AS political activities towards the 2023 elections heighten, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has raised concerns about security challenges in the country. The latest of such concerns was given by the Chairman of the commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, at the second quarterly meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES). While reinforcing the worrisome dimensions insecurity has attained in the country, the commission chairman was nonetheless of the opinion that appropriate measures could still be taken by respective security agencies to mitigate the monstrous security concerns within the space of nine months to the elections.

THE Hope noted with delight the repeated assurances given by the commission that elections would hold, no matter what, even with the advice that needed steps should be taken immediately rather than waiting until the eleventh hour before seeking for the extension of timelines.

THE warning by the INEC chairman came few days after a similar fear was expressed by the National Commissioner of INEC in charge of Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, in a paper presented at a brainstorming session between the Department of State Services and the civil society/non-governmental organizations held at the DSS Headquarters recently that “the security situation in the country may affect voter mobilization, deployment of personnel and materials to different parts of the country”. The recent killing of INEC staff in Imo State, while conducting Permanent Voters Registration exercise, is an undisputable confirmation of these fears.

WE are equally worried about the negative impacts these security concerns could have on the preparation and conduct of the 2023 elections as the same security reason informed the postponement of the 2015 general elections for one month by the erstwhile INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru  Jega, due to the security operations that were emplaced to neutralise Boko Haram insurgents, and recover dozen towns and villages captured by the terrorists, particularly in the North East.

THE  Hope  would recall that a similar parley with critical stakeholders and the media was held by the former National Security Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, Colonel SamboDasuki, on February 11, 2015, to inform the public on the next phase of counter-insurgency efforts by the government.

GLADLY  enough, the Presidency is aware of the concerns raised by INEC as the National Security Adviser, BabaganaMonguno, has given security agencies  marching orders to profile and arrest politicians whom  he believed are fanning the embers of insecurity by their provocative utterances. The media adviser to the president, Garba Shehu, has also blamed the intractability of insecurity on the culpability of politicians. This is  a time politicians  spend a fortune to procure nomination and expression of interest forms to desperately pursue their political ambitions, in a depressed economy where the majority are impoverished.

PRESENTLY,  insecurity is pervasive nationally as the North-East is not still accessible because of the activities of terrorists, the North-West and North-Central are strangulated by armed bandits, and unknown gunmen, especially militants of Eastern Security Network (ESN)/Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and other violent groups and kidnappers are terrorising the southern parts. Of very major concern was the attack on the Kaduna-Abuja railway and the kidnap of many passengers many of who are still in the kidnapers’ captivity.

THE security volatility across the country has led to the displacement of many citizens, with UNICEF confirming that 11, 536 schools in the North were closed down since December 2020, due to insecurity. This is as some multinational organisations have warned their staff to stay away from some states in North-East and North-West. The recent brutal killing of Deborah Samuel Yakubu, purportedly for blasphemy in Sokoto State, is also worrisomely suggestive of religious crises in the country.

AMIDST these palpable gloomy security pictures in the country, The Hope is strictly guided by the sacrosanct nature of the Nigerian Constitution and elections, and therefore considers as unwarranted the suggestion made by Robert Clarke, SAN that President Buhari could constitutionally extend his government for six months, in the first installment, and for more six months subsequently due to unforeseen circumstances precipitating an emergency rule, after holding elections become impossible. Instead, we are of the opinion that government must rise up to its constitutional responsibility of securing the people and the nation rather than listen to fifth columnists who would want to reincarnate shadowy organisations like the Arthur Nzeribe-led Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) that was used to scuttle the June 12 1993 presidential election.

SECURITY agencies should learn from the scaling up of operations and counterinsurgency efforts of the Jonathan’s administration in 2015, and put their acts together by trying everything within their powers to ensure that the 2023 elections hold. The war against insurgency might be daunting, but the security agencies must not let the people down by failing in their duties to the nation.

THE Hope commends President Buhari for his commitment to deepening Nigerian democracy, and his repeated assurances that he would hand over power to an elected president in 2023, even as it calls on him to concretely defeat insurgents and restore peace to the length and breadth of Nigeria, far and beyond the claims of degradation.