The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, has emphasised the urgent need for state police as a solution to Nigeria’s insecurity challenges.
Mr Kalu said this while addressing newsmen in Abuja after returning from Geneva, Switzerland, where he represented Nigeria at the 55th WTO–Inter-Parliamentary Union Public Forum.
Mr Kalu said that the country’s current centralised policing system was inadequate and lagged behind global best practices.
He explained that the state police bill before the National Assembly seeks to improve response time and align policing with international standards.
“The only way we can achieve this is by unbundling the centralised structure, just as other countries operate municipal and state policing systems,” he said.
The deputy speaker announced that a national public hearing on the bill will hold on Monday to give Nigerians the opportunity to air their views.
While acknowledging fears of misuse, he maintained that the need to guarantee security for the majority outweighs such concerns.
Mr Kalu said that Nigeria and other African delegations are pressing for Afrocentric issues to feature prominently at the WTO Ministerial Conference scheduled for Yaoundé in March 2026 saying that Africa and its problems must be on the table, not outside the room.
(NAN)
