After she assessed the proposed establishment of state police, 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 across her social media handles, she maintained that comprehensive restructuring of the country remains, in her view, the more sustainable path to addressing the underlying issues.
In the memorandum, entitled “State Police Is Not the Answer. Restructuring Nigeria Is”, 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. For many citizens, therefore, state police appear to be an obvious and long-overdue solution,” she stated.
Citing survey data, Ezekwesili 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. These are not
