The Senate on Wednesday approved extensive reforms to Nigeria’s security architecture, placing the establishment of state police, intelligence-led operations, and the extensive use of modern technology at the forefront of efforts to address the country’s escalating insecurity.
These resolutions followed the unanimous adoption of the report from the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on the National Security Summit, presented during plenary by the panel’s Chairman and Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele. The session was presided over by Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
Lawmakers approved all observations and recommendations stated in the report without dissent, reflecting a broad consensus on the urgent need to overhaul what the Senate described as a largely reactive and overstretched security architecture.
Presenting the report, Bamidele noted that stakeholders from the six geopolitical zones commended the National Assembly for convening the summit, calling it a timely and bold intervention in light of the worsening insecurity across the nation. He pointed out that the summit revealed fundamental weaknesses in Nigeria’s current security system, particularly its inability to anticipate and effectively respond to modern threats.
The committee identified key drivers of insecurity, including illegal mining, porous borders, unemployment, poverty, drug abuse, illiteracy, radicalization, weak intelligence gathering, and vast ungoverned spaces with minimal government presence. It also cautioned that ethnic, regional, and religious profiling, alongside perceived marginalization in public appointments, had deepened mistrust and undermined national cohesion.
Central to the recommendations is a proposed constitutional amendment to decentralize policing through the creation of state police. The committee argued that this reform would align with the designation of governors and local government chairmen as chief security officers in their domains, enhance local intelligence gathering, strengthen early warning systems, and enable quicker responses to threats.
The Senate also called for strengthening vigilante groups, establishing ward-level security liaison committees, and comprehensively redesigning the national security architecture to prioritize prevention over reaction. It urged improved inter-agency collaboration and intelligence sharing among the military, police, Department of State Services, immigration, customs, civil defense, intelligence agencies, traditional institutions, and community groups through joint operations centers.
To tackle the root causes of violence, the Senate recommended creating a National Youth Stabilization Fund targeting conflict-prone areas to address unemployment, poverty, drug addiction, and radicalization, as well as stricter regulation of mining activities to curb illegal operations linked to armed groups.
Regarding technology, the report advocated for substantial investment in surveillance infrastructure, including drones, CCTV cameras, and sensors along borders and forests, improved communication systems, enhanced patrol mobility, and rapid response capabilities. It also proposed establishing mobile courts to ensure speedy justice and fast-tracking a National Security and Recovery Bill to rebuild communities devastated by conflict.
Furthermore, the Senate underscored the role of traditional and religious institutions as key security stakeholders, emphasized the need to curb extremist preaching, protect forests through a proposed Forest Guards Bill, and fully implement local government autonomy to strengthen grassroots governance.
With the adoption of the report, the Senate reaffirmed its commitment to pursuing far-reaching legislative and constitutional reforms aimed at restoring peace, rebuilding public trust, and securing lives and property across the country.
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