Public affairs analyst and lawyer Idris Bawa has warned that Nigeria’s worsening police shortage now poses a direct threat to national security, saying years of neglect, poor funding and misallocation of officers have weakened internal security across the country.
Bawa spoke on Monday during Hard Facts with Mary-Ann Okon.
Bawa said many officers are assigned to VIP protection, desk duties or medical leave.
“This is a national security issue,” Bawa said. “Across the 36 states, the military has been deployed to do policing work. That should not be the case. The army is meant to handle external aggression, not internal policing.”
He traced the problem to decades of institutional neglect, noting that Nigeria operated under a colonial-era Police Act from 1948 until reforms were introduced in 2020.
Even with the new law, he said implementation remains weak because key regulations have not been fully gazetted.
Bawa also criticised the widespread deployment of police officers to government houses and political office holders, describing it as a misuse of limited manpower.
“You can go to any government house and see 15 or 20 police officers doing nothing, while core policing duties are ignored,” he said.
He supported President Bola Tinubu’s directive ordering the return of officers attached to VIPs, stressing that disobedience to such an order should attract strict sanctions.
“If a police officer disobeys a presidential order, that officer should be disciplined. We cannot treat it with kid gloves,” Bawa said.
On recruitment, he welcomed the planned intake of new officers but cautioned against prioritising speed over competence.
He said inadequate training, lack of access to laws, and poor knowledge of policing procedures have damaged public trust.
Bawa cited instances where officers were unaware of basic provisions of the Police Act and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, even years after the laws came into force.
He also highlighted the absence of a central national database as a major obstacle to effective policing, arguing that biometric data collected across government agencies should be integrated to aid crime detection and recruitment screening.
He added that recent steps toward improved training, community policing and standard operating procedures show progress, but warned that reforms must be sustained to produce lasting results.
