The National Chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has declared that President Bola Tinubu’s administration lacks the credibility and public trust needed to establish state police, warning that the initiative could be misused for political purposes.
Speaking on Friday during an appearance on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme, Baba-Ahmed described the present moment as “the worst possible time” to implement state police, despite acknowledging that Nigeria urgently needs comprehensive policing reforms.
He noted that the proposal for state police predates the Tinubu administration, questioning why successive governments failed to implement it if it was truly the answer to the country’s worsening security challenges.
“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.
Baba-Ahmed argued that the current administration still has numerous options within the existing security structure to tackle insecurity, including strengthening the police, improving the military’s performance, and addressing the persistent wave of killings across the country.
Instead, he accused the government of focusing on creating state police, a move he believes could deepen existing challenges rather than solve them.
According to him, many Nigerians have lost confidence in the administration’s commitment to addressing insecurity, insisting that the absence of public trust undermines the credibility of the state police proposal.
While reiterating that Nigeria’s policing system has suffered years of decline and requires urgent institutional reforms, Baba-Ahmed maintained that the APC-led administration should not be entrusted with implementing state police.
