The Minister of Information, Alhaji Muhammad Idiris, has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is determined to work with the National Assembly in the 2024 Constitutional Review process to achieve the needed amendment to allow the creation of state police.
He said with the establishment of state police in Nigeria, about 10 million Nigerians will be directly and indirectly employed, with each state in Nigeria requiring an average of 20,000-30,000 police recruitment as a result.
He added that local manufacturers and producers of police fabrics and accouterment will multiply.
He also said the civil society and lawyers at sub-national levels will be more fully engaged, as litigations and prosecutions increase.
The minister said 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.
“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 decentralization of the police structure in Nigeria,” he added.
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.
“As a result, the central government and the sub-national governments, are united on the need for the broadening of policing in the country against the backdrop of security challenges and oft-repeated ungoverned spaces,” he said.
