By Emmanuel Thomas
In a decisive legislative move aimed at overhauling Nigeria’s security architecture, the House of Representatives has passed the Constitution Alteration Bill seeking to establish State Police Services across the nation.
The passage followed the consideration and voting on the provisions of the Executive Bill at the Committee of the Whole, presided over by the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajudeen.
Amidst a rowdy and highly charged session on the floor of the green chamber, Speaker Tajudeen announced that a overwhelming majority of 311 members voted in favour of the bill, successfully surpassing the two-thirds constitutional threshold required to alter the 1999 Constitution.
Leading the debate for the consideration and subsequent passage of the legislation, the Deputy Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, stressed that the reform is designed to address structural flaws in national security. Kalu argued that establishing state police services would deepen Nigeria’s federal system by decentralising policing, improving public safety, and granting state governors greater constitutional authority to protect lives and property within their borders.
Background: A Decades-Long Struggle for Decentralised Policing
For over two decades, the quest for state police has been one of the most hotly contested issues in Nigerian governance. Since the return to democracy in 1999, Nigeria has operated a single, highly centralized police structure—the Nigeria Police Force (NPF)—under Section 214 of the Constitution.
However, as the nation’s security landscape worsened—marked by a wave of violent crimes, terrorism, banditry, mass kidnappings, and communal clashes—critics argued that a centralized command structure in Abuja could no longer respond effectively to localized threats. State governors, though constitutionally designated as the “Chief Security Officers” of their respective states, routinely complained of having no real operational control over state police commissioners.
Previous legislative assemblies attempted to pass similar state policing amendments, but those efforts stalled due to concerns over:
Political Abuse: Opposition parties feared state governors would turn local police forces into political weapons to intimidate opponents and rig elections.
Funding and Sustainability: Financial analysts questioned whether socio-economically weaker states could afford the salaries, equipment, and training required for a modern police force.
Operational Conflict: Concerns lingered regarding how command hierarchies and jurisdictional boundaries would be managed between federal and state police units.
Despite these reservations, the momentum shifted significantly following public consultations across the six geopolitical zones. A national consensus emerged among state governors, civil society organizations, and regional blocs that decentralizing security had become an urgent necessity rather than a political choice.
The passage of the bill by the House of Representatives represents a critical legislative hurdle, but the constitutional alteration process remains underway.
Under Section 9 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), amending the constitution requires a multi-step process:
Bicameral Concurrence: Both the House of Representatives and the Senate must pass identical versions of the bill by a two-thirds majority vote.
State Approvals: Once both chambers concur, the harmonized bill will be transmitted to the 36 State Houses of Assembly. At least two-thirds (24 out of 36) of the state legislatures must vote to approve the constitutional amendment.
Presidential Assent: Following ratification by the state assemblies, the bill returns to the President for final executive assent into law.
If fully enacted, the law will officially shift policing from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List, formally ushering in a multi-tiered policing model for the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
