…State Policing will provide massive employments for our youths, guarantees maximum security in the grassroot level both in the rural and urban areas
*Made direct overture to American law enforcement agencies, urge Washington DC for professional training by granting Nigeria access to sophisticated, modern weaponry to combat insecurity
*‘It is extremely difficult for somebody from Kano to travel to Enugu and kidnap someone over there. And you should not expect somebody from Enugu to come to Kano and kidnap someone else. When you weigh the advantages of state police against the disadvantages, the advantage is far more viable’
*‘We resurrected a legislative bill that was 20 years limbo, stitched it together, perfected Sections 214, 215 and 216 of the Nigerian Constitution and threading in 18 brand-new clauses, courtesy of the Constitutional Review Committee under Deputy Speaker Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu’
*‘We boldly proposed to cut the Nigerian Police Force loose from the general national budget entirely and hand it its own dedicated funding body, so that salaries and welfare can finally be reviewed consistently’
*”Nigerians should look at the current president that we have. He is a president who came with a mission and an ambition of Nigeria in his mind. First, he changed the National Anthem to tell you of the true Nigeria we are. Then, he created the Northwest, Northeast and South-South Development Commissions, and insisted that funds from the Federation Account must reach the local governments” – HON. YALLEMAN
*PLUS: What he would whisper to President Donald Trump across the Resolute Desk in The WHITE HOUSE if granted a one-on-one audience in the Oval Office, and his unscripted message to Nigerians in the Diaspora still peering at their homeland through the foggy lens of foreign headlines
HE carries himself with the measured calm of a man who has learned that real power in government rarely shouts since it is patient, it is procedural, and given enough time, it rewrites a nation’s constitution because it speaks for itself. Born on the 22nd of May 1969, in the town of Yalleman, Kaugama Local Government Area of Jigawa State, Makki Abubakar Yalleman transitioned from the lecture halls of Bayero University, Kano into the green-carpeted floor of Nigeria’s House of Representatives. He was first elected in 2019 under the banner of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to represent the Mallam Madori/Kaugama Federal Constituency. For his exceptional performance in office, this cerebral, intellectual was returned by his people in 2023 for a second term, Yalleman has never been the kind of lawmaker content to merely occupy a seat; he has used every chamber he sat in as a workshop for nation-building.
His apprenticeship in the politics of security began in the 9th Assembly, where he served as Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Defence, sharpening an instinct for the language of uniforms, budgets and battle-readiness. When the 10th Assembly convened, that mantle of leadership arrived in full: the Chairmanship of the House Committee on Police Affairs, a perch that placed him at the very central of Nigeria’s internal security conversation.
From that vantage point, he has not simply watched legislation drift past him; he has put pen to it, sponsoring a trio of Bills-the Federal College of Nursing and Midwifery, Kaugama; the Federal Vocational and Entrepreneurial Training Centre, Mallam Madori; and, closest to his current portfolio, the Nigeria Police Force College, Training School and Institution Bill-while also championing a fifteen-per-cent female recruitment quota he insists will pump fresh blood and fresh eyes into a force too long cast in a single mould.
This Chairman has matched the weight of his legislative pen with the weight of steel, donating patrol vehicles to police divisions across Mallam Madori and Kaugama and arming local vigilance groups for the ground-level battle against rural crime. In Abuja, he has led his committee on familiarization visits to the Ministry of Police Affairs and steadied a fractious budget defence session with Inspector-General Kayode Egbetokun when tempers threatened to boil over on the floor of a joint National Assembly hearing. He is a Chairman who names the wound of police underfunding and neglect with unflinching bluntness, yet defends the Force, in the very same breath, as the backbone upon which the nation’s peace still leans.
It is this rare blend of candor and conviction that now places him at the centre of what may be the most consequential police reform conversationist in Nigeria’s history: the birth, for the first time on African soil, of state policing.
In this rare, no-holds-barred audience granted to the Editorial Board of Naija Standard Newspaper Inc USA inside his office at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja, Hon. Abubakar Yalleman threw the doors of his mind wide open, speaking candidly on the historic passage of the state police constitutional amendment, assessment of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s security architecture, what Nigeria needs from American law enforcement, and his message to Nigerians in the Diaspora still watching their homeland through the mixed fog of foreign headlines as REPORTED BY FAVOUR BOLUWATIFE PHILIP/SOUTH WEST CORRESPONDENT, NIGERIA/Naija Standard Newspaper Inc USA
*NAIJA STANDARD: Honourable Abubakar Yalleman, you are the Chairman of the Police Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives. Your name rings a lot of bells for exceptional leadership and performance when it comes to legislative bills. Can you take us through some of those high points, some of the evergreen moments of your career as Chairman of the Police Affairs Committee?
*HON. ABUBAKAR YALLEMAN: Thank you very much. In the 9th Assembly, when I joined the National Assembly, I deputized the Chairman of the Committee on Defence. That experience prepared me for the mandate I was given in this 10th Assembly to head Police Affairs, being one of the key security agencies we have in Nigeria. Our police have been doing well, and what I want is for Nigerians to organize themselves and encourage them (the police). They (the police) are not many, but they are doing their best. If you check recently the abduction of that woman and her two children in Oyo State, it was the effort of police officers that secured their rescue. Many other such interventions go unreported.
The reason I insist they should be encouraged is that the issues of insecurity we discuss are fundamentally, internal issues, and our police officers are the ones responsible for resolving them. Since the 9th Assembly to date, week in, week out, insecurity has spread from one state to another, prompting changes of service chiefs and renewed calls on government to fund the security agencies. This reality touched us directly here in the National Assembly. We resolved that there was a bill that had been lingering for twenty years, on state police, and we could no longer afford to let that advantage pass us by.
We convened a stakeholders’ meeting, inviting former presidents, religious scholars, clerics and traditional rulers. We received their memoranda and reports, consolidated everything as a committee, and passed it to the Chairman of the Constitutional Review Committee. In the House, Deputy Speaker Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu liaised with his counterpart, the Deputy Senate President, and together they found the proposal worthy: Nigeria should try state police. That conclusion required altering Sections 214, 215 and 216 of the Constitution, and eighteen clauses were drafted, one by one, to accommodate state policing.
On the Thursday before we proceeded on break, we put it to the vote. We had two hundred and ninety members in the chamber, and two hundred and eighty-nine voted in support. The one dissenting voice was not, in truth, opposed to state police itself; he simply arrived late and had not gone through the full document, which contained more than the state police provisions alone. He has since been persuaded that state police is precisely what we are fast-tracking, so that the Senate can concur and the resolution can be remitted to the state assemblies, who will in turn return it to Mr. President for assent.
I always give people this example: you cannot imagine somebody from Kano travelling to Enugu to kidnap someone, just as you should not expect somebody from Enugu to come to Kano to do the same. When you weigh the advantages of state police against its disadvantages, the advantage is far more viable. In a Voice of America (VOA) interview, I cited Kano State as a case study, referencing an agency called KAROTA, created by His Excellency Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, which still exists today. Even when governors chair their own state police outfits, they will at least have a dedicated team. State police have come to stay, and to me it is not a disadvantage but an advantage, one that will also create jobs for our teeming youths, schooled and unschooled, operating under a jurisdiction entirely separate from the federal police.
*NAIJA STANDARD: I want to first congratulate you, because this is a feat. Out of fifty-four countries in Africa, Nigeria is about to become the first to operationalize state police, under your leadership as Chairman of Police Affairs. America has state police, and law enforcement professionals Overseas are already talking about this development. You are breaking new ground, shattering a glass ceiling no one else has reached. As you reflect on the state police framework you have helped create to fight insecurity in Nigeria, how do you feel about this achievement?
*HON. ABUBAKAR YALLEMAN: I feel honoured, and I feel impressed. First and foremost, Nigerians should look closely at the president we currently have. He is a leader who came in with a mission and an ambition that places Nigeria at its centre. During a season like this, turbulence is inevitable. When you board a flight from Abuja to Lagos, the pilot will warn you that you are going to pass through rough patches, yet at the tail end, you land safely. It is the same with Nigeria. Nigerians must be patient with the President; he means well for this country.
We know what we are passing through, but at the end, Nigerians will be glad. He is taking it gradually. First, he changed the National Anthem to remind us of the true Nigeria we are meant to be, one where no one is oppressed. He then went further to create the Northwest Development Commission, the Northeast Development Commission, the South-South Development Commission and other regional bodies, simply to ease communication between government and the people. He has also insisted that funds from the Federation Account reach the local governments directly. All these measures will help block the loopholes through which insecurity festers. The kudos should go to Mr. President, and Nigerians should continue praying for him to succeed in this agenda. It is not easy, but we must be patient and pass through this cloud. God willing, Nigeria will be the best in Africa.
*NAIJA STANDARD: As Chairman of Police Affairs in the House of Representatives, you exercise oversight over the Nigerian Police. What kind of assistance would you love to receive from American law enforcement agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI) and other developed nations’ agencies, on behalf of the Nigerian Police?
*HON. ABUBAKAR YALLEMAN: First and foremost, training. Training is paramount. Even if American law enforcement agencies cannot come down here themselves, they should select senior Nigerian police officers and train them or train our trainers. It is very important. Also, given the current restrictions on the importation of certain sophisticated weapons, if American security agencies could lift some of those embargoes for Nigeria, considering what we are confronting, it would help us greatly. But above all, I insist on the training and retraining of our police personnel. That would take us far.
*NAIJA STANDARD: If you were invited to The WHITE HOUSE to meet President Donald Trump, in a One-on-One meeting in the Oval Office, what would you ask from him?
*HON. ABUBAKAR YALLEMAN: It would first be my pleasure to meet President Donald Trump at The WHITE HOUSE. As far as our police are concerned, I would ask him to link me with heads of law enforcement over there, at both the federal and state levels, so that I could study how they operate, visit their offices, and return home to compare notes with what we have in Nigeria. I would also plead with him being a father figure to all of Africa, and I would ask him to come to our aid in building greater distinction and capacity within our police personnel.
*NAIJA STANDARD: In about two to three years from now, as Chairman of Police Affairs, what is your aspiration on how the Nigerian Police could become the best in Africa?
*HON. ABUBAKAR YALLEMAN: Our police personnel are already excellent. I wish you had visited prior to this period. On our Police Day, even I, witnessed it for the first time, could scarcely believe I was in Nigeria, watching our own personnel put up those bravery displays. They have all that it takes; what they need is motivation and encouragement. Their salaries need to be reviewed repeatedly, constantly. In fact, they ought to be pulled out from the general national budget entirely and given a separate funding agency of their own. When we achieve that, I believe Nigerians will be able to sleep with both eyes closed and their minds will be at rest.
*NAIJA STANDARD: Do you think solid life insurance of the kind provided for police officers in America where an officer’s family is well taken care of should anything happen, should also be provided for Nigerian police?
*HON. ABUBAKAR YALLEMAN: Yes. We already have a police life insurance agency here in Nigeria, though how effective it remains a fair question, given the economic realities we find ourselves in. Even as this administration works to revive the economy, the life insurance unit of the police is still finding its footing and cannot yet come up fully. I would welcome the opportunity to study what obtains in America, so that we can compare notes and borrow ideas to strengthen our own insurance framework.
*NAIJA STANDARD: As Chairman of the Police Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives, in Nigeria, the biggest Black nation in the world, what kind of legacy would you like to be remembered for at the end of your tenure?
*HON. ABUBAKAR YALLEMAN: First and foremost, as you noted earlier, during my time as Chairman of Police Affairs, state police came to stay. I would also love to see our current police officers motivated and happy. If I can achieve those two things, I will be very glad and very content with that legacy.
*NAIJA STANDARD: You are a man who wears many hats. As Chairman of Police Affairs, you already carry enormous responsibility, and now the advent of state police brings even more. Yet, despite your busy schedule, you remain fit, smart and agile. What is the secret?
*HON. ABUBAKAR YALLEMAN: It is faith. When you have faith, you have nothing to worry about. I go to bed, I sleep, I wake up, and I continue from where I stopped. I do not carry things with me to bed. When I am done for the day, I am done.
*NAIJA STANDARD: What is your philosophy of life? How do you view life?
*HON. ABUBAKAR YALLEMAN: Life is a place full of learning, and there is nothing in it beyond being faithful, humble and honest, because only God knows when He will call you home. I value and respect every minute, every second, every hour; every day, every week, every month and every year, and I expect more to come along the line. With that in mind, I have made a promise between myself and my Creator that there is no way I can deceive, lie, or cheat anyone. I try to maintain that standard, and God continues to help and guide me.
*NAIJA STANDARD: Finally, what is your message to Nigerians in the Diaspora? Millions of them do not know how Nigeria truly is, and there is a great deal of misinformation circulating on social media. What is your message to encourage them to come home and invest in Nigeria?
*HON. ABUBAKAR YALLEMAN: You yourself are part of that Diaspora. If this is anything to go by, you landed in Nigeria, came here to my office, and travelled from the gate all the way up without any hindrance. You called, I received your call, and my staff escorted you straight to my office. Go and gather some of your colleagues, share what you have witnessed, and say it as it is, because they too are media people. Seeing is believing. Whatever I may say cannot compare to you coming down yourself, seeing it with your own eyes, and returning to interpret it for them.
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