Securitizing the Postponed Elections in Nigeria

As Nigerians prepared to cast their votes in the Presidential and National Assembly elections on February 16, 2019, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof Mahmood Yakubu dropped a bombshell. He announced the postponement of the elections less than six hours to the commencement of voting procedures citing inadequate “implementation of its (INEC’s) logistics and operational plan”. But ironically, INEC had four years since the 2015 elections to prepare. And in the last one week, the Commission has been announcing its readiness for the elections. Even before the postponement, election materials including sensitive ones had been distributed across the country; security agents and other ad-hoc staff mobilized and posted to various locations for election duties. Also, both local and international observers were already on ground to monitor the elections. Following these developments, this edition of Nextier SPD Weekly assesses the implications of the postponement and makes recommendations for future elections. …