The House of Representatives Committee on Constitutional Review has formally commenced detailed consideration of the newly revised executive bill seeking to establish state police services across Nigeria.
The movement follows a significant legislative shift where the House rescinded its own earlier version of the Constitution Alteration Bill. Lawmakers opted instead to adopt a fresh, executive-sponsored proposal transmitted directly to the National Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The President’s draft—titled the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Alteration) (State Police) Bill, 2026—swiftly scaled its first and second readings before being referred to the committee stage for rigorous evaluation of its operational safeguards.
Why the House Switched to the Executive Bill
According to legislative sources, the decision to drop the House’s initial draft in favour of the President’s executive framework was driven by a need for unified political alignment and stronger structural safeguards.
In his official letter to Speaker Tajudeen Abbas, President Tinubu explained that the new bill purposefully builds upon the ground covered by the House but introduces additional, vital checks to balance a dual federal-state policing system.
“This Bill builds on the significant work already done in this regard by the House of Representatives and incorporates additional safeguards to ensure that the creation of a dual policing structure to address our nation’s evolving national security challenges can be achieved quickly and effectively…” — President Bola Tinubu’s Executive Letter
The Core Pillars of the Revised Bill
The House Committee on Constitutional Review, chaired by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, is tasked with untangling the fine print of the new text. The revised framework focuses on four critical areas:
-
Moving Policing to the Concurrent List: The amendment formally removes policing from the Exclusive Legislative List, enabling states to legally establish, fund, and manage independent law enforcement bodies alongside the federal force.
-
National Minimum Standards Validation: No state police formation can hit the ground running unless its enabling law, passed by its State House of Assembly, is officially certified by the National Assembly as meeting strict national regulatory minimums.
-
Strict Intervention Firewalls: To curb political abuse or unwarranted federal meddling, the Federal Police can only step into a state’s internal security architecture during a total breakdown of law and order, upon an official request by the governor, or if the state command experiences administrative or financial collapse.
-
Dual Appointment Tiers: The Inspector-General of Police will remain a presidential appointment from within the Federal Police, subject to Senate confirmation. Conversely, State Commissioners of Police will be appointed by governors on the advice of the National Police Council, subject to confirmation by the respective State Houses of Assembly.
The Practical Hurdles Ahead: Finance and Implementation
As public debate shifts from whether Nigeria needs decentralized policing to how it will actually operate, security and policy analysts are urging caution regarding a uniform national rollout.
| Core Implementation Concerns | Structural Reality & Options |
| The Funding Trap | Many states are currently plagued by low internally generated revenue (IGR). Experts suggest states must pass laws channelling existing, opaque “security votes” into audited, transparent trust funds. |
| Optional Rollout | The bill creates a constitutional pathway, not a mandatory directive. States lacking the fiscal capacity to establish a workforce can continue relying exclusively on the federal police network. |
| Absorbing Existing Outfits | Regional, state-backed security networks already on the ground could provide the immediate structural baseline for the state police workforce, subject to standardized federal retraining frameworks. |
Following the committee’s rigorous section-by-section review, the clean bill will be returned to the floor for a final clause-by-clause vote by the Committee of the Whole. To officially scale the constitutional hurdle, it must secure a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the National Assembly before being transmitted to the 36 State Houses of Assembly for ratification by at least 24 states.
Ayodele Quadri
Correspondent
