Nigeria is moving closer to a major restructuring of its policing system, as the National Assembly transmits the constitutional amendment bill seeking the establishment of state police to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for assent.
The development was announced on Wednesday, November 4, during plenary in the Senate by Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau Jibrin.
Barau informed lawmakers that the Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, had been directed to transmit the bill to President Tinubu following the required approvals from state legislatures.
The development comes after 30 out of Nigeria’s 36 State Houses of Assembly endorsed the proposed constitutional amendment.
This exceeds the constitutional requirement of at least 24 state assemblies, representing two-thirds of the 36 states, for an amendment to the 1999 Constitution.
The Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, subsequently announced the names of the 30 states that had approved the bill.
They include Akwa Ibom, Lagos, Rivers, Ogun, Kaduna, Kano, Delta, Edo, Anambra, Enugu, Bayelsa, Borno, Bauchi, Adamawa, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Ondo, Osun, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba and Yobe.
The proposed constitutional amendment seeks to create a legal framework that will allow individual states to establish and operate their own police services alongside the existing Nigeria Police Force.
Supporters of state police argue that decentralising policing could strengthen intelligence gathering, improve community-based security and enable faster responses to crimes, including kidnapping, banditry and other security threats.
However, the proposal also raises important questions about funding, recruitment, operational independence, accountability and safeguards against possible political interference or abuse of power.
The transmission of the bill to President Tinubu marks another important stage in Nigeria’s constitutional reform process.
Presidential assent is required to complete this stage of the constitutional amendment.
If signed, the development will open the way for further legal and institutional arrangements necessary to establish state police services across the federation.
For a country confronting multiple security challenges, the coming days could mark a defining moment in the debate over how Nigeria should police its communities.
