 The Independent National Electoral Commission may be under constraint to conduct the 2023 elections in over 686 communities under the atrocious activities of the armed non-state actors across the federation. Now findings have revealed that the affected communities and wards cost across 90 local government areas and 18 states of the federation. President Mahmood Buhari had directed security agencies to ensure stability before December 10th. Now, INEC had expressed grave concerns over the 2023 elections. However, security agencies had played down on the apprehension of the electoral empire about the countries and safe territories that make a pattern for the conduct of the 2023 elections. We're joining us to discuss this is Dennis Amakri, he's a former deputy director of the DSS. Mr Amakri, so good to have you join us. Happy Independence Day, by the way. Happy Independence Day to Nigeria's, I believe you. Great. This sounds more like, you know, will begin to sound like broken records because we know, even during the 2019 elections, there were pockets of violence and of course terrorist activities in certain parts of the north. But this time around, there seems to be more and more of these threats across the country, 18 local government areas of the country calls for concern, doesn't it? Very, very, because right now, you know, we are going into the elections with some local government still occupied by terrorists. And then at the same time, the political actors are not helping issues. If you look at the security barometer for the 2023 elections, it looks like there is the possibility that we might have pre-election violence and then, of course, post-election violence. The pre-election violence are already manifesting themselves right now, you know, but I hope that we will walk through it before the elections themselves. Why do you think that there will be pre-election violence? I mean, so far, what we see mostly is, you know, people who's showing solidarity for their party members. But then does it also have to do with the rhetoric? Is it also how the party tickets have been aligned? What exactly informs that assertion of yours? We're very worried, security-wise, we're very worried that there are a lot of threats, threats, either threats of assassination or threats of violence by different party supporters against other, their opponents and stuff like that. Disallowing other parties to either campaign or do their rallies in different places. And I think that is a cause for concern because when we come to elections like this, the whole country is a playing field, you know, and people should allow other people to go ahead, convince the public and decide whether the public is going to follow you or not follow you, but don't use violence. I'm happy that they have come to the Abdul Salam Abu Bakar committee, has come to do the peace committee, but they are also worried whether they are going to have enforcement. They could sign, but the IGP are spoken, but are we really going to enforce it? Is that a legal document? Because again, you're talking about enforcement, enforcement of something that's not legal, because again, many people ask how binding is the peace accord. Many people have signed these peace accords and then half the time the followers are the perpetrators of these acts of violence. We've seen many people being beaten and, you know, bloodied up because they supported a particular political party and they were showing that support in a certain area and they got beat down. So again, how enforceable really is that particular peace accord? No, it is like a contract between two companies, you know. We are going to carry out this contract under these terms and conditions and if anybody falls down, you know, then there will be consequences and that is why the Inspector General of Police have come in. Because yes, it's a peace accord, it's a gentleman's agreement, but if a particular party tries to use violence and they are arrested, those people doing the violence are arrested, then of course they have to be prosecuted, you know, and that is the enforcement you are asking for. Now, many have also raised concern about the fact that this election might just be a watershed moment. Some people have even said that this will be a game changer, but then because of certain people who might want to grab power by any means, then of course we might see a release of, you know, violence on even the voters. Like what we saw some time ago, I think it was 2019 here in Lagos, some parts of Lagos. How do we protect against those things, especially now that it seems that Nigerians are a bit more aware and more people want to show up to the polling units? How do we stop that voter apathy that might be playing out for good for those political actors who might be benefitting from it? For one thing I can tell you that the level of voter apathy will be minimal in this particular election because I think the awareness is so high. The awareness is so high, Nigerians have passed through the fire, so they are very, very much worried about the future of the country. And of course the three major parties, the three major parties have come out to talk about what they can do to ameliorate that particular situation. So the voter apathy, I don't think a lot of people will stay away. A lot of people want to go and vote and then see if their votes will count and if it will count if they come out en masse because the first indication was during the registration of voters, people trying to get their PVC. And then of course in the elections proper we expected that they will come out en masse and then of course vote for their preferred candidate and let the country go forward because I can tell you Nigeria has been at the crossroads and we cannot continue like this any longer. Let's talk about messaging before we wrap this up. What role should political parties and even their candidates who are ones who are speaking more often, what role should they play in making sure that the message of peace is spread abroad and should they not necessarily also be held responsible for whatever form of violence breaks out. And especially I want to underline again the messaging that comes from these political parties because we are used to the mud slinging and the dirty, you know, wild politics that we play in these parts but can political parties not be held responsible especially by security agencies. Of course that is what I was saying and you know during the peace meeting the special agenda of police came out and then of course listed out a long list of offices that can be committed by anybody. So we believe strongly and I will urge the special agenda of police and other security agencies to make sure that they enforce it. I don't want to see any of them being partial because this is the future of the country now and they are not doing it for any party. They are not doing it for any particular person. This is for the future of the country and they should be ready to enforce those that are going to go against those peace agreements. So I believe strongly if the police is serious, the security agencies are ready, we might be surprised to have a very peaceful election. I like the how you are using probability in every sentence if the police is serious, we might be surprised. But then what's the precedence that we can actually lay hold on or hold off and say well this has happened before so we can be trustworthy, the police can be trustworthy enough for us to put our confidence in. If there's not been a precedence or something that the police has done before to not be biased or hold on to the peace message and enforce the fact that if any member of your party talks or says anything that incites the public, they will come after them. But if we haven't seen that, why should we trust that that magically would happen in 2023? The police, well, I believe that they are going to do their job, they have been trying their best, but we are the precedents. If you remember, for all the elections that I have conducted, especially when I was in the service that have looked supervised, I discovered that yes, most of them turn out to be peaceful, especially in the urban areas. But where we have some very violence here and there in the local areas, where we don't have a strong law enforcement presence, people using masquerades to scare away voters and stuff like that. But the major precedence that I think we should even think about is the election of MK Oabiola. Many people were very worried, a lot of Nigerians came out, stood in the sun and rain and then voted and there was no violence and the resource was determined to be the fairest and freest election that Nigeria has ever had. So I hope that there is a possibility we can repeat that. Well, we'll keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best and we keep spreading the message of peace. Well, Dennis Amakri is the former Deputy Director of the DSS here in Nigeria. Thank you so much for being part of the conversation. We appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Always a pleasure. Well, that's it on the show tonight, but before I go, I would like to give you my take. Here's my take. Now, politics like the theory of evolution is a game of survival of the fittest. Now, standing for an election is not an easy thing to do, nor should it actually be. Now, in the pursuit of such power and influence, candidates must fortify themselves for the battles that must ultimately be waged. When seeking for the approval of others to say one must be thick skinned is an understatement. It should come as no surprise the attacks and the ridicules that plague some of these candidates as knives come out. Politics may fall short of the ideal campaigns conducted as a battle of ideas, but it suddenly tests the metal of these candidates. Even exceptional candidates with revolutionary ideas get beset by obstacles from even within their own parties. The popular opinion for such candidates is to fight on and not to give up until the very end. After all, we all can respect the candidates with a warrior's will. But at what point should such a candidate ask whether their candidacy does more harm than good? If the allies all stay and see the need, well, if all the allies they need would rather fight for the opposition. I think that that's all our politicians need to do is your candidacy was the blood of Nigerians. I'm Mary Annacol. Thank you for watching. Have a good evening.