Former Minister of Education and former Vice-President of the World Bank’s Africa Division, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has warned that the proposed establishment of state police will not, on its own, solve Nigeria’s growing insecurity and governance challenges.
Instead, she called for a comprehensive restructuring of the country’s constitutional and governance framework, arguing that Nigeria’s problems go beyond policing and stem from deeper structural defects in the nation’s federal system.
Ezekwesili made her position known in an open letter addressed to President Bola Tinubu, the National Assembly, the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and the Nigerian public.
The memorandum, titled “State Police Is Not the Answer. Restructuring Nigeria Is,” was shared on Monday through her social media platforms.
The former minister acknowledged that the renewed push by the Tinubu administration for the creation of state police reflects widespread concerns over the worsening security situation across the country.
“The Tinubu administration’s renewed push for State Police has reopened one of the most consequential public policy debates in Nigeria’s democratic history,” she stated.
Nigeria has in recent years witnessed increasing cases of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, violent extremism, communal clashes and other forms of organised crime.
Many Nigerians have argued that the country’s centralised policing system has become overstretched and unable to effectively respond to local security threats in a nation with a population exceeding 230 million people.
Ezekwesili agreed that the country’s existing security architecture is under severe pressure.
“The country’s security architecture is failing. Terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, violent extremism, communal conflicts and organised criminality have overwhelmed the capacity of a centrally controlled police force to secure lives and property across a country of more than 230 million people,” she said.
According to her, the worsening situation explains why many citizens now view state police as a necessary and long-overdue reform.
“For many citizens, therefore, state police appear to be an obvious and long-overdue solution,” she added.
To support her argument, Ezekwesili cited findings from Afrobarometer surveys, which she said reveal the depth of public anxiety over insecurity.
“Recent Afrobarometer findings show that 79 per cent of Nigerians consider kidnapping and abduction a serious national problem; 33 per cent personally know someone who has been kidnapped within the last five years, and 63 per cent say they or a family member felt unsafe in their home or neighbourhood during the previous year,” she stated.
“These are not merely security statistics. They are indicators of a profound crisis of state effectiveness and citizen confidence.”
However, while admitting that state police may be necessary, Ezekwesili argued that it should not be mistaken for a complete solution.
“Yet the fact that state police is necessary does not mean it is sufficient. The danger confronting Nigeria today is that the country may once again mistake a symptom for the disease itself,” she said.
According to the former minister, Nigeria’s security crisis is fundamentally rooted in constitutional and governance failures rather than policing alone.
“The security crisis is real, but it is not fundamentally a policing crisis. It is the manifestation of a deeper constitutional, governance and political economy crisis that has steadily eroded state capacity, weakened accountability and undermined the effectiveness of public institutions,” she argued.
Ezekwesili said the real debate Nigerians should be having is whether the country’s constitutional structure remains suitable for the challenges of modern governance.
“The central question before Nigeria should not be whether governors ought to control police forces. The more important question is whether the constitutional architecture governing the Nigerian federation remains fit for purpose,” she stated.
She argued that excessive concentration of political authority and financial resources at the federal level has weakened the effectiveness of Nigeria’s federal arrangement.
“At the heart of the problem lies a constitutional order that concentrates excessive authority, fiscal resources and political power at the centre,” she said.
Although Nigeria officially operates a federal system of government, Ezekwesili maintained that many of its institutional arrangements function more like a unitary structure.
“Although Nigeria describes itself as a federation, many of its institutional arrangements bear the characteristics of a highly centralised state,” she noted.
She pointed to the distribution of powers under the Constitution as evidence of the imbalance.
“The Constitution allocates powers among three categories – the Exclusive Legislative List, the Concurrent Legislative List and residual powers reserved for the states.
“The Exclusive Legislative List contains sixty-eight items reserved solely for the Federal Government, while the Concurrent List contains only a limited number of shared subjects.”
According to her, public discussions on state police focus on only one aspect of a broader constitutional challenge.
“This imbalance matters because 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 said.
She insisted that while policing should indeed be decentralised, broader constitutional reforms are necessary to create a truly functional federation.
“The question therefore is not whether policing should be decentralised. It should be decentralised,” she stated.
“This arrangement is neither accidental nor historically inevitable. What Nigerians often describe as federalism today is therefore, in many respects, a unitary system wearing federal clothing.”
The debate over state police has gained momentum in recent years as governors, security experts and civil society groups seek new approaches to tackle insecurity.
Supporters argue that state police would improve intelligence gathering, ensure quicker responses to local threats and strengthen community-based policing.
Opponents, however, fear that state-controlled police forces could be abused by governors to harass political opponents and suppress dissent.
Ezekwesili’s intervention adds another dimension to the national conversation by urging policymakers to look beyond security reforms and address what she described as the structural weaknesses at the heart of Nigeria’s governance system.
As discussions continue among lawmakers and stakeholders, her position is likely to fuel renewed calls for constitutional amendments aimed at redefining the balance of power between the Federal Government and the states.