Nigeria Will Collapse Without State Police

Last Thursday, at about 1 am, ISWAP terrorists attacked the 29 Task Force Brigade Headquarters in Benisheikh, Borno State, with heavy gunfire and explosives, killing several soldiers including the Brigade Commander, Brigadier General Oseni Omoh Braimah. The terrorists also destroyed military hardware and made away with vehicles and ammunition.
The terrorists, earlier the same night, attacked two nearby military formations at Ngandu and Pulka towns as decoy to prevent reinforcement going to Benisheikh.
The irony of these attacks is that it was preventable. According to the Governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, the state got intelligence that ISWAP terrorists would attack the military formations three days before the attacks happened! He made the revelation while speaking during his condolence visit to the military headquarters in Maiduguri, the state capital.
Zulum asked why the attacks still occurred despite the intelligence received about it. He subsequently called for a review of the security architecture in the country.
In the last few weeks, Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists have carried out a series of deadly and coordinated attacks on military and police formations across Borno State, killing soldiers, police officers and civilians. The attacks have extended to the North West and North Central states, especially Kaduna and Kwara states where many have been either killed or kidnap.
The apex Northern socio-cultural group, the Arewa Consultative Forum has called the situation a “state of war.” Many Nigerians are equally alarmed by the resurgence of terrorism in the north, and warned that the country was sliding towards the precipice.

The ease with which the terrorists move across state borders is what should terrify any sane Nigerian. As a journalist who has travelled round this country and to neighbouring countries by road, i know how porous and unprotected our borders are. Terrorists or any group can easily invade the country through the land borders!

Across the vast land bordering Nigeria and Niger Republic in the north west and Chad in the north east, you only find a handful of security personnel with rifles in the officially designated border posts while the extensive borderline remains open to marauders. No fence, no walls, just open land without anyone stopping you. Those are the routes smugglers use to bring anything into the country. And we have seen several viral videos of terrorists crossing into communities on their power bikes without encountering any form of resistance.
It is a scary situation that threatens the security of lives and properties of Nigerians. This threat is an anomaly that is well known to the Nigerian Armed Forces, the Nigerian Police Force and the paramilitary forces policing the borders. But the system seemed to have forced everyone to give up on restructuring the security architecture of this country.
So, Governor Zulum spoke my mind and that of many perceptive Nigerians that if we don’t quickly restructure our security architecture, this country may fall to terrorists and their sponsors.
Any regig of the security design of this country without including a policing structure for every state and local government will not keep us safe. It’s a matter of existential urgency for Nigeria to embrace state police. We do not have any other choice in the current circumstances.
Countries that are not as populous as Nigeria such as Canada and UK have federal, state and local government policing structures design to take care of all security threats to their people. The UK policing structure is decentralized, comprising 45 territorial forces and 3 special forces that are held accountable by locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs).

The territorial forces are the main local police forces, such as the Metropolitan Police Service (the largest), responsible for law enforcement in specific geographic areas of the UK. The country also has three Special Police Forces with specific assignments and jurisdictions.

The territorial police and the special forces all operate independently but under the coordination of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

In the United States with a population of 350 million, the policing structure is highly decentralised for efficiency, operating across federal, state, county, and local levels rather than under a single national command. They have the City police such the NYPD and the LAPD; the Sheriff Departments (led by elected sheriffs) and the Federal Police such as the FBI, ICE, and CBP, which handle crimes crossing state lines, national security, and border control.

While there is no universal policing standard, some United Nations reports have suggested an international benchmark of 2.2 police officers per 1,000 inhabitants (1:454) for effective policing, particularly in post-conflict environments.

Nigeria falls far below this benchmark. With a population in excess of 200 million, it has only 210,000 active police officers, while England and Wales with a population of 61.8 million people has about 146,442 police officers as of March 2025. The US reportedly has approximately 913,161 police officers for a population of about 350 million.

According to reports, nearly one third of our active policemen are deployed to protect VIPs, banks, private homes, schools, shrines, churches, corporate facilities, and others.

It is cheering news that the current administration supports the creation of state police but the process is dragging too slowly. The bill is still at the National Assembly, and requires amending Section 214 of the 1999 Constitution to remove the monopoly of a single federal police force.

Although the Senate has assured that the bill would be passed before end of 2026, consultations are still said to be ongoing. The Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu, on March 26 submitted a 75-page framework for state police establishment to the Senate. More stakeholders are still expected to support the bill before it can be passed.

The state police is an opportunity for Nigeria to tame banditry and other inter-city and cross border crimes. The fear that state governors may turn them into their private armies against political adversaries is reasonable. But that is a lesser evil compared to what may happen if it is not in place.

The dangers are far too dire; Nigeria may become a state in anarchy and chaos without effective state policing. A state of turbulence and lawlessness is precisely the conditions that make terrorism thrive.

Nigerians have to quickly institute state police or risk becoming a play field for terrorists.

Tajudeen Suleiman is an Abuja based journalist. Email: [email protected]