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| Royal Majesty James Ortese Ayatse & Agaba-Idu Elaigwu |
In a significant intervention that underscores the deepening national debate on decentralised policing, the two most senior traditional rulers in Benue State have demanded that traditional institutions be formally integrated into the recruitment, operations, supervision, and oversight of any proposed State Police. The Tor Tiv, His Royal Majesty Professor James Ortese Iorzua Ayatse, and the Ochi’Idoma, His Royal Majesty Agaba-Idu Elaigwu Odogbo Obagaji John, made the call at a stakeholders’ colloquium on State Police organised by Lawyers Alert in partnership with the Benue State Bureau of Homeland Security. The event took place at the Father Alia Conference Hall of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) in Makurdi.
Their position goes beyond a routine endorsement of state policing. It reflects a carefully articulated vision of community-driven security architecture in a state long scarred by farmer-herder violence, banditry, kidnappings, and mass displacement. Both monarchs argued that traditional institutions—closer to the grassroots than any formal security apparatus—possess unique knowledge of local character, history, terrain, and emerging threats that no centralised or purely bureaucratic force can match.
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Local Knowledge as a Security Asset
Professor Ayatse, the paramount ruler of the Tiv nation and Chairman of the Benue State Council of Chiefs, framed the issue in practical terms. Benue’s prolonged insecurity has not spared traditional institutions themselves; many chiefs and community leaders have been direct or indirect victims of attacks that have emptied villages and disrupted the social fabric. Involving traditional rulers in the establishment and management of State Police is therefore “essential to achieving its objectives,” he said.
He specifically urged government to engage traditional authorities in setting recruitment criteria and screening personnel. “Traditional institutions are closer to the people and have a better understanding of the communities they serve,” Ayatse stated. Traditional rulers, he explained, hold valuable knowledge of the character, conduct, and backgrounds of people in their domains. This knowledge could help ensure that only individuals of proven integrity and good reputation are selected—reducing the risk of infiltrating criminal elements or those driven by personal or partisan agendas.
Ayatse also called for a clear operational framework governing interactions between the proposed State Police, traditional institutions, and existing security agencies. Such a framework should define procedures for intelligence exchange, joint operations, and inter-agency collaboration.
Traditional rulers, he noted, are well-positioned to identify emerging threats early and provide timely community-level information. On funding, he stressed the need for adequate budgetary provisions, warning that underfunding would cripple effectiveness. He insisted on professionalism and political neutrality so that the force prioritises protection of citizens over partisan interests, and he urged stakeholders to move from discussion to concrete implementation while assuring Governor Hyacinth Alia of traditional institutions’ support.
The Ochi’Idoma echoed and expanded these points.
He advocated a well-trained, accountable, and community-oriented State Police equipped with appropriate technology and operating strictly within the law. Decentralisation alone is insufficient, he argued; personnel must be professionally trained and the force integrated with traditional institutions for early-warning systems, intelligence gathering, mediation, community engagement, and conflict prevention—without encroaching on the constitutional responsibilities of the police.
He strongly emphasised merit-based, transparent recruitment free from political considerations or personal connections. Traditional rulers should be consulted precisely because of their intimate knowledge of local character and background. He further stressed the need for clear procedures for information sharing, operational coordination, supervision, and accountability with the Nigeria Police Force, the Armed Forces, intelligence agencies, and the existing Benue State Civil Protection Guard to avoid overlap or abuse of power. Ultimately, success should be measured by the ability to prevent attacks, protect lives and property, respond effectively, and restore public confidence.
Both rulers praised the Benue State Government and the Bureau of Homeland Security for convening stakeholders and affirmed their readiness to support a professional, people-centred security structure grounded in merit, integrity, transparency, and respect for human dignity.
Why Benue, Why Now?
Benue State—often called Nigeria’s “food basket”—has endured years of devastating insecurity.
Farmer-herder clashes, once largely resource-based disputes exacerbated by climate pressures, population growth, and competing land uses, have evolved into more lethal patterns involving armed militias, banditry, and mass-casualty attacks.
Reports from conflict trackers and organisations such as Amnesty International and ACLED document hundreds of security incidents and over a thousand fatalities in recent years, with widespread displacement. At points, estimates of internally displaced persons in the state have exceeded half a million. Attacks have targeted farming communities across multiple local government areas, destroying livelihoods, infrastructure, and social cohesion.
In response, successive Benue administrations have experimented with local security structures. The state has developed community-oriented frameworks, training materials translated into Tiv, Idoma, and Igede, and the Benue State Civil Protection Guard. Traditional rulers have previously been involved in recruiting community volunteer guards precisely to minimise politicisation. The current colloquium reflects both readiness at the state level—officials have declared Benue prepared to implement state policing, citing existing community structures—and a deliberate effort to shape the national conversation.
The national debate itself has deep roots. Before the 1966 military intervention, Nigeria operated a more decentralised system with regional and native authority police alongside the federal force. That arrangement was abolished amid concerns over political abuse and poor training. Section 214 of the 1999 Constitution entrenched a single national police force. Yet decades of rising insecurity—banditry, kidnapping, insurgency, and communal violence—have revived calls for state police.
Proponents argue that crime is often local, that a centrally commanded force of roughly 370,000 officers cannot effectively cover a population exceeding 200 million across vast terrain, and that governors as chief security officers need operational tools closer to the ground. Critics warn of potential political weaponisation by governors, funding shortfalls in many states, risks to national cohesion, and historical precedents of abuse.
Recent legislative momentum and public statements by political leaders have moved the issue closer to practical consideration, even as safeguards against partisanship, independent oversight commissions, and clear federal-state coordination remain points of contention. Benue’s traditional rulers are inserting themselves into this conversation with a distinctive angle: the indispensable role of indigenous institutions that predate the modern state and retain residual authority and trust in many rural communities.
Profiles of the Voices
Professor James Ayatse, Tor Tiv V, brings an unusual combination of academic and traditional authority. Born in 1956 in Kwande Local Government Area, he rose to become a professor of biochemistry and served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi, and later as pioneer Vice-Chancellor of Federal University, Dutsin-Ma. Elected Tor Tiv in 2016 and crowned in 2017, he has consistently advocated collaboration between traditional institutions and security agencies, arguing that local knowledge is critical for counter-insurgency and community safety. He has previously supported the principle of state police as a means of addressing national security gaps by bringing command closer to the people.
His counterpart, Agaba-Idu Elaigwu Odogbo Obagaji John, the fifth Ochi’Idoma, was crowned in 2021. Born in 1969 in Obagaji, Agatu Local Government Area, he holds degrees including an MBA and postgraduate qualifications in peace and conflict studies. A former pastor with a background in economics and accounting, he has emphasised peacebuilding, cultural preservation, and the strategic position of traditional institutions in early threat detection and mediation.
Their joint appearance carries symbolic weight. Tiv and Idoma communities form the demographic core of Benue; their traditional councils represent the primary indigenous governance structures. When both paramount rulers speak with one voice on security architecture, it signals broad elite consensus within the state’s traditional establishment.
Opportunities & Risks of Traditional Involvement
The monarchs’ proposals align with community policing principles that emphasise local intelligence, trust-building, and prevention over purely reactive enforcement. In many rural African contexts, traditional authorities remain the first point of contact for dispute resolution and information flow. Formalising their advisory or screening role in recruitment could improve the quality and legitimacy of personnel while reducing the risk of “outsiders” who lack local networks or, worse, local adversaries.
Yet genuine challenges exist. Traditional institutions themselves are not immune to local politics, lineage rivalries, or capture by powerful interests. Screening processes would need transparent criteria, documentation, and appeal mechanisms to avoid perceptions of favouritism or exclusion. Operational frameworks must carefully delineate roles so that traditional involvement strengthens rather than competes with professional command structures.
Funding, training standards, equipment, and accountability mechanisms remain critical—areas where the monarchs themselves called for robust provisions and political neutrality.
Benue’s existing Civil Protection Guard and community frameworks offer a potential testing ground. Integrating lessons from those experiences into any future state police design could provide practical models for other states facing similar hybrid security challenges.
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Looking Ahead
The Makurdi colloquium forms part of a wider national reckoning with the limits of centralised policing. By insisting that traditional rulers be written into the design of State Police—not merely consulted after the fact—Benue’s royal fathers are asserting that effective security in a diverse, federated country cannot be imposed from the centre alone. It must draw on the knowledge, authority, and daily presence of those who live among the people.
Whether national lawmakers, state governments, and security planners heed this counsel will help determine whether future state police forces become genuinely community-rooted institutions or simply additional layers of bureaucracy and potential political instruments. For Benue, a state that has paid a heavy human and economic price for insecurity, the stakes could hardly be higher. The traditional rulers have placed a clear marker: any policing reform that ignores the institutions closest to the communities risks repeating the very disconnects it seeks to cure.
Samuel O. Sulaimon is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Naijapiz. He covers News, Sports, Finance, Faiths, Education, Technology.
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