Nigeria is moving towards having another police structure, but the country risks undermining the reform by neglecting the poverty, unemployment, and social exclusion that continue driving many young people into criminal networks.
Development Diaries reports that the Senate recently passed a bill establishing state police across the federation, replacing the existing single policing structure with a federal-and-state-policing system.
Nobody seriously disputes that Nigeria’s policing system is overstretched, with communities under attack often waiting hours before security personnel arrive because decisions remain heavily centralised and available personnel are grossly inadequate for a country of more than 230 million people.
So it is understood that state police could improve local intelligence, shorten response times, and strengthen community policing.
However, report findings have shown that criminals emerge because governance has steadily made crime more rewarding than honest work for too many young Nigerians.
For example, a young graduate who cannot find employment, a farmer forced off his land by repeated attacks and a family pushed deeper into poverty by rising food prices are confronting governance failures long before they encounter policing failures.
Giving governors their own police formations may help arrest today’s kidnappers, but tomorrow’s criminal recruits are already being produced by an economy that continues to deny millions of young people meaningful opportunities. That is a major concern.
Nigeria’s history also warns against assuming that decentralisation automatically produces better policing. Regional police existed during the first republic until widespread political interference turned security agencies into tools for intimidating opponents rather than protecting citizens. That experience eventually justified the return to a centralised police force.
Under the proposed amendment, governors are expected to appoint commissioners of police, but several states already struggle to pay salaries and pensions, raising legitimate questions about whether they can sustainably finance modern policing, which requires far more than uniforms and patrol vehicles.
Forensic laboratories, intelligence systems, communications infrastructure, officer welfare, and continuous training demand long-term financial commitments that many states have yet to demonstrate they can sustain.
Equally important is the question of independence. Safeguards inserted into the bill may reassure lawmakers, but institutions are protected less by legislative promises than by oversight mechanisms capable of resisting political pressure.
So, without independent complaint systems, operational autonomy, and strong judicial oversight, state police could easily become another instrument of political survival rather than public safety.
That is why creating another police institution while leaving millions trapped in unemployment, weak education systems, and shrinking economic opportunities risks treating insecurity as though it begins when criminals attack rather than when governance fails.
State police may become part of Nigeria’s security solution, but only if governments recognise that policing cannot substitute for development. Every naira invested in youth employment, education, agriculture and social protection removes another potential recruit from organised crime before any police officer is required to intervene.
The National Assembly should therefore strengthen the legislation by establishing clear funding benchmarks, independent oversight bodies and enforceable protections against political interference.
Also, state governments should publish transparent policing frameworks before recruitment begins, explaining how officers will operate and how they intend to fund the institutions over time without sacrificing other essential public services.
While Nigeria’s security crisis demands more effective policing, it also demands fewer citizens who see crime as their most reliable economic opportunity. Unless both realities receive equal attention, the country may end up creating another police force while leaving untouched the governance failures that continue to fill criminal gangs with willing recruits.
