Presidential Working Group Submits Draft National Policing Bill For Review
The proposed National Policing Bill seeks to establish the constitutional and legislative framework for a dual policing structure, comprising a Federal Police Service and State Police Services. The post Presidential…
The push for state policing has been one of Nigeria's most persistent security reform debates, driven by concerns that the current centralised policing model under the Nigeria Police Force is overstretched and poorly suited to tackling localised security challenges such as banditry, kidnapping and communal clashes. Proponents argue that state or community-rooted police services would improve response times and local intelligence gathering, while critics have long warned that decentralising control over armed security forces could be abused by state governors for political ends, particularly in a country with a history of tense federal-state relations.
The submission of a draft National Policing Bill by a Presidential Working Group marks a concrete step toward restructuring Nigeria's policing architecture into a dual system of Federal and State Police Services, a change that would require amendments to the constitution and several existing laws. Coverage so far agrees on the broad shape of the proposal — a federal-state policing split backed by a package of consequential amendment bills — but has not detailed how state police would be funded, how command and oversight would be structured to prevent misuse, or what timeline lawmakers will follow once the National Assembly takes up the legislation.