The Nigerian Senate passed a bill on 24 June 2026 establishing state police in the 36 states of the country. The passage of the executive bill, sent to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu, officially opens the way to dismantle the decades-old structure of the Nigeria Police Force and replace it with a dual model, comprising the Federal Police Service and State Police Services. Saheed Balogun Amusa, a police historian, explains that Nigeria had regional police before a central police force. He sets out what went wrong with those formations and the lessons they offer.
