Tinubu and 36 governors reach in-principle agreement on establishing state police forces

PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu and the 36 state governors have reached an in-principle agreement to establish state police forces across the country in response to the growing crime wave that is weeping across the nation.

Among other things, Nigeria is currently under siege from Boko Haram terrorists, armed Fulani herdsmen, bandits and kidnappers, who all operate with impunity. Nigeria's centralised police force is totally overwhelmed by the spate of insecurity wracking the nation, as its men are hopelessly out-numbered and are ill-equipped to deal with the menace.

At a meeting with the state governors today in the presidential villa, it was agreed to look at establishing state police forces across the country to address the problem. Mohammed Malagi, Nigeria's information minister, revealed that there will be series of meetings to fine tune the modalities for setting up state police.

Mr Malagi said: “The federal government and state governments are mulling the possibility of setting up state police. A lot of meetings will have to happen between different government and sub nationals to see the modalities of achieving this.

“Of course, this is still going to be further discussed, a lot of work still has to be done in that direction but what the federal government and state governments are agreeing to the necessity of having state policy. Now, this is a significant shift but like I said, more works need to be done in that direction."

Setting up these forces is going to be fraught with difficulties, however, as for starters, most of Nigeria's states lack the financial muscle to afford them. Then, there is the added headaches of state governors using them as private armies to deal with political opponents and interfere with elections.