The Minister of Information, Alhaji Muhammad Idiris, has affirmed that President Bola Tinubu has endorsed the unlocking of the potential of state police in the country. Speaking in Kano on Wednesday he said that the President was determined to work with the National Assembly in the 2024 Constitutional Review process to achieve the most needed amendment to the nation’s extant laws that will allow for the setting up of state police.

Idris said with the coming on board of state police in the country, about 10 million Nigerians will be directly and indirectly employed through the policy shift, with each state in Nigeria requiring an average of 20,000-30,000 police personnel as a result. He said: “The President is determined to work with the National Assembly in the 2024 Constitutional Review process to achieve the most needed amendment to our extant laws that will allow for state police.”

The minister reminded that the agitation for the restructuring of the underpinning structure of the country has been on the front burner of agitation by various subnational groups, civic society, and public intellectuals. Noting that one key agitation for decentralization has been the issue of state police.

“In this regard, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is taking the boldest step by any Nigerian leader on this issue, with a recent pronouncement supporting a constitutional reform to canvass and achieve the decentralisation of the police structure in Nigeria.” He enumerated the benefits of the reform as several, adding that it has become clear that the nation is under-policed, with less than 500,000 policemen in a country of more than 200 million citizens.

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