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The Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said Nigeria can no longer depend solely on a single centrally controlled police institution to tackle the country’s increasingly complex security challenges.

Gbajabiamila made the remarks on Monday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, during a special session at the 66th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, titled “NBA Takes The Mic: Who Polices Nigeria?”

Delivering President Tinubu’s message to members of the legal profession, the Chief of Staff said the administration was committed to addressing what it considers a structural weakness in Nigeria’s security architecture.

“A country of our size and diversity cannot continue to depend on a single centrally commanded police institution for all its policing needs,” he said.

Gbajabiamila said the existing policing arrangement had been “stretched beyond what any institution can reasonably carry,” citing Nigeria’s large population, vast geographical area and diverse local security challenges.

He contrasted Nigeria’s policing structure with those of other federal systems, including the United States and Canada, where policing responsibilities are shared between federal and subnational institutions.

According to him, Nigeria’s constitutional prohibition against state police has left the country attempting to respond to significantly different local security realities through a single national command structure.

He warned that continued delays in reforming the system were no longer sustainable.

“Further postponement is itself a choice. It is the wrong choice, and citizens have carried its consequences for long enough,” he said.

Gbajabiamila, however, stressed that the call for decentralised policing should not be interpreted as criticism of officers of the Nigeria Police Force, many of whom, he said, continue to serve under difficult and demanding conditions.

He argued that the commitment and sacrifice of police officers made structural reform even more urgent.

“Their sacrifice makes reform more urgent, because courage should not have to compensate indefinitely for structural weakness,” he stated.

Under the proposed arrangement, states with the willingness and capacity to do so would be allowed to establish their own police services, while the federal police would retain responsibility for national, interstate and other constitutionally assigned security duties.

Gbajabiamila disclosed that Nigeria currently has approximately one police officer for every 650 citizens, compared with what he described as a widely accepted international benchmark of one officer to about 450 people.

He said the manpower gap further demonstrated the difficulty of expecting a single national police organisation to address every security challenge across the federation effectively.

Addressing concerns that state police could be used by governors to intimidate political opponents, Gbajabiamila said the proposed framework would include constitutional, institutional and accountability safeguards.

“No governor should possess the personal power to order the arrest of an opponent, stop an investigation, disperse a lawful meeting or direct how officers act in an election,” he said.

He stressed that decentralisation must therefore be accompanied by professional standards, independent oversight, accountability mechanisms and constitutional protections capable of preventing abuse.

Gbajabiamila also disclosed that both chambers of the National Assembly had approved constitutional amendments aimed at creating a framework for federal and state police services.

He explained that because the proposal requires a constitutional amendment, it must also secure the approval of at least 24 State Houses of Assembly before being transmitted to the President for assent.

If ultimately adopted, the reform would significantly alter Nigeria’s policing architecture by allowing subnational governments to establish police services while preserving key federal policing responsibilities.

The Chief of Staff urged members of the legal profession, particularly the Nigerian Bar Association, to play an active role in shaping the proposed framework.

He noted that the NBA is represented on both the Presidential Working Group and its Policy Advisory Committee, giving lawyers an opportunity to contribute directly to the design of the proposed policing system.

Gbajabiamila said the objective was not simply to create more police institutions but to establish a structure capable of responding more effectively to local security challenges while protecting citizens’ rights and preventing political abuse.

His comments come amid an intensifying national debate over the establishment of state police. Supporters argue that decentralised policing could improve intelligence gathering, local engagement and response times, while critics have raised concerns about the possibility of state authorities exploiting the system for political purposes.

Gbajabiamila maintained that such concerns should be addressed through carefully designed constitutional safeguards rather than used to indefinitely preserve what he described as a policing structure that no longer adequately reflects Nigeria’s size, diversity and security needs.