By joshua Empower the Throne: Why Kogi’s Kings Must Be Funded If Community Policing Is To Work
By K.O. Rufus, Concerned Elder, Kogi State
April 25, 2026
The National Assembly has just approved community policing. It is a bold step, and at long last, Nigeria is conceding what every rural dweller has always known: security begins at the gate, not at the barracks. But an approval in Abuja is only the first trumpet. The real music will be played in the 36 state houses of assembly. And if Kogi is to avoid the noise without rhythm, Governor Usman Ododo must now listen to the drums from the palace.
We have kings without salaries. We have royal fathers who are the first to hear when a stranger enters the village at midnight, yet they have no budget to verify that stranger’s business. We ask them to “safeguard their community” but we do not give them the security vote to do it. That is like handing a man a cutlass and telling him to clear a forest, but refusing to sharpen the blade.
The logic is simple and uncomfortable: the king is closest to the grassroots. He knows the farmer from the invader. He knows which youth left for the city and which one is loitering at the motor park with anger in his eyes. When the palace is empowered, intelligence moves faster than a WhatsApp broadcast. When the palace is broke, silence becomes the only defense.
This is why the next phase of community policing cannot be another federal-to-state directive that dies in a file. The states must now appropriate funds, and part of that appropriation must go directly to traditional institutions. Not as handouts. As operational support. Fuel for patrol bikes, stipends for local vigilantes, communication gadgets, and a modest welfare package for the stools that hold our communities together. Call it a “Palace Security Vote” if the term offends accountants. Call it survival if you understand the terrain.
I say this with some privilege of knowledge. Security details are not for public consumption, so I will not bore readers with particulars. But I have watched men in office. Most showcase wealth and affluence to the detriment of those they were elected to represent. In Kogi politics, that has been the sad pattern. The billboard is full, the constituency is empty.
Hon. Elder Leke Abejide, MHR representing Yagba Federal Constituency, is an exception. He has, by his own “widow’s mite”, consistently funded small but critical interventions for his people. The specifics are not for the papers, but the impact is felt in the quiet nights his constituents now enjoy. If every federal lawmaker matched that commitment, the presidency itself would sleep easier. If every state legislator understood that security is not a campaign slogan, the State Assembly’s final passage of the community policing bill would be more than procedure. It would be purpose.
Governor Ododo now has the baton. His Excellency must convene the Obas, Emirs, and Chiefs under Kogi’s jurisdiction. Not for photographs. For a pact. Ask them what they need to secure their domains. Then fund it, audit it, and defend it. A governor who leases with his royal fathers is a governor who inherits thousands of eyes and ears. A governor who ignores them inherits rumors and ruins.
The National Assembly has blown the first trumpet. Let the Kogi State House of Assembly echo it. Let the governor conduct the orchestra. And let us stop pretending that a king without resources can protect a kingdom under pressure.
The stool is not a relic. In 2026, it is infrastructure. Treat it as such, and the peace we chase will finally sit down with us.
K.o.rufus