Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Former Minister of Education Obiageli Ezekwesili has addressed an open letter to President Bola Tinubu, the National Assembly, the Nigerian Governors' Forum, and the wider public, arguing that the push for state police alone will not resolve Nigeria's insecurity and instability challenges. In the letter, shared on Monday, June 15, 2026, across her social media handles, she maintained that comprehensive restructuring of the country remains the more sustainable path to addressing the underlying issues. In the memorandum, titled "State Police Is Not the Answer. Restructuring Nigeria Is," she said the Tinubu administration's renewed push for State Police has reopened a major policy debate. Ezekwesili wrote: "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 noted that the proposal reflects concerns over insecurity in the country. "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 stated. "For many citizens, therefore, State Police appears to be an obvious and long overdue solution." Citing survey data, she stated: "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 added: "These are not merely security statistics. They are indicators of a profound crisis of state effectiveness and citizen confidence."
On the proposal for State Police, she wrote: "Yet the fact that State Police is necessary does not mean it is sufficient." She further stated: "The danger confronting Nigeria today is that the country may once again mistake a symptom for the disease itself." She continued: "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 added: "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." The ex-minister also spoke on Nigeria's constitutional structure. She stated: "At the heart of the problem lies a constitutional order that concentrates excessive authority, fiscal resources and political power at the centre. Although Nigeria describes itself as a federation, many of its institutional arrangements bear the characteristics of a highly centralised state." She pointed to the Exclusive Legislative List, which contains sixty-eight items reserved solely for the Federal Government, while the Concurrent List contains only a limited number of shared subjects. "Police is merely one of sixty-eight subjects constitutionally monopolised by the Federal Government," she argued. "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."
Ezekwesili traced Nigeria's current governance structure to decades of military rule, during which powers previously exercised by regions and sub-national governments were progressively transferred to the centre and later retained in the 1999 Constitution. She argued that the consequences of this over-centralisation are evident not only in insecurity, but also in weak public service delivery, economic underperformance, fiscal dependency and poor accountability. She noted that the spread of insecurity from the North-East and North-West to virtually every part of the country demonstrates that the challenge is systemic rather than regional. She therefore urged Nigerians to move beyond the narrow debate over state police and instead focus on restructuring the federation through a new constitutional arrangement. The former minister advocated a comprehensive restructuring agenda that would rebalance powers among the Exclusive, Concurrent and Residual Legislative Lists, strengthen fiscal federalism, promote productivity and competitiveness, and guarantee equal citizenship. She also called for a citizens-led sovereign national conference and a referendum to produce a new constitution, insisting that a national conversation must begin without further delay.
The intervention comes amid renewed legislative interest in state police as a response to the limitations of the federal police structure. The House of Representatives on June 11, 2026, overwhelmingly passed the State Police Bill, with 288 lawmakers voting in support and only four voting against it. The proposed legislation seeks to amend the 1999 Constitution to create a legal framework for the establishment of state police alongside the existing federal police system. However, Ezekwesili's letter warns that such a reform, while necessary, would only address a symptom of a much deeper structural problem. Legal and governance analysts expect the letter to intensify debate in the National Assembly and among state governors as discussions on security sector reforms continue ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The former minister also linked insecurity to economic underperformance and weak public service delivery, describing them as products of the same constitutional dysfunction. She said the proper national conversation should focus on whether the constitutional architecture remains fit for purpose rather than on whether governors should control police forces. This intervention comes amid persistent violence across regions and renewed legislative interest in state police as a response to the limitations of the federal police structure. Past proposals, including recommendations from the 2014 National Conference for state police and greater devolution of powers, have remained largely unimplemented. Data from monitoring groups show continued high levels of attacks and fatalities linked to banditry, terrorism and communal conflicts in 2025 and into 2026. Ezekwesili called for a comprehensive restructuring agenda anchored in a new constitutional settlement. She warned against further delays and urged Nigerians to treat the redesign of the federation as an urgent priority rather than a postponed conversation. Her position aligns with long-standing advocacy for true federalism but faces resistance from those who view state police as a more immediate and practical step. As of the time of this report, the Presidency had not issued an official response to the letter.
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