State police shouldn’t be introduced now, says Baba-Ahmed

Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, national chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), says President Bola Tinubu’s administration lacks the credibility to implement state police.

Speaking on Friday while featuring on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme, Baba Ahmed said “this is the worst possible time” for the federal government to implement state police.

The former presidential adviser said the proposal predates Tinubu’s administration, questioning why successive governments had not implemented it if it was the key to tackling insecurity.

He said while Nigeria’s policing system requires urgent reform, introducing state police under the current administration risks turning the initiative into a political tool.

“There are 100 good reasons why you have to revisit policing in Nigeria, but there are also 100 good reasons to say, don’t do it now,” he said.

“The issue of state police has been on the table long before Tinubu’s government. If it is such a crucial solution to improving security, you would think a serious government would have said, ‘Let’s do state police’.

“Certainly not by the APC government. There are a lot of things they can do between now and March 2027.

“It’s not a priority if it’s going to play into the hands of an administration that may use it for political reasons. The best time is not now. In fact, this is the worst possible time.”

Baba-Ahmed argued that the president still has several options within the existing security architecture to address the country’s security challenges.

“There are still 101 things President Tinubu can do with what he has on the ground to improve our security and bring an end to all these killings of human beings,” he said.

“He can improve the police and address the performance of the military. He can do many things. But no, that’s not what he’s doing.

“He is creating policemen and giving them to states, and he thinks that’s the solution to the problem.”

The PRP chairman said the move would worsen existing challenges rather than solve them.

“He is compounding the problem that we have. Nigerians have no faith in the sincerity of this administration. They have little trust that this administration is sincere about dealing with insecurity,” Baba-Ahmed said.

“When you combine these two things, you see the absence of legitimacy and the absence of confidence.”

Baba-Ahmed said Nigeria’s policing system requires comprehensive reform but maintained that the APC-led administration should not be the one to implement state police.

“We need to address policing as an institution. It has definitely failed. The last six to eight years have shown that the police, as a vital institution, have collapsed,” he said.