I was honoured to join First Daily’s Sixth (6) National Dialogue on National Security, covering the call for a state of emergency on security and the ongoing conversation around state policing.
What stood out was the contrast in the room: the polished rhetoric of the political class on one side, and the uncompromising hardline positions of the military top brass on the other. Equally clear were the real constraints facing the armed forces, security services, stretched between an expanding mandate and limited resources.
The contribution of retired Inspector-General of Police Mike Okiro was especially revealing. It cut through the noise and pointed to the deeper structural roots of our security challenges. As a nation, we have failed our police. They remain poorly resourced, inadequately trained, and poorly motivated, yet are often sidelined in critical security conversations.
While the military has rightly come full circle in recognising that no nation develops without a properly resourced police force, we should not forget the role successive military administrations played in systematically weakening the police over the years.
I was also concerned by the political class’s framing of “command and control” of the armed forces and security services. The truth has always been that operational commands sit at the sub-national level, but ultimate control remains national, much like the South African Police Service model, even as we acknowledge some room for differentiated provincial powers. The failure has always been structural as it has been largely political.
My key takeaways:
A. The domestication of the military must stop
B. State police should proceed, with clear guardrails, and control retained at the national level.
C. Beyond the political talking points, the real gains from state police will be accountability and genuine local ownership.
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D. Trying to fix everything at once risks overload. Perhaps, we need to phase-out reforms.
Consequently, the immediate focus of current efforts should be:
• Force multiplication
• Force efficiency
• Local ownership at sub-national level
• Total service delivery to the Nigerian people, not political showboating and bigspeak
It is also important to reiterate that most State Houses of Assembly function largely as rubber stamps for governors. True institutional independence and effective control of the proposed state police cannot be achieved through such mechanisms.
I welcome your thoughts.
Onyekachi A is the Co-founder & CEO, PR24 Group.