PHOTO : (l-r) Convener and Editor-in-Chief, Freedom Online, Mr Gabriel Akinadewo; Senator Gbenga Daniel; Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and former Minister of Information and Culture , Alhaji Lai Mohammed during the 7th annual lecture of Freedom Online themed: “2027 Elections, Economy, Security and Nigerians Future” at the Sheraton Hotel Lagos in Ikeja, on Thursday, September 3, 2026.
By Ihechi Enyinnaya
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has called for the completion of the constitutional process for the establishment of state police, arguing that decentralised policing would bring security closer to communities and strengthen Nigeria’s ability to tackle insecurity.
Sanwo-Olu made the call on Thursday while delivering a lecture on “2027 Elections: Economy, Security and Nigeria’s Future” at the Freedom Online 7th Yearly Lecture at the Sheraton Lagos Hotel, Ikeja.
The governor said security would be one of the defining issues of the 2027 general elections, particularly in communities affected by banditry and insurgency.
He warned that insecurity could affect not only the safety of voters but also the ability of political parties to campaign and the Independent National Electoral Commission to deploy personnel and election materials.
“In the communities where banditry and insurgency persist, insecurity touches everything: whether candidates can campaign, whether INEC can move its materials and its people safely, whether voters will come out at all,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu urged INEC and security agencies to begin preparations immediately rather than wait until the final weeks before the elections.
He, however, commended the Tinubu administration for what he described as significant investments in national security over the past three years.
According to him, the President had approved the expansion of the Nigerian Army from eight to 12 divisions, alongside the recruitment of 28,000 additional personnel and the establishment of new divisional headquarters in Makurdi, Ilorin, Jalingo and Benin City.
He also listed the establishment of a Navy Special Operations Command, decentralisation of police training, and the deployment of Forest Guards and Mining Marshals among the administration’s security measures.
Sanwo-Olu said the creation of a presidential office responsible for coordinating homeland security had also strengthened the national response to security threats.
He further referenced joint operations with international partners against terrorist commanders in the Lake Chad Basin.
The governor devoted particular attention to state policing, saying his experience in Lagos had convinced him that communities should have greater involvement in the security structures serving them.
He cited the Lagos State Security Trust Fund, established in 2007, as well as the state’s Neighborhood Safety Corps as examples of community-based security initiatives.
“The lesson of two decades is not complicated. Security works best when the people who pay for it and the people who depend on it can see, and hold to account, the people who provide it,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu argued that this experience provided a practical basis for supporting state police.
“That is the whole argument for State Policing in a single sentence,” he said.
He noted that the establishment of state police would require constitutional amendments involving the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly.
The governor urged lawmakers who would emerge from the 2027 elections to complete the process.
He also linked insecurity directly to Nigeria’s economic challenges, arguing that poverty and insecurity reinforce each other.
“Poverty feeds insecurity, and insecurity strangles the very economy that would cure poverty,” he said.
According to him, farmers who cannot safely access their farms contribute to food insecurity, while unsafe schools deprive young Nigerians of education and future economic opportunities.
Sanwo-Olu therefore described job creation and economic investment as important components of Nigeria’s long-term security strategy.
“The most effective security policy is a job, and the surest guarantee of a job is a country safe enough to invest in,” he said.
He also urged political parties and candidates to ensure that the 2027 elections were peaceful and credible.
“No office in this land is worth the life of a single Nigerian, and no victory won by the wrong means is a victory at all,” the governor said.
Sanwo-Olu called on the media to play a rigorous role in the electoral process by fact-checking claims from all political parties, including his own APC.
He said the media should resist becoming an extension of political campaigns and should instead help voters distinguish between facts, misinformation and political propaganda.
“A compliant press is of no use to a democracy; it flatters the powerful and abandons the public,” he said.
“What I am asking for is a rigorous press. Check the facts, mine included.”