International records / OpenAlex research

State Policing and Security Governance in Nigeria: A Critical Examination of the Southwest Experience

The intensifying debate on the establishment of state police in Nigeria reflects deepening concerns about rising insecurity, overstretched federal policing structures, and the limitations of a centralised security governance model. Although the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is constitutionally mandated to provide internal security, its highly centralised architecture has proven inadequate for addressing Nigeria’s increasingly complex and regionally differentiated security challenges. Southwest Nigeria—comprising Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, and Ekiti States—illustrates these limitations vividly,…