Civil Society Organisations have cautioned the Federal Government that establishing state police will not single-handedly resolve Nigeria’s escalating insecurity, urging leaders to confront the underlying socioeconomic factors driving widespread crime and violence.
The warning was issued jointly by the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), the Africana League, and Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) during a national webinar titled “Insecurity and State Policing in Nigeria: The Way Forward.”
The groups stressed that sustainable national security requires a broader strategy combining police and justice sector reforms with good governance, expanded economic opportunities, independent oversight, and active youth participation.
Addressing Governance and Structural Issues
Delivering a paper titled “State Policing in Nigeria: The Imperative, the Risks and the Architecture for Accountability,” the Executive Director of RULAAC, Okechukwu Nwanguma, warned against viewing insecurity purely through a law enforcement lens. He identified bad governance, widespread poverty, severe youth unemployment, institutional weakness, and political exclusion as the root triggers of crime.
“Police can respond to crime, but they cannot eliminate the structural conditions that produce it,” Nwanguma stated. “No restructuring of police institutions alone will solve Nigeria’s security crisis.”
While admitting that decentralising the police could boost response times, Nwanguma cautioned that without rigid safeguards, state police forces could replicate existing abuses on a local scale.
“Without these safeguards, decentralisation may simply transfer abuse from Abuja to the state capitals,” he warned.
He urged the National Assembly to set national standards for recruitment and discipline, ensure operational independence from partisan politics, establish independent civilian oversight bodies, and guarantee transparent public consultation in the ongoing constitutional amendment process.
Involving Youth in Security Architecture
Highlighting the demographic dimension of the crisis, the Executive Director of the Africana League, Dr. Glory Ukwenga, called for the deliberate inclusion of young people—who make up over 70 per cent of the country’s population—in shaping the new security framework.
Ukwenga noted that young Nigerians are both the main victims and primary actors in security challenges, yet remain excluded from high-level policy discussions.
She advocated for formal youth representation on State Police Service Commissions and Police Community Relations Committees, along with the creation of youth advisory councils and digital reporting channels for young citizens to actively contribute to community safety.
Building a People-Centred Security Model
In his presentation on “Building a People-Centred Security Framework for Nigeria,” CAPPA Executive Director Akinbode Oluwafemi urged lawmakers to define the true philosophy behind the proposed policing model.
“The fundamental issue is the philosophy behind the kind of policing we want to have in Nigeria,” Oluwafemi said. “Do we want a police service that communities can relate with? Or do we just want to instil fear so that the elites and those in authority can exert violence on the people?”
Oluwafemi emphasized that effective policing must safeguard human rights rather than serve as a tool for political intimidation. He pointed out that decaying public infrastructure such as inadequate access to education, clean water, electricity, and viable job opportunities continues to worsen security across the federation.
He advised the Federal Government against rushing constitutional changes in response to current pressures, stressing that lawmakers must first address structural flaws in existing institutions to build trusted, professional, and democratic policing systems.
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