State Police Bill Passes Reps: What It Means for Nigeria’s Insecurity Crisis.

ABUJA, June 16, 2026 – Nigeria moved one step closer to decentralized policing Thursday as the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a constitutional bill allowing all 36 states to create their own police forces alongside the federal Nigeria Police Force.

The bill, which enjoys cross-party support, is President Bola Tinubu’s major security reform aimed at tackling kidnapping, banditry, insurgency, and communal clashes that have stretched federal police beyond their limits. The Senate is expected to adopt it later today.

Why State Police Now?

For decades, policing has been controlled from Abuja despite vastly different threats: Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast, mass kidnappings in the northwest, farmer-herder clashes in north-central, separatist violence in the southeast, and oil theft in the Niger Delta.

Governors say they are held accountable for security but lack operational control over police in their states. Reform advocates argue state police will improve response times, intelligence gathering, and deploy officers who know local communities.

“Nigeria's centralized policing model slows emergency responses because states lack direct control,” said Ayomide Akinwale, analyst at SBM Intelligence.

What Happens Next.

1. *Senate vote*: Expected today.  

2. *State Assemblies*: At least 24 of 36 states must approve before it becomes law.  

3. *Implementation*: States will recruit, fund, and manage their own forces.

The bill passed days after Democracy Day protests rocked Abuja and Osogbo on June 12. Civil society groups, led by Omoyele Sowore and the Take It Back Movement, marched against hunger, inflation, and insecurity. 

Police fired tear gas at protesters near the Federal Secretariat, causing Sowore to collapse after inhaling it. Protesters demanded rescue of abducted citizens, noting “schoolchildren, teachers, policemen, soldiers, even Army generals” remain in kidnappers’ dens.

“As we speak, many schoolchildren are in kidnappers’ dens… Yet nothing is being done,” Sowore told supporters. He linked the protest to June 12, 1993: “33 years after a watershed election was truncated by the military, we are back on the streets.”

In Osun, groups including OCSC and FIWON marched through Osogbo demanding government action. Comrade Kola Ibrahim said: “If we already have 19 million children out of school and those in school are being kidnapped, what is now the future of education in Nigeria?”

State police reform addresses a core demand from June 12 protesters: local control of security. If 24 states approve, Nigeria will join countries like the US and India with multi-layered policing. 

But questions remain: Can states fund their own forces? Will governors abuse state police politically? And will it actually free abducted schoolchildren?

For now, the bill signals Tinubu’s administration is responding to public pressure 33 years after June 12 — but Nigerians want results, not speeches. As Sowore asked: “Will speeches put food on our tables?”