By Eshioromeh Sebastian
The Presidency has said the National Policing Bill is almost ready and will be sent to the National Assembly within two weeks, in what it describes as the most far-reaching piece of legislation of the current administration.
Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to the President and chairman of the Presidential Working Group on the bill, gave the update on Thursday in Abuja after the committee’s steering meeting at the State House.
He said only one more meeting was needed to tidy up the draft, noting that governors had raised a few observations that would be addressed before transmission.
“We are 90 per cent ready,” Gbajabiamila told reporters, adding that the remaining work was largely about closing gaps and making sure no area was left uncovered.
The bill, which the working group has been deliberating since early August, is expected to overhaul how policing is funded, overseen and run in the country. Gbajabiamila called it the most consequential bill of the administration so far, a signal of how much political weight the Presidency is attaching to it.
On the Sixth Constitution Alteration Bill, which seeks to introduce state police, Gbajabiamila pushed back at suggestions that states were losing interest in the reform. Only about six of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory have so far passed the amendment.
He insisted there was a national consensus on the need for the changes and said he saw no reason for anyone to reconsider.
The slow ratification has raised questions about whether the amendment can scale the required threshold, but the Presidency appears unwilling to entertain that possibility publicly.
Thursday’s meeting drew key figures, including Governors AbdulRazak AbdulRahman of Kwara (who chairs the Governors’ Forum), Dapo Abiodun of Ogun and Uba Sani of Kaduna.
Inspector General of Police Tunji Disu attended, as did the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, represented by Solicitor General Beatrice Jedy-Agba.
Also present were Justice Abdullahi Liman (rtd), who chairs the Policy Advisory Committee; Professor Olu Ogunsakin of the Nigeria Police Reform Secretariat; Dr Lanre Smart, Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters; and Nnadubem Moghalu, who serves as committee secretary. A representative of the Nigerian Bar Association and AIG Abraham Nabhon Thomas, standing in for the National Security Adviser, were also there.
If the timeline holds, the bill could reach the National Assembly before the end of October, opening a new phase of lobbying and legislative scrutiny. For now, the working group’s message is one of near-completion — and of confidence that the state police amendment will eventually carry the day.
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