Former Minister of Aviation and Chancellor of the Athena Centre, Osita Chidoka, has said the Nigerian Police Force is unable to respond promptly to emergencies because it is severely underfunded, not because there are too few officers.
Chidoka made this known on Thursday while speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, where he analysed the 2025 police budget and its impact on security across the country.
According to him, many police stations receive only about eight litres of fuel daily and N1.2 million annually for maintenance, making it difficult for officers to respond to robbery and other emergencies.
“When you call the police for help during a robbery and they say, ‘Come and get us,’ it’s because they can’t come. They have just 8 litres of fuel per day and N1.2 million per annum for maintenance,” Chidoka said.
He explained that a single vehicle breakdown or extended patrol could wipe out a station’s entire yearly maintenance allocation.
“If you go and service a car today and change the tyres, the money is gone in one month. There is no more money for maintenance. One breakdown or one extended patrol can wipe out the station’s annual allocation. Gone,” he said.
Chidoka added that many police stations do not even have functional vehicles, contrary to public assumptions.
“You are assuming that each police station has a vehicle, but that’s not the reality,” he said.
He also revealed that funding for training is extremely low, stating that some stations receive just N158,000 per year for training.
“If you look at training, it is N158,000 a year for training the whole policeman in one police station. That is less than N1,000 to train one policeman,” he said.
Chidoka said the level of underfunding has forced citizens to bear basic costs at police stations.
“When you go to a police station now, you buy your own stationery to write a statement. You buy your own pen. If you are detained, you buy your own food and medicine. Anything you are doing with the police, you have to fund it because they are acutely underfunded,” he said.
He stressed that Nigeria’s security challenge is not about lack of personnel but lack of resources at the point of action.
“Nigeria is not under-policed. Nigeria is underfunded at the point where the police is going to act,” he said.
Chidoka also highlighted rising violent crimes across the country, citing between 3,500 and 4,000 kidnapping cases nationwide and an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 conflict-related deaths linked to banditry, insurgency and communal violence.
He identified Kaduna, Zamfara, Katsina and Niger states as major hotspots for banditry, while Plateau, Benue, Ebonyi and Taraba states are affected by communal clashes.
According to him, most crimes occur in rural and forested areas, requiring specialised equipment and intelligence-led operations rather than mass recruitment.
“Our crimes are rural, forest-based and mobile. We need mobility, helicopters, night vision goggles, intelligence and special units, not mass recruitment,” he said.
Chidoka criticised the allocation of the police capital budget, noting that a large portion is spent on buildings rather than operational needs.
“About 43 per cent of the police capital budget is for buildings and renovation. Eleven per cent is for barracks and offices. ICT is just eight per cent. Training infrastructure is six per cent,” he said.
He added, “Buildings do not chase bandits. Mobility chases bandits.”
Comparing Nigeria with other countries, Chidoka said operational spending per police officer in Nigeria is far lower.
“In Nigeria, the operational spending per police officer is about 300 dollars. In Kenya, it is over 1,200 dollars. In Colombia, about 3,000 dollars. In South Africa, about 6,500 dollars,” he said.
He noted that Nigeria spends in one year what South Africa spends in one month per police officer on operations.
Chidoka warned that recruiting more officers without fixing funding gaps would worsen the problem.
“If you recruit more officers without fixing funding, you dilute the resources. You expand payroll without expanding operational expenses,” he said.
He urged the government to focus on making existing resources work and properly fund operations, equipment and training to tackle modern security threats.
