Many mornings in Nigeria begin with news that feels like a fresh wound. Reports emerge of another night attack, another farm invasion, or another commuter robbed on a road that should be safe. This is the grim reality of the nation's persistent insecurity.
The Disconnect Between Police and People
Survivors of these attacks frequently describe a troubling pattern. The police arrive hours after the incident. The officers who respond are often unfamiliar with the local terrain and do not speak the community's language. They lack relationships with residents, have no knowledge of previous threats, and possess little understanding of the underlying tensions in the area.
Typically, they collect statements, make promises, and depart. Meanwhile, the criminals remain, hidden within the community's unspoken knowledge. This scenario is not an isolated event; it is a recurring tragedy in Nigeria's security landscape.
If effective security is built on familiarity rather than sheer force, then Nigeria's centralized policing model—where officers are externally posted—is fundamentally flawed. An officer who cannot communicate with the people cannot understand their fears. A system dominated by non-indigenes struggles to earn trust, gather reliable intelligence, or respond with the necessary context.
The Strategic Case for Indigenous Policing
True community policing extends far beyond merely stationing officers in an area. It requires alignment with local knowledge, cultural fluency, shared ownership, and the deliberate building of trust. It means officers are integrated into the social fabric, not treated as strangers.
The proposal that at least 75 per cent of officers deployed to a state, local government, or community should be indigenes is not based on sentiment. It is a strategic necessity born from decades of systemic failure. The current model posts officers to areas where they lack cultural knowledge and a sense of belonging.
This detachment leads to weakened accountability. When officers are posted from distant regions and rotated frequently, they may view their assignments as temporary. This can contribute to problems like extortion, repression, excessive force, and a transactional approach to law enforcement.
More alarmingly, in some instances, the presence of officers who share ethnic ties with cross-border criminal networks has created avenues for suspects to be shielded, released, or warned ahead of raids. Communities, particularly in southern states, have repeatedly reported cases where violent offenders were let go through unofficial channels, highlighting a structural flaw.
Global Lessons and Local Success Stories
The argument for indigenous policing is supported by global examples. Rwanda's community policing transformation is one of Africa's most successful modern security reforms, where locally recruited officers built surveillance networks rooted in trust. Japan's Kōban system, with neighborhood-based posts staffed by resident officers, achieves some of the world's lowest crime rates.
Kenya's Nyumba Kumi initiative shows how security improves when communities and agents share information through culturally grounded networks. Scandinavian models also emphasize officers learning the language and social dynamics of their patrol areas.
Nigeria's own experiences validate this approach. The success of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in the northeast was driven by intimate knowledge of the terrain and insurgent patterns, not superior weaponry. Amotekun in the southwest has demonstrated how cultural and linguistic fluency can disrupt criminal operations more effectively than conventional units. Even in banditry-plagued rural areas, local farmers and hunters often provide more actionable intelligence than formal police structures.
These examples signal the potential of a deliberate, institutionalized shift toward indigenous community policing for Nigeria.
In this context, President Bola Tinubu's recent directive to withdraw police officers attached to VIPs is a commendable step. It aims to refocus policing on public safety and could redeploy hundreds of officers to communities in dire need, strengthening indigenous policing. However, past similar directives have been ignored or partially implemented. There is an urgent need to ensure this order is fully enforced nationwide for communities to genuinely benefit.
Prof. Chiwuike Uba, an economist, policy expert, and security consultant with over 25 years of experience, authored this analysis on December 22, 2025.
