Outspoken elder statesman and NNPP chieftain, Buba Galadima, has issued a stern warning against the push to establish state police in Nigeria, describing the idea as dangerous and “the beginning of the end for democracy.”
Speaking during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, Galadima said the Nigerian state is not mature enough to handle decentralised policing and that governors would inevitably turn state police into a political weapon to “arrest, harass, and jail” their opponents.
He said, “Please, I beg Nigerians, and I beg members of this National Assembly, including state assemblies, that they should never, in any circumstance, allow the creation of state police. It may be convenient for us now, but we will come to cry when it becomes constitutional matter, which we cannot do away with in a simple manner. It will destroy democracy, as you see now, what some of those elected are doing with us.”
Galadima argued that in states where even local government elections are already manipulated by governors, adding a security apparatus to their arsenal would embolden abuse and erode citizens’ rights as he said, “If they have the instrument of state police, the democracy we are fighting – we are cherishing is going to the winds. So I completely, throughout my time in Constituent Assembly 1987, Constitutional Conference 1994, and Jonathan’s National Conference of 2014, I have fought relentlessly against the creation of state police.”
In response to ongoing debates about constitutional amendment, Galadima said Nigeria does not need a constitutional review, but rather an attitudinal shift among leaders and institutions.
“There is no need to amend any constitution. Let them follow what is there. The problem is attitudinal change.”
He dismissed calls for state creation and additional constitutional restructuring as distractions, saying they often serve as ethnic or political appeasements rather than genuine development strategies.
He said, “Do we really need states? If the legislature are only looking for money to spend from the budget, let them take the money and share and leave us as we are, and let them pray and use National Orientation Agency to change our attitude, the attitude of Nigerians toward governance. That would be better than tampering with the Constitution.
“What we need now is electoral reform where the votes of the people should count, and this is where politicians from all political persuasions and all political parties must come together to fight for a proper electoral reform. And if we can’t do it from this National Assembly and other assemblies in states, please, let’s talk to those that people in government in Nigeria fear. I’m not saying that we should become a British or American colony, but it is only them that can talk to those in authority in Nigeria and they scamper for cover.”
Galadima then insisted that any real reform agenda must prioritise electoral reforms as he said, “Please, it is electoral reform that we only need, and that doesn’t need any constitutional amendment. The law for the election is good enough to address that matter.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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