THE DECENTRALIZATION DILEMMA: Why the 2026 State Police Bill Demands Scrutiny, Not Just Speed

The alarm clock is ticking so hard that it has been rocking the already shaky Nigerian security apparatus that is highly centralised. The 10th Senate has stated its resolve to pass the long-awaited amendment to the Nigerian Constitution before the close of 2026 after a wave of community invasions and mass abductions rocked the regions which appeared to be the prime targets in Borno and Oyo states. The Senate is working with greater urgency to get the bill done to avoid “chaotic political games and convoluted politics” that will take up their time during the 2027 election season, Senate spokesperson Yemi Adaramodu said. The newly appointed Inspector-General of Police, Mr Olatunji Disu, cannot escape the necessity to immediately deal with this new operating environment.

This unprecedented combination of the Presidency, the 36 State Governors and the National Assembly at first sight appears to be a historic triumph for a country under siege. Decades ago the structural fact was established, one command centre in Abuja is simply not efficient enough to ensure a disunited federation of over two hundred million people. But as the State Police Bill (HB. The smooth path of 617 heads into the Constitution Review Committee, and a sinister lie begins to set in: The only thing that needs to be done is to change Section 214 of the 1999 Constitution. It is not. The amendment can be passed easily. The true artistry is in the painstakingly detailed institutional structures that keep the local police from becoming a partisan tyrant’s instrument.

The recurring and widely accepted allegation against the Nigerian police service is always the question of political abuse of the service; a question that has found no abatement for long. Critics are not wrong in their fears that local forces will readily be deployed to hunt down political opponents, to quell local dissent and to manipulate local elections by the imperial state governors. Decentralization won’t help to end state terror if it is based on feeble monitoring systems.Decentralization alone is unlikely to be effective as a means to end state terror without effective monitoring to support it. To prevent this outcome, the National Assembly should amend the law providing federal funding grants – adding the word “shall” to each of the grants – and strike the word “may” from Clause 14 of the law. More important perhaps, the appointment and dismissal of State Commissioners should not be at the pleasure of any single Governor, and the appointments made by an independent State Police Service Commission, where appointments are made by a civilian executive, and confirmed by local State Assemblies by a two-thirds majority.

Also, there will be a clash between the federal and state areas of responsibility. Lack of clear lines between the federal and state police will result in an operational deadlock that may have disastrous consequences. But what happens when a gang of criminals is operating a criminal enterprise that crosses state lines? What is the priority in case of a conflictual investigation between a federal agency and a state unit? The existing bill is still quite ambiguous upon settling of disputes. It is an invitation to local institutional warfare, and the answers to these questions will be addressed when weapons are distributed to local forces.

Thus this newspaper urges the National Assembly to not rush through a symbolic legislation, to obtain the cheap political points, before the next election cycle. We support fixed term for police leadership, independent civilian oversight secretariats (as successfully used in many parts of the world) and judicial means to help citizens hold local police to account for overreach. There is an urgent need for local intelligence in Nigeria to curb forest marauding and the highway bandits in the country. We need a community protection system, NOT a state sponsored militia. But if the 10th National Assembly is able to enact laws that promote accountability over decentralization, they will have traded in a faraway federal failure for a local nightmare.