Elections Security in Nigeria: A review of security performance in staggered Elections since December 2011

The peculiarity of elections is defined not only by the electoral rules, but also shaped by the social values, politics, religions, history and culture of the people. In the same way, the security of an election is unique to the circumstances in which it is conducted. Thus, even within the same country, each election has its peculiarities often times informed by changing forces that shape the national interest and corresponding political agenda and debates. Worthy of note is the fact that in saner societies, elections are generally conceived as a means of peaceful change of leadership through balloting. The fraudulent acts and ballot robbery that characterised 2007 election in Nigeria led to the cancellation of several elections and declaration of rerun in five states by the courts of law handling the election disputes. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) thereafter introduced staggered elections to be conducted in the affected states. This article analyses the advantages of staggered elections as it affects election security. Apparently one of the outstanding and gratifying advantage that staggered elections in Nigeria has brought to the development and advancement of election and democracy in Nigeria is the fact that it has created room for various security agencies involved in elections to focus their resources, manpower and material, effectively. Though there were high concentration of security personnel in the centre cities during February 2012 Sokoto gubernatorial election, there were many stop and search units that scrutinized vehicles, motorcycles and other road users all around the state. The sufficient deployment of personnel, especially the police and the army, for the staggered elections since the December 2011 gubernatorial election in Kogi State has paid off for it. The smaller sizes of the electoral environment in the states rather than the large national size, which often throw them into coordination confusion, inadequate distribution of resources and manpower has drastically reduced. In the Edo election for instance security presence across the state was adequately deployed. Logistical arrangement and strategy is also another area that election security has improved on in the course of these staggered elections. While there were commendable security presence in capital cities and few major cities during Kogi, Adamawa, and Sokoto gubernatorial elections, the situation improved in the Bayelsa state election. By the time Cross River, Kebbi and Edo were held respectively, the provision of election security had taken far better dimension. This was why the success that the police recorded in Edo State was widely hailed by local and international observers alike. Despite few cases of logistic challenges, each election was an improvement from the previous one. Lessons that would have been learnt in many years of holding elections in the country have now seemingly been learnt in just few months. It is no doubt an undisputable fact that the space in between these elections has created room for learning, through analysis of successes and failures. Election security personnel have now acquired enough understanding of election

security planning, implementation and management. The trainings facilitated by civil society groups such as CLEEN Foundation and the National Human Rights Commission, for security personnel has contributed immensely in this regard. In all, deployment of security personnel during the elections especially to polling stations was remarkable except in few instances in Cross Rivers State which the police command responded promptly to. While use of force was minimal in some elections, for example in Edo State, only soldiers were accused of beating up people trying to disrupting voting process. Spread elections among other things have contributed to democratic advancement as it concerns the conduct of security agencies on election duty. Various security agencies now have enough security personnel on ground. For instance, CLEEN Foundations preliminary report of the just concluded Edo election shows that security presence was adequately deployed across the state. It also stated that security personnel were better coordinated and that most polling unites had at least two security agents. Staggered elections have immensely reduced cases of police and security overzealousness, highhandedness, human rights abuses and killing of law abiding electorates. The police, for instance, have reportedly become more civil on election duty than they were in past elections. There were little or no reported cases of police brutality and highhandedness in Edo gubernatorial election held in July 14th 2012. All preliminary statement by CLEEN Foundation on the conduct of security personnel from the seven staggered governorship elections held since December 2011 shows that the police are now more approachable, more organise in their conduct, more professional, fair, impartial, non interference with voting process and wearing identification tag which has itself help to reduce imposture. Worthy of note also is the security threat assessment that CLEEN Foundation introduced during the last general elections in 2011. The research seeks to examine the risk factors to peace and security during the election as well as mitigating factors. The security threat assessment coupled with various intelligence analyses and evaluation of election environment has continually informed proactive election security measures. For in stance, the commissioner of police in Edo State came with arms and ammunition like he said but the proactive measure that were put in place to prevent possible eruption of crisis worked. INEC has also learnt their lessons through these staggered elections. The electoral umpire now understands the security implication of delaying the announcement of election results which was in the past allowed to linger longer than necessary. Many analysts are of the opinion that this step saved crisis from breaking out in Edo state. In Conclusion, going by security performance in these staggered elections held thus far, and the successes recorded by INEC and security agencies alike, we have gradually improved democratically in election conduct, election security and safety. But this is not denying the relevance of past experiences. There are a few issues with crowd control and adequate provision for logistics and the welfare of security personnel on elections duty. However, judging the performance of security agencies especially the police in recent elections, there is significant and commendable improvements in their conduct while on election duty in the last nine months than they have done in so many years. This is good for our democracy and elections security.

Napoleon Enayaba Program Assistant CLEEN Foundation Napoleon.enayaba@cleen.org