By Mobolaji Sanusi
“The vast majority of day-to-day government functions, especially those concerning the lives, liberties, and properties of citizens, should remain firmly within the jurisdiction of the individual states.”
— James Madison (1751–1836), 4th US President from 1809 to 1817
Any nation that is befuddled by security challenges, like Nigeria is currently undergoing, cannot witness effective governance without distractions. Peace is so central to any meaningful attainment, which is why even Almighty Allah’s first directive at the inception of mankind, according to the scriptures, was for there to be peace and order. There and then, everything went still, and the Almighty was allowed an uninterrupted, peaceful, and serene atmosphere to perform His surgery of human creation.
Analytically, storms, disorders and chaos are notable enemies of human progress, which is why laws are made to moderate and guide human actions. Wherever and whenever there’s a breakdown of law and order, insecurity sets in and socioeconomic development becomes threatened. To avoid this is substantially why the police, as an institution, were created to foster peace and order in human societies across the world.
However, the efficacy of a police force as a veritable law enforcement institution is subject to the adopted model of its hierarchical control. Most countries break down the police chain of command and operations to achieve the goal of an efficacious policing. In Nigeria, my country, the command structure has been centralized for almost sixty-six years of its independence. This unitary police structure is antithetical in a federation like ours with state and local authorities to contend with by the federal government. For decades, the clamour for state police has become more intense but has been met with little or no political will to bring it to fruition by successive governments.
From whatever prism one might look at it, state police, with its establishment bill passed by the National Assembly over a week ago, when fully brought into force, will, in my view, be the foremost achievement of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, administration. As a private citizen, Tinubu was one of the proponents of true federalism, with a decentralized police force being a significant component of his allies’ demands. Lobbying and seeing the National Assembly’s passage of the State Police Bill should make him proud. The promised speedy passage by speakers of houses of assembly of states actually confirmed the initiative as being a reality-in-waiting.
A centralized police force has done more harm than good to the country’s desire to curb insecurity and other social vices. Governors as chief accounting officers in the thirty-six states have very little say in the security operations in their jurisdictions. The uninspiring encounter of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in the hands of overzealous policemen from Abuja in the Magodo area of Lagos and also Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State’s helpless confession about his lack of control over police personnel in his state remain very instructive till date on the imperative of state police. Governors generally only have a say when their stand on issues tallies with that of the people holding the central levers of power in Abuja. Yet, most of these governors fund security operations in their individual states. The current president, as governor of Lagos, was a known precursor of this idea at the state level through the Rapid Response Squad, of which the current inspector-general of police was a leading figure.
Nigeria reputedly has a total geographical area of 923,768 square kilometers (356,669 square miles), with an actual landmass of approximately 910,770 square kilometers (351,650 square miles). The remaining 13,000 square kilometers are covered by inland waters including lakes, rivers and ocean. This makes her the 31st largest country in the world by landmass. Inhabiting this huge landmass, according to the last population census that took place in March 2006, was a total population of 140,431,790 people, consisting of 71,345,488 males and 69,086,302 females. But over twenty years after the conduct of the last headcount, an estimated population of over 240 million people is being officially touted. This projection might remain so until another population census is done, hopefully during the tenure of the Tinubu administration.
Sadly, policing this huge population is a police personnel figure of less than four hundred thousand. From the foregoing figures, roughly 120 police officers are assigned to 100,000 people, and this is far below the United Nations’ recommended benchmark of 311 officers per 100,000 people. Clearly, the current federal-controlled police institution is incapable of combating crimes, not to talk of the banditry menace that the country is currently battling with.
Notwithstanding the recent presidential approval for the recruitment of an additional 50,000 police personnel, it would not be hyperbolic to state that Nigeria needs a larger police population with communal orientation for the policing of its vast landmass and over-bloated population. At the moment, the situation is made worse by the institution’s centralized control structure, which made its topmost hierarchy too far from the security realities of the states and rural communities.
This wide structural control gap between the centre and the component units makes effective policing a mirage. Yet, current realities point in the direction that criminal activities are assuming an inexorable level of sophistication that has obviously overwhelmed the existing unitary policing system. Thus, the introduction of state police becomes the first realistic step for tackling issues of national insecurity. A state police system, whatever shortcomings are envisaged but with inherent checks, will go a long way in helping to identify and tackle illegal mining, banditry, armed robbery, kidnapping for ransom and other criminal acts that have put to test the capacity, competence and capability of the existing federally controlled police institution.
Now, state police will ensure proximity policing for our people, whether living in rural areas or urban centers. The people who understand their communities and terrain as stakeholders will also be willing to provide valuable intelligence that, under centralized policing, is most times delayed, politicised, underutilized or deliberately ignored.
There is no doubt that our evolving democratic institutions are weak, and as such, stakeholders are apprehensive that the opposition and others with views contrary to those of the reigning governments might become objects of torment. While this might be true because of the weird ways of most of the governors who see themselves as being above the law when they are not, the national and state lawmakers should rise above partisan sentiments, act as patriots and statesmen by taking legislative notice of the fact that the task before them can make or mar the future of this country if not dispassionately and responsibly handled.
To the governors, especially in the northern parts of the country, history will not be kind to any of them that encourage the enlistment of Boko Haram or any terrorists into their state police hierarchy. The southern states’ governors should know better that in any state where criminals are enlisted, it will be difficult to curb the illegal compromise of operational plans, intelligence leakages and avoidable internal disruptions of security activities.
The birth of state police is the beginning of a Nigeria where the seeds of true federalism are about to be planted. This is because all reforms, no matter how lofty, that are hinged on faulty security architecture will fall like a pack of cards. This state police reality-in-waiting should be seen and treated by all stakeholders in the Nigerian project as a necessity for our collective security survival and developmental progress. Nobody, not even the president of the country or the governors of states at any point in time, should be allowed to sabotage it under the guise of protecting their political fiefdoms.
The bid to forestall avoidable abuse must have informed why the respectable lawyer and statesman, Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, admonished the president, governors and the collectives of lawmakers in the country when he declared: “Decentralisation without accountability is not reform; it is redistribution of impunity. State police could work in an ideal Nigeria. But in the Nigeria of today, it risks becoming nothing more than a political killing machine funded by taxpayers.”
Hmmm. Hoping that our governments at the centre and states will get this one true federalism security component step right. Yours sincerely hopes so with great optimism.
Tunji Bello at 65
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
How time flies indeed… To imagine that fifteen years had passed since we celebrated my mentor, benefactor and brother from another mother’s 50th birthday is heartwarming. My own dear egbon, Tunji Bello, a man of so many commendable personal, professional and appointive titles, marked his 65th birthday on July 1, 2026.
Retrospectively, at the venue of his fiftieth birthday celebration in Victoria Island, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, was physically present at that evening’s joyous occasion of not only one of Nigeria’s finest journalists but also humane creations.
Yours sincerely, as one of his special mentees, can testify to his being a caring husband to his adorable wife, Professor Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, a doting father to his well-groomed kids, an umbrella to his extended family, a trusted, supportive and dependable ally to friends, and a worthy model and willing mentor of several talents.
In a world replete with wicked souls that fire poisoned arrows into the air and quickly cover their heads with mortars, TB is a rare exception to behold.
Through TB, my revered mentor, I learned not only humanity and humility but also the rudiments of public service. As the managing director of LASAA, commissioner for the environment, and secretary to the Lagos State government, I watched and learned from him on a daily basis how policies were formulated and actions taken by government.
Born by affluent and humane parents who deployed their wealth to serve the needy but never lived up to sixty years on earth, clocking 65 is worthy of celebration by TB and all of us who are close to him. He has, to the glory of Almighty Allah, successfully broken that jinx, having come this far in life.
According to Ralph Waldo Emerson, the “purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” TB’s life of continuing purpose to humanity met all these criteria and more.
By the special grace of Almighty Allah, we shall all, in good health and well-being, live and celebrate with you on your seventieth, eightieth, ninetieth and more.
Again, to my mentor and brother from another mother, congratulations sir. I reserve further comments on this man of several accomplishments for readers of my upcoming blockbuster book: “My LASAA Days.”
-Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency, is currently managing partner at AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS. (WhatsApp Only-07011117777).
