A Timely Intervention in Nigeria’s State Police Debate

Magnus Onyibe’s new book on state police, due for launch next month in Abuja, enters the national conversation as support for decentralised policing gathers momentum at the Presidency and in the National Assembly. Okechukwu Uwaezuoke reviews a timely contribution to one of Nigeria’s most important policy debates

Since Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999, calls for state police have steadily moved from the political margins to the centre of national discourse. The country’s worsening security situation has since lent fresh urgency to the issue, turning what was once a constitutional question into a pressing national concern.

It is against this backdrop, and with renewed momentum behind the state police debate following recent endorsements from both the Presidency and the National Assembly, that Magnus Onyibe offers The Imperative of State Police in Nigeria. Rather than resorting to slogans or political rhetoric, the book advances a carefully researched case for restructuring Nigeria’s policing system through a blend of historical analysis, constitutional argument and practical policy proposals.

Few books could have appeared at a more opportune moment. Across the country, insecurity has eroded public confidence in the Nigeria Police Force’s ability to protect lives and property. Kidnappings, banditry, insurgency and violent crime have become distressingly familiar, while many communities increasingly rely on local vigilante groups and other informal security arrangements.

Onyibe approaches this contentious subject with the assurance of someone who has followed it for many years. A veteran columnist and public affairs analyst, he writes neither as an ideologue nor as a partisan advocate. Instead, he seeks to bring clarity to a debate that has too often been driven by emotion rather than careful analysis.

Published by Inspire Media Services Limited, a member of the Inspire Group, The Imperative of State Police in Nigeria will be presented on September 10, at the Abuja Continental Hotel.

The event, themed “Explaining the Grey Areas of State Policing: The Case, the Strategy, the Operations, and the Framework”, is intended to be more than a ceremonial launch. It is conceived as a forum for serious engagement with an issue that could reshape Nigeria’s security architecture.

The list of expected participants reflects the importance attached to both the subject and the publication. Vice President Kashim Shettima has been invited to chair the event, while National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, Inspector-General of Police Tunji Disu, Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, Governors Peter Mbah and Babajide Sanwo-Olu, members of the National Assembly, constitutional lawyers and senior security officials are also expected.

The publication is strengthened by contributions from respected authorities in the field. Professor Anthony Kila provides the foreword, retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police Tunji Alapini contributes the afterword, while Dubem Moghalu offers insights into the practical framework for operationalising state police. Whether every invited dignitary ultimately attends matters less than what the guest list signifies: Onyibe intends the book to shape public policy, not merely occupy shelf space.

One of the book’s greatest strengths is its historical perspective. Rather than plunging directly into present-day politics, Onyibe retraces the evolution of policing in Nigeria from the regional police forces of the First Republic to the highly centralised system inherited from military rule. In doing so, he reminds readers that the current arrangement is neither immutable nor inevitable. State police, he argues, would not represent a leap into the unknown but a return, albeit in a different form, to a federal principle the country once practised.

Against that background, the book’s 11 chapters examine the country’s contemporary security challenges—terrorism, insurgency, kidnapping, piracy, organised crime, communal violence and separatist agitation—as symptoms of a broader structural problem. Onyibe’s central contention is straightforward: policing works best when officers possess intimate knowledge of the communities they serve, their terrain, cultures and social dynamics.

He is careful not to present state police as a panacea. Decentralisation alone, he acknowledges, cannot resolve Nigeria’s security problems. Without strong safeguards, it could merely relocate existing weaknesses from the federal level to the states. Consequently, the discussion extends beyond constitutional amendments to issues of recruitment, funding, training, operational independence, oversight, intelligence-sharing and cooperation between federal and state agencies.

The book is at its most persuasive when it turns from principle to implementation. Although it draws on 19 newspaper articles written over more than 20 years, it never feels like a collection of recycled essays. Onyibe has revised, expanded and integrated them into a sustained argument that reflects the evolution of both the debate and his own thinking. The result is a coherent study rather than an anthology of previously published commentary.

Onyibe also recognises that modern policing depends as much on intelligence and technology as on manpower. He therefore explores surveillance systems, command-and-control centres, digital intelligence platforms, community reporting mechanisms, traditional institutions and public-private partnerships. His references to Governor Peter Mbah’s technology-driven security architecture in Enugu and the Lagos State Security Trust Fund reinforce an important point: no policing model succeeds without sustained investment and institutional collaboration.

Just as significant is his treatment of the objections. Onyibe neither dismisses concerns that governors might abuse state police nor caricatures those who raise them. Instead, he contends that such risks should be addressed through constitutional safeguards, professional standards and independent oversight rather than by preserving a centralised structure whose shortcomings have become increasingly evident.

Readers may disagree with some of Onyibe’s conclusions. That is scarcely the point. The real value of the book lies in the seriousness with which it approaches a debate that has too often generated more heat than light. Onyibe offers readers a useful framework for thinking about one of Nigeria’s most pressing governance questions.

Whatever readers ultimately make of Onyibe’s case for state police, the book provides something the debate has too often lacked: a carefully argued point of departure. As Nigeria edges towards what may prove the most far-reaching reform of its policing system since independence, that is no small contribution.