President Tinubu’s recent directive ordering the withdrawal of police officers from VIP security assignments brings new attention to how Nigeria allocates its policing resources.
Data shows why this conversation matters: 100,000 officers — almost one-third of the 371,800-member Police Force — are currently assigned to protect politicians and other VIPs. This means a large share of national security manpower is concentrated on a tiny segment of the population.
With more than 200 million people and only 271,800 officers available for public policing, Nigeria’s police-to-citizen ratio falls far below global standards. In Nigeria, the effective officer to person ratio rises to about 1:740. In reality, it’s even worse in many communities due to uneven deployment across states.
