Former Minister of Education and founder of the School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG), Obiageli Ezekwesili, has argued that the creation of state police, though necessary, will not resolve Nigeria’s deepening security crisis unless it is accompanied by a comprehensive restructuring of the country’s constitutional and governance framework.
In a public memorandum addressed to President Bola Tinubu, the National Assembly, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and the Nigerian people, Ezekwesili warned against treating state police as a standalone solution to the country’s security challenges.
She acknowledged that the renewed push for state police has gained widespread support because of the worsening insecurity across the country, including terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, violent extremism, communal clashes and organised criminality.
According to her, recent findings by Afrobarometer underscore the severity of the crisis, with 79 per cent of Nigerians identifying kidnapping and abduction as a serious national problem. She noted that one in three Nigerians personally knows someone who has been kidnapped within the last five years, while 63 per cent reported feeling unsafe in their homes or communities.
“The fact that state police is necessary does not mean it is sufficient,” she said, arguing that Nigeria risks mistaking a symptom for the underlying disease.
Ezekwesili maintained that the country’s insecurity is rooted in a broader constitutional, governance and political economy crisis that has weakened institutions, eroded accountability and diminished the capacity of government at all levels to respond effectively to citizens’ needs.
She said the central question facing Nigeria should not merely be whether governors should control police forces, but whether the country’s constitutional architecture remains fit for purpose.
According to her, the 1999 Constitution concentrates excessive political authority, fiscal resources and governance responsibilities in the federal government, creating a system that resembles a unitary state rather than a true federation.
She pointed to the Exclusive Legislative List, which contains 68 items reserved exclusively for the federal government, as evidence of the over-centralisation of power. Beyond policing, she noted that critical sectors such as prisons, railways, mines and minerals, and arms and ammunition remain under federal control.
“The State Police debate focuses on only one item among dozens. Police is merely one of sixty-eight subjects constitutionally monopolised by the Federal Government,” she stated.
Ezekwesili argued that decentralising policing without addressing the broader constitutional imbalance would amount to treating a symptom while leaving the root causes untouched.
She traced the concentration of powers at the centre to decades of military rule, during which functions previously exercised by regional governments were progressively transferred to the federal government. According to her, the 1999 Constitution largely preserved that command-and-control structure.
“What Nigerians often describe as federalism today is, in many respects, a unitary system wearing federal clothing,” she said.
The former minister linked Nigeria’s security challenges to wider economic and governance problems, arguing that the same constitutional framework that weakens security institutions also encourages fiscal dependency, stifles subnational initiative and undermines public service delivery.
She noted that insecurity, once concentrated mainly in the North-East and parts of the North-West, has now spread across all geopolitical zones, including the South-West, demonstrating the systemic nature of the crisis.
For this reason, she said the national conversation should move beyond the narrow question of whether or not to establish state police and focus instead on redesigning Nigeria’s federal structure.
“State Police will be necessary. But necessity does not make it the solution to a dysfunctional Nigeria,” she said.
Ezekwesili called for a comprehensive restructuring agenda that would rebalance powers among the Exclusive, Concurrent and Residual Legislative Lists, strengthen fiscal federalism, promote productivity and competitiveness, guarantee equal citizenship and devolve authority to the lowest effective levels of government.
She also advocated a citizens-led sovereign national conference and a referendum on a new constitution, describing such measures as essential to restoring sovereignty to the Nigerian people.
“Restructuring the dysfunctional territory and system that our beloved country has become is the bold conversation and action that Nigerians can no longer afford to postpone,” she stated.
The former minister said she would outline specific proposals for implementing the restructuring agenda and constitutional reforms in a subsequent public memorandum.
