President Bola Tinubu has appointed his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, to chair the Presidential Working Group on the National Policing Bill as the Federal Government pushes ahead with the legal and institutional framework for the implementation of state police across the country.
The committee was inaugurated on Tuesday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja and is expected to prepare an implementation-ready National Policing Bill that will define how state police would operate once the constitutional amendment process is completed. Members of the working group include the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Adam Osigwe, and the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Dapo Abiodun. The Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu, is also part of the panel.
According to a statement issued by presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, the working group was constituted after the National Assembly passed the Constitution Alteration (State Police) Bill, 2026. President Tinubu, who was represented at the inauguration by Gbajabiamila, said the constitutional amendment alone would only create the basis for a dual policing system, while the National Policing Bill would spell out the operational details needed to make state police work in practice.
Tinubu said the proposed bill is expected to address the major issues that could determine the success or failure of state policing in Nigeria. These include minimum policing standards, how states would be certified as ready to establish police formations, the relationship between federal and state policing authorities, accountability mechanisms, human rights safeguards and the financial obligations required to sustain the system. He said the committee has been given a clear mandate to produce a technically robust draft law that can be transmitted to the National Assembly as soon as the constitutional process is concluded.
The inauguration marks a major step in the Federal Government’s long-running effort to decentralise policing and respond to public demands for a more localised security structure. Supporters of state police have argued for years that Nigeria’s single federal police system is overstretched and unable to adequately respond to the country’s diverse and increasingly complex security challenges. The push for reform has gained momentum amid persistent insecurity across several regions, including banditry, kidnapping, communal violence and insurgency.
Speaking on behalf of state governors at the inauguration, Dapo Abiodun pledged the support of state governments for the reform and said governors would work with their state Houses of Assembly to ensure speedy consideration of the constitutional amendment when it is transmitted. He described the initiative as a response to long-standing calls for decentralised policing and said it could significantly strengthen Nigeria’s security architecture if properly implemented. Abiodun added that if each state recruited roughly 6,000 personnel, the country could potentially add close to 200,000 officers to complement the existing federal police force.
Attorney-General Lateef Fagbemi also described the initiative as timely, noting that Nigeria is in a critical security moment and needs all hands on deck. He urged governors to do everything possible to secure early approval of the constitutional amendment at the state level, while the Nigerian Bar Association stressed that safeguards must be built into the new legal framework to prevent abuse of power and ensure accountability. The association said it supports decentralised policing but warned that the system must not create a structure that could be used for political intimidation or oppression.
The new working group is therefore expected to shape one of the most consequential security reforms in recent Nigerian history. If the constitutional amendment is completed and the proposed National Policing Bill is passed, the country could move toward a dual policing system in which states have their own police formations operating alongside the federal police. For the Tinubu administration, the challenge will be to create a framework that expands security capacity without undermining civil liberties, professional standards or the balance of power within the federation.