Stakeholders in the nation’s security architecture warn President Bola Ahmed Tinubu against any move to establish state Police Forces given the precarious political situation in the country, they argue that the Federal Government is playing pranks with the fight against terrorists with numerous indications; state police, in their opinion, will transform governors into established emperors
By Our Correspondent
Since he won the presidential election of 2023 in a clear controversial and contentious manner, President Bola Tinubu has remained one of the most controversial presidents in the world in recent times. His policies have been greeted with suspicion among a vast majority of Nigerian masses. This claim is being attested to in the social media where vituperations and criticism keep trailing Tinubu’s policies from majority of commentators on the various platforms.
Likewise, his call late November for the establishment of state Police Forces as solution to the escalating insecurity in the country has been greeted with similar reaction by a combination of highly placed individuals and the masses. In a reaction to the rising killings and abductions of school children and other innocent people across the country, President Tinubu had called on the National Assembly to begin to review the laws that would allow states to establish their own Police Forces to battle terrorists and insurgents disturbing the peace of the citizens.
Tinubu made the call on Wednesday, November 26, 2025 in a statement he signed by himself declaring emergency against insecurity. The statement read in part, “I call on the National Assembly to begin reviewing our laws to allow states that require state police to establish them”.
The President was, ostensibly, re-echoing the view of the South west Governors’ Forum, as well as the forum of Southern regions governors, who had earlier agreed on the need for state police creation as the panacea for the escalation of brutal killings and kidnappings across the country. Last November, the South west Governors’ Forum, rising from an emergency meeting over insecurity on Monday, November 24, in Ibadan the Oyo State capital, lent its support for the urgent creation of state police as the best way to arrest the disturbing insecurity.
Meeting inside the Oyo State Government House in Ibadan, were Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, Biodun Oyebanji of Ekiti, Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo and Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos States. There were also governors Seyi Makinde the host and Ademola Adeleke of Osun State who was represented by the deputy governor Prince Kola Adewusi.
The South west Governors’ Forum was unable to identify any more root causes of the escalating insurgency and terrorism than unregulated interstate migration and illegal mining. They were full of praises for the Federal Government for its efforts in Kebbi, Niger and Kwara States where hundreds of school children and other citizens were abducted by Boko Haram terrorists without resistance from security agencies. The South west governors chorused a communique which sidelined the alleged Federal Government lack of political will to tackle insecurity headlong, and reaffirmed support for state police creation.
“The Forum reaffirms its support for the establishment of state police, emphasizing that the time is now, and it can no longer be delayed”, the communique read in part.
Similarly, the governors of the Southern regions under the aegis of the Southern Governors’ Forum had met with the Southern Nigeria Traditional Rulers Council in another meeting held at Abeokuta the Ogun State capital on Wednesday, November 27, 2025 where they corroborated the South west Governors’ Forum in the sing song for state police creation.
The meeting had in attendance governors Siminalayi Fubara, Rivers State, Alex Otti, Abia, Oyebanji of Ekiti, Francis Nwaifuru of Ebonyi, Peter Mbah, Enugu, Charles Soludo, Anambra, Sanwo-Olu, Lagos and Aiyedatiwa of Ondo State. Also in attendance were the deputy governors of Osun, Oyo, Cross River and Edo States.
At the end of the meeting, another communique read in part thus, “Reiterating the long-standing demand for state police, the Forum noted that community-based and regional outfits have proved the need for decentralized policing”.
Perhaps, the intensified calls for the establishment of state police in the recent times came to a climax on Monday December 1, 2025 when the 19 state governors of the Northern regions called for state police as their own solution to the high level of insecurity troubling the regions.
While he addressed the audience at the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) and Northern Traditional Rulers Council two-day meeting in Kaduna, governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State and Chairman of the NSGF said citizens of the regions would judge the leaders on how safe they are in their domain. Again, the adoption of state police was topmost on the agenda, as the governors claimed that state policing was a critical and effective mechanism to address the current security challenges. Hence, they charged the National Assembly to fast-track constitutional amendments that would enable states establish their respective police forces.
As President Tinubu and these groups dissipate energy, and shouting themselves hoarse over state police creation, many experts have picked holes in their claim, insisting that the conquest of terrorism and other violent crimes in the country goes beyond the establishment of state police which they said would only empower state governors to consolidate their firm grip on their states as emperors and maximum rulers whom nobody can challenge. Under the present policing arrangement, governors deploy security forces as their attack dogs to suppress opposition and rig elections.
Some analysts pointed at the Imo State where governor Hope Uzodinma has turned a Unit of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) identified as Anti-Cultism Unit, to his attack dog. Uzodinma code-named the team, “Tiger Base”.
The Tiger Base police has become a terror to citizens of the state, as its personnel runs roughshod on the hapless state killing, maiming citizens and dispossessing them of their hard-earned money at gun point. All petitions and complaints against governor Uzodinma’s Tiger Base police and their heinous crimes against humanity, by well-meaning Nigerians and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), have fallen on deaf ears as the police authorities under Kayode Egbetokun, and even the Federal Government would not address the ugly situation.
It was alleged that Uzodinma deployed the Tiger Base police to rig the presidential election of 2023 in favour of Tinubu, as well as rigged himself into his second term as Imo State governor. On the days of both elections, the Tiger Base police were alleged to have shot sporadically to disperse voters where opposition parties held sway, while ballot boxes were allegedly stuffed by hired mischief makers in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Tiger Base police personnel it was who allegedly kidnapped and brutally assaulted the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero when the latter visited Imo State on November 1, 2023 to commiserate with workers whom Uzodinma owed salary for months.
Until today, the authorities have failed to investigate the assault and punish the offenders. Such is the way and manner governors would deploy State Police Forces when they are created, according to security analysts. State Police, analysts insisted, can never be a solution to insecurity because they will be abused. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo disagreed, tactically, with the suggestion that state police would solve the insecurity problem in the country. He, rather, stressed that the blame for the mass killings and abductions should be heaped on the Tinubu government for its failure to take proactive measures to fight insurgency and terrorism.
On several occasions Obasanjo had drawn the Federal Government’s attention to the lapses that support the escalation of insecurity. One, on Sunday, December 8, 2025, Obasanjo hinted that insecurity has become another industry creating jobs for bandits, Boko Haram terrorists, Fulani herdsmen militia among others and those financing them because the Federal Government is not sincere about containing these criminal elements and their sponsors.
The former President spoke during the “Toyin Falola Interviews” conversation which was live-streamed on social media. He spoke alongside other panelists-Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah and former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Moghalu. Reacting to the issues of insecurity in the country, Obasanjo said the Federal Government must understand that there is a need for the combination of training, equipment, intelligence and technology which is necessary to win the war against insurgency.
Obasanjo: “There are four important items, and I hope that those who are in charge-military, Executive and Legislature- know what they’re doing. First, there is training. There are different types of training, the military is trained for conventional war.
“If the people you are dealing with are fleeting targets or living among your people, you will need different type of training to deal with them.
“Among the countries that have done that fairy successfully is Columbia; should we invite them to train our people? There is no shame in that, it is a specialized type of training.
“There is equipment to fight that type of warfare. It differs from equipment for conventional warfare. The other one is intelligence; you need absolute intelligence. Can others trust us with the intelligence they have?
“The fourth one is technology. These four have to come together, and you do other things internally. Then you ask the military to be the one buying equipment? It is not done. The whole thing is an industry. It is an industry”.
Senator Sani Hanga represents the Kano Central Senatorial District in the upper legislative chamber. Hanga is an ardent defender of the assertion that Nigeria is not ripe for state police at the moment. The outspoken Senator has warned that the approval of state police creation through constitutional amendments would hand excessive powers to governors, and also heighten political intimidation across the states. Senator Hanga who spoke to the media recently at his constituency office in Kano, said he would mobilize to vote against the proposal whenever it is brought to the floor for debate.
He added that state-controlled police forces would deepen the country’s political crisis, arguing that the 19 governors of the Northern regions endorsed the proposal out of fear of insecurity and political instability rather than genuine conviction.
“If we had state police during the Emirship tussle, Kano would have been thrown into civil war. But Federal Police kept the situation from escalating.
“Creating state police is creating police state. Governors will use them to intimidate, harass and suppress opponents. It will also create a rival to the Nigeria Police Force, leading to clashes and disorder.
“If we create state police without the resources to train, arm and pay them properly, we will be creating a monster. They will start taking care of themselves, and the people will suffer”, Hanga posited.
Other security experts have equally expressed worry over what they termed Federal Government’s lack of political will to tackle insurgent groups such as the Boko Haram, Independent State of West Africa Province (ISWAP), bandits, Fulani herdsmen militia in the North and elsewhere in the country. Instead, government officials and fifth columnists in the military continue giving tacit support to these non-state actors even brazenly.
For example, the allegation by the Kebbi State governor, Nasir Idris that the military personnel guarding the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School (GGCSS), Maga in Kebbi State, were ordered to withdraw from the school 45 minutes before bandits invaded the school and abducted over 120 students last November 17, is yet to be investigated. Till date, the Federal Government is yet to respond to the poser, “who ordered the military out of the school thereby giving the bandits leeway to perfect the heinous crime? The only government response has remained the “ongoing investigation” statement issued by the Defence Headquarters. That investigation may not amount to anything reasonable, according to experts, indicating that the government is allegedly shielding some non-state actors in the country.
Beyond the Kebbi State abduction saga, other issues indicating the complicity of the authorities in the insurgency include allegations of countless helicopter flights into the camps of bandits and terrorists. These flights have never attracted any investigation by the government.
There is the alleged incessant release of captured or arrested Fulani herdsmen terrorists, the Federal Government has also sustained its policy of de-radicalization and reintegration into the society of Boko Haram terrorists. The Federal and state governments have also refused to expose the financiers, enablers, protectors of terrorists, as well as designate Fulani herdsmen militia as terrorists.
Many in places of authority have voiced support for the Boko Haram terrorists and bandits, claiming that they are humans who have the legal rights to live like other citizens, even after they have abducted and killed many innocent citizens. For example, a recent viral video of Bello Matawalle surfaced online where he expressed sympathy with the bandits. Matawalle is the Minister of State for Defence. Upon his expression of sympathy for bandits, many have called for his resignation or sack by President Tinubu, but the calls have fallen on deaf ears.
In another viral video, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General Abdulmalik Bulama Biu, claimed in Maiduguri that the repentant Boko Haram terrorists can become the president of Nigeria. “An ex-Boko Haram member, if he turns away from his negativity, stands to be the president of this country or hold any position in this country”, Biu had claimed in the footage that has since gone viral.
It is common sight in the social media these days that bandits and Boko Haram terrorists came to weddings and peace negotiation tables with government in parts of the North, armed to the teeth, wearing army uniforms, sitting with security agencies, yet they would not be arrested. But when recently the IGP Egbetokun was asked to comment on why terrorists who came out for peace negotiation meetings in some parts of the North were not arrested, he was quoted to have said, “Criminals who want to embrace peace, we won’t shut the door on them. If they want to surrender, they are welcome”. Egbetokun added that repentance does not stop the armed forces from continuing with onslaught against terrorists, yet after receiving money from government, they would go back to their criminal activities. Citizens now wonder how sincere the government is in prosecuting the insurgency war since its officials have openly sided with those unleashing mayhem on the citizens.
