With 30 states endorsing the proposed constitutional amendment for state police, the Presidency has called on business leaders to help design a sustainable funding model for the reform, stressing that the success of decentralised policing will depend on states’ ability to pay salaries, provide training and meet operational costs.

According to the Presidency, inadequate funding could expose police institutions to private interests and unlawful demands. It assured Nigerians that federal policing would continue in states not yet financially or institutionally ready to establish their own services.Chief of Staff to the President and Chairman of the Presidential Working Group on the National Policing Bill, Femi Gbajabiamila, urged the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), chambers of commerce and business associations to propose practical funding arrangements, institutional management structures and accountable partnerships for the reform.

Speaking at a plenary session on Security, Stability and Economic Resilience at the 32nd Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja on Monday, he said insecurity was imposing high costs on businesses through disrupted supply chains, delayed investments and lost commercial opportunities.

“I therefore ask the Nigerian Economic Summit Group to carry this engagement beyond our meeting. Bring forward a considered private sector contribution on financing and implementing state police, with practical proposals for accountable partnerships,” he said.Gbajabiamila, however, warned that private sector participation must not compromise police independence, insisting that contributions should be transparently accounted for and subject to independent scrutiny.

“Public funding must remain dependable, and a donation must never purchase influence over an investigation or preferential treatment,” he said.Five more states endorse constitutional amendmentTHE Lagos, Kano, Jigawa, Ebonyi and Kogi state Houses of Assembly yesterday endorsed the proposed constitutional amendment to establish state police, joining efforts to decentralise Nigeria’s security architecture and strengthen responses to growing insecurity.States that have passed the amendment include Adamawa, Kwara, Nasarawa, Ogun, Osun, Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Ekiti, Kebbi, Oyo, Plateau, Taraba, Zamfara, Bayelsa, Benue, Abia, Yobe and Kaduna.A two-thirds majority of the country’s 36 states is required to pass a Constitutional Amendment Bill.

The approvals followed the transmission of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (Sixth Alteration) Act, 2026, by the National Assembly to state legislatures for concurrence.In Lagos, lawmakers reconvened yesterday, cutting short their recess to consider the proposed amendment and unanimously voted in favour of the bill.Presiding over plenary, the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, described the development as a significant milestone in a campaign that has spanned several legislative sessions.He said the establishment of state police had remained a recurring issue from the fifth to the 10th Assembly, with successive legislatures seeking ways to strengthen security and protect lives and property.

However, Obasa said the proposed amendment fell short of granting federating units full operational autonomy, warning that the functions and responsibilities of federal and state police should be clearly defined to prevent structural imbalances.He also called for an explicit constitutional provision for a dedicated parliamentary police force to protect legislative institutions from executive interference, citing instances in which state assembly complexes were allegedly locked up or demolished on the orders of governors.

Guardian