STATE POLICE: SECURITY SOLUTION OR POLITICAL WEAPON? – By Terver Akase
The night the village of Tse-Orbiam in Gwer West Local Government Area of Benue State slept with one eye open, help never came. Armed men stormed the community just after midnight, shooting sporadically, setting homes ablaze, and disappearing into the bush before dawn. Distress calls were made. The nearest police station lacked the capacity and directive to respond. Reinforcements had to come from elsewhere, hours away. By morning, seven people were déad, dozens displaced, and the familiar question returned: if security is local, why is protection so distant?
It is after incidents like the one at Tse-Orbiam which have become painfully familiar across Nigeria that the call for state police is growing louder. Supporters of state police insist that it is the missing link in Nigeria’s security architecture. Critics are however quick to warn that it could become a weapon in the hands of powerful governors. Between these positions lies a question Nigeria must confront honestly: will state police make us safer, or simply move the abuse of power closer to home?
SUBSIDY REMOVAL: A BONANZA FOR GOVERNORS, BURDEN FOR NIGERIANS – By Terver Akase
There is no doubt that Nigeria’s security system is overstretched. A single, centrally controlled police force is expected to respond to crìmes across vastly different terrains, cultures, and threats, from terrorìsm in the North East and North-West to kìdnappings in the South-East, cùlt vìolence in the South-South, and attácks on farming communities in the North Central. Abuja cannot see everything, hear everything, or respond fast enough. When the system fails, it is local communities that pay the price.
This is the strongest argument for state police: proximity. A police officer recruited from a community understands its language, terrain, and social dynamics far better than someone posted from hundreds of kilometres away. Local knowledge improves intelligence, response time, and trust. In many parts of Nigeria today, crimes go unreported because citizens see the police as distant, slow, or compromised. A locally rooted force could begin to repair that broken relationship.
But Nigeria’s history urges caution. Power, once ármed and unchecked, rarely stays benign. Governors already exercise enormous influence over state institutions, local governments, state assemblies, and even traditional authorities. Introducing state police without firm safeguards risks turning a security reform into a political weapon.
The fear is not theoretical. Critics are worried that governors could deploy state police to harass political opponents, suppress protests, intimidate journalists, or manipulate elections. In states where dissent is summarily punished, court orders ignored and impunity reigns, the idea of an ármed force under direct gubernatorial control raises disturbing questions. If power is abused today without state police, what happens when governors command one?
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There is also the problem of inequality. Nigeria’s states are not equally endowed. Wealthier states may build professional, well-equipped forces, while poorer ones may struggle to pay salaries or enforce standards. Safety could become uneven, determined by geography rather than citizenship. The outcome of this will no doubt undermine the very idea of a federation.if
In spite of that argument, rejecting state police outright won’t resolve Nigeria’s worsening insecurity. Communities have increasingly turned to vigilantes, ethnic militias, and self-help groups, not out of ideology, but desperation. The real issue, therefore, is not whether Nigeria needs state police, but whether it can design one that protects the people without empowering repression.
That design must begin with strong constitutional firewalls. State police cannot be the private security outfit of governors. Recruitment, promotion, and discipline must be overseen by independent state police service commissions insulated from executive control. Funding must be transparent and subject to legislative scrutiny. Clear limits must also exist on the role of state police during elections and political disputes.
State police must answer not only to state governments but to the law and the people. Independent complaint mechanisms, judicial oversight, and clearly defined federal intervention thresholds in cases of abuse must be built into the system. Without accountability, decentralisation will simply relocate tyranny
State police, then, is neither a miracle cure nor an automatic threat. It is a tool. In the right hands, governed by strong rules, it could save lives like those lost in Tse-Orbiam. In the wrong hands, it could deepen fear and silence dissent.
Nigeria’s dilemma is not merely about creating another police structure. It is about the kind of country we are building. Security rcannon 55ucceed where democracy is weak and power is unchecked. State police will only work in a Nigeria where the rule of law is stronger than the ambitions of those who govern.
The choice is clear. We can design a ssystems 7hat brings protection closer to the people or create another uniformed instrument of political control. The difference will not lie in the name state police, but in whether we have the courage to build it for citizens, not for power.
