The nominee for Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Lieutenant-General Olufemi Oluyede, while addressing senators during the screening of service chiefs at the Senate chamber on Wednesday, said that “most of the jobs being done by the army actually lie within the power of the police,” highlighting one of Nigeria’s most enduring security distortions.
In a properly structured democracy, the army should be the last line of defence, not the first responder to local bandit attacks, community clashes, or highway kidnappings. Yet, in today’s Nigeria, the military is everywhere, manning checkpoints, chasing armed robbers, guarding VIPs, and responding to crises that the police should ordinarily handle.
The Chief of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede, called for an urgent restructuring of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), which could not have come at a more critical time. It is a call backed by years of evidence showing how institutional decay, corruption, and inefficiency within the police have not only overstretched the armed forces but also deepened the insecurity they were meant to curb.
A Police Force Stuck in the Past
Nigeria’s policing structure remains anchored in an outdated centralised model inherited from colonial times. Despite multiple reforms, the 1943 Police Act continues to define much of its operation. The result is a force that is both under-resourced and ill-equipped to manage a nation, with no official data giving the actual number of Nigerian police officers serving over 200 million people.
Reports indicate that many police divisions across the country lack functional patrol vehicles, communications tools, or forensic capacity. According to the CLEEN Foundation, fewer than 30 per cent of police stations in Lagos have reliable vehicles, forcing officers to rely on public transport or solicit fuel money from citizens.
Beyond logistics, the culture within the force has suffered from decades of political interference, poor training, and low morale. Arbitrary arrests, unlawful detentions, and the misuse of power remain common. The Nigeria Correctional Service recently confirmed that police operations are a leading cause of prison congestion, with suspects detained for months without trial.
When citizens lose confidence in their police, they stop cooperating, and when a police system fails, other arms of the state inevitably step in to fill the vacuum. In Nigeria, that substitute has been the military.
A Military Doing Police Work
From the fight against banditry in Zamfara and Katsina to anti-kidnapping operations in Niger and Kogi to joint task forces in the Niger Delta and Southeast, the Nigerian Army has become the de facto internal security agency. Troops have been deployed in all 36 states at one time or another, an abnormal situation even by global standards.
While these deployments have produced temporary calm in some areas, they are unsustainable and distort the very essence of a professional military. Soldiers are trained for combat, not for civilian policing. When they are used to perform police duties, the result is predictable: excessive force, human rights abuses, and public resentment.
Oluyede’s observation, therefore, rings true. Nigeria’s soldiers are doing jobs that constitutionally belong to the police. The military should be defending the country from external aggression, not patrolling villages or settling communal disputes.
Our stand with the police must be restructured.
The real issue, however, is not whether the police should do more, but whether they can. Years of neglect have left the NPF hollow. Poor welfare, corruption, inadequate training, and weak oversight have combined to render it incapable of fulfilling its constitutional duties.
Reforming the police must begin by recognising that Nigeria’s current model is outdated. A single, centralised police force cannot effectively police a country as large and diverse as Nigeria. Security is local, and so must policing be.
The 2014 National Conference and, more recently, the National Assembly’s constitutional review committee both recommended the creation of state and community police structures. Such decentralisation would make policing more responsive, intelligence-driven, and accountable to local communities.
Critics often argue that state police could be abused by governors to silence opponents. While that risk is real, it is not a reason to maintain an obviously broken system. What is required is a robust legal and institutional framework to ensure checks and balances, and not a refusal to evolve.
Part of the dysfunction of the Nigerian police lies in its misplaced priorities. Instead of focusing on crime prevention and investigation, officers are routinely seen escorting politicians, celebrities, and private businessmen, functions that divert manpower from public safety to personal security.
Unwarranted arrests and unlawful detentions remain widespread in Nigeria. Reports continue to surface of police officers arresting citizens over civil disputes, property issues, and even social media posts. During the recent Oworonshoki demolition, civilians were attacked by the police as though they were bandits. Tear gas canisters filled the air, with the entire area being heavily militarised in anticipation of a protest that never happened. These abuses erode public trust and reinforce the perception that the police serve the powerful rather than the people.
Until the police are reoriented toward service and accountability, citizens will continue to rely on local policing like vigilantes, local militias, and the military for protection, an outcome that weakens the state itself.
Hence, restructuring the Nigeria Police Force must go beyond rhetoric. It requires political will, financial commitment, and institutional honesty.
General Oluyede’s comments before the Senate should serve as a wake-up call. Nigeria’s internal security challenge cannot be solved by deploying more soldiers to civilian streets. True security comes from strong institutions, not brute force.
If the police are restructured, empowered, and properly equipped to do their job, the army can return to its constitutional role, defending the nation’s borders and sovereignty. The alternative is the continued militarisation of civilian life and the erosion of democracy itself.
A strong police force is not a luxury; it is the backbone of a stable society. The time to rebuild it is now.