Nigeria can establish state police without giving governors unchecked powers if the legal framework provides strong safeguards and federal oversight, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has said.
Barak made the remarks on Thursday during the ARISE NEWS Townhall on State Police, where he addressed concerns that governors could exploit state police for political purposes.
He acknowledged that the fear of political interference was legitimate but insisted it could be managed through carefully crafted legislation that clearly defines the powers of state governments and the Federal Government.
“The worry that someone might try to use the fact that he has a state police for his own political ambitions and so on is a real issue and should be addressed,” he said.
According to Barak, decentralised policing would make law enforcement more effective by allowing officers recruited from local communities to better understand the people, terrain and cultural dynamics of the areas they serve.
“When you mobilise and recruit the policemen from within the community, they will be much more sensitive. They will understand the norms and the practises, the religious space, and everything that relates to the people around them. It will be much more effective,” he said.
He maintained that the effectiveness of state police would depend on comprehensive legislation spelling out the responsibilities of state police authorities and the extent of federal oversight.
“I think that it is much easier to deal with such events through the very detailed legislation that gives certain authority to the president and to the federal government in Abuja over the governors and so on,” Barak said.
Barak argued that introducing legal checks to prevent abuse would be more practical than relying on a centrally controlled policing system to oversee a country as large and diverse as Nigeria.
“It’s much easier to correct this element than to activate through a vast country like Nigeria from a central place,” he added.
He also said state police would improve response times during emergencies because officers with local knowledge would be better equipped to respond to security incidents.
“Response is much faster when you’re talking about the state police. Response is much more calibrated to the nuances, subtleties of the arena in which it’s carried out,” he said.
Barak identified intelligence gathering as another major benefit of decentralised policing, explaining that officers drawn from local communities are better positioned to collect the human intelligence required to tackle terrorism and organised crime.
“Intelligence is essential for running a fight against terror, against organised crime. But, you know, it’s mainly human intelligence,” Barak said.
However, he warned against devolving sophisticated intelligence assets, particularly signal intelligence, to state authorities, saying such capabilities should remain under federal control because of their strategic importance and the potential consequences of misuse.
“Signal intelligence is extremely expensive, and if the capabilities of signal intelligence ended up in the hands of the wrong person or the wrong group, they can cause huge damage to the national structure and become a kind of a threat,” he warned.
To strengthen the proposed system, Barak recommended the establishment of a federally controlled rapid deployment police unit that could assist state police whenever they encounter security threats beyond their operational capacity.
“There should be, to the best of my judgement, a central kind of rapid deployment police force under the command of Abuja that could be sent in any region to support them when a problem which is beyond their capabilities emerges,” he said.
He further stressed the importance of seamless collaboration between state police commands and federal security agencies through continuous intelligence sharing.
“The state should report; there should be no secrets of what happens to the police. And at the same time, the federal authorities should be sensitive to the needs,” he said.
While acknowledging that implementing state policing would not be without challenges, Barak expressed confidence that the model could succeed if local accountability is complemented by effective federal supervision.
“It won’t be easy, but that’s the only way,” he said.
The debate over state police has gathered momentum in Nigeria amid worsening insecurity and increasing calls for a decentralised policing structure. Proponents argue that the model would strengthen community policing, intelligence gathering and emergency response, while opponents fear it could be used by state governments to target political rivals.
The National Assembly is currently considering constitutional amendments that would transfer policing from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List, allowing states to establish their own police services under a regulated legal framework.
