

He said state policing is not a new conversation for the South-West, but it represents the achievement of a long-held conviction, that sub-national governments and the regions must have meaningful control over the security of their localities.

Dr Oyeleye stated that the centralised model of the Nigerian Police force, though it served the country through many seasons, has been overwhelmed by the scale and complexity of contemporary insecurity.

He said the roundtable was conceived to generate ideas on how best to implement constitutional state policing in Nigeria, being fully consci