LAGOS, Nigeria — In a historic step toward restructuring Nigeria’s national security architecture, the Nigerian Senate voted Wednesday to approve a constitutional amendment bill that would permit each of the country’s 36 states to establish and operate their own independent police forces. The bipartisan, president-backed legislation marks the end of decades of heated debate over police decentralization, a policy long proposed as a solution to the West African nation’s spiraling insecurity crisis.
For decades, Nigeria has relied on a fully centralized policing system, with all law enforcement authority held exclusively by the federal government. As insurgencies, intercommunal violence, kidnapping, and organized crime have spread across the country over the past 15 years, this centralized structure has grown increasingly overstretched. Analysts have repeatedly pointed out that the lack of sustained, local police presence in vast rural and marginalized areas has allowed armed militant groups, criminal networks, and jihadist factions to operate with near-impunity. U.N. data estimates that these security threats have claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Nigerians since the early 2010s.
Under the terms of the approved bill, the new state police forces will operate in parallel with the existing federal police force, with a clear division of responsibilities. State units will be required to meet uniform national operational standards to maintain public accountability, while the federal police will retain exclusive jurisdiction over high-stakes national security matters including counterterrorism operations, border security, and transnational organized crime investigations.
The push for reform has gained new urgency since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took office, as insecurity has expanded beyond Nigeria’s traditional conflict zones in the northeast. Armed militants have now launched regular operations in the country’s southern regions, a shift that has brought new waves of violence and abduction. As of the Senate vote, at least 80 schoolchildren remained in captivity after separate mass kidnappings by militants in both northern and southern states.
Ikemesit Effiong, partner at Lagos-based risk advisory firm SBM Intelligence, noted that the recent wave of high-profile abductions amplified public and political pressure for change. “The sluggish federal response to these mass kidnappings is partially rooted in deep structural flaws of Nigeria’s centralized policing framework,” Effiong explained. “That failure has made the call for decentralized policing impossible to ignore any longer.” Currently, state governors are legally designated as the top security officials for their jurisdictions, but hold no operational command over law enforcement assets within their borders.
Despite broad bipartisan support for the bill, the reform has drawn meaningful criticism from opponents. Critics warn that granting states control over their own police forces creates significant risk of institutional abuse, arguing that sitting governors could weaponize local law enforcement to advance personal political interests, suppress opposition voices, and intimidate critics.
Before the amendment can take effect, it must complete the national constitutional change process: two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 state assemblies must vote to approve the bill. For now, the Senate’s vote represents the most significant step forward for police reform in Nigeria in modern history, opening a new chapter in the country’s efforts to address its deepening security crisis.