President Tinubu Urges Senate to Fast-Track Constitutional Amendment for State Police

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called on the National Assembly to expedite the process of amending the Constitution to allow for the establishment of state police forces across Nigeria.

The President made the appeal during a meeting with Senate leadership at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, emphasising that the current security challenges facing the nation require decentralised policing solutions that bring law enforcement closer to the communities they serve.

The proposal for state police has been a contentious issue in Nigerian politics for decades, with proponents arguing that localised policing would improve intelligence gathering and response times, while critics have raised concerns about potential abuse by state governors.

Tinubu's intervention represents the strongest push yet by a sitting president for the constitutional changes required to implement state-controlled police forces. Currently, policing in Nigeria is exclusively under federal control through the Nigeria Police Force.

The President noted that the existing federal policing structure has struggled to effectively address the diverse security challenges across Nigeria's 36 states, particularly in rural areas where banditry, kidnapping, and farmer-herder conflicts have claimed thousands of lives.

Constitutional lawyers say amending the Constitution to accommodate state police will require a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers of the National Assembly and ratification by at least two-thirds of the state Houses of Assembly.

The move has received mixed reactions from stakeholders. Governors from several states have welcomed the proposal, arguing that they are better positioned to understand and address security challenges within their jurisdictions. However, civil society organisations have called for robust safeguards to prevent the politicisation of state police forces.

If successful, Nigeria would join several other federal nations, including the United States and Canada, where policing responsibilities are shared between federal and state or provincial authorities.

The Senate President has indicated that lawmakers will prioritise the constitutional amendment process, with public hearings expected to be held across the six geopolitical zones to gather citizens' input on the proposed changes.