2027 elections: Are we ready security -wise?

Next year, 2027, is another election year   in Nigeria. To some politicians,- corrupt politicians, it will be another opportunity  to dole out stolen, ill- gotten money to either buy votes, bribe electoral and security officials or hire thugs. On the part of shamless, corrupt security agents , it is time to protect the electoral thieves; time to turn blind eyes to electoral heists and provide protection to the  highest bidder. It is the time when unscrupulous security chiefs and some security stakeholders dance to the tunes of politicians with big war chest while ballots boxes are being snatched and election results altered. Ìt is a time when compromised  police personnel will unleash tear gas canisters on innocent voters and opposition agents to scare them away at polling units  and collation centres so that hired thugs could cart away ballot boxes and write fictitious results.

There is a growing concern that Nigeria’s political stability could come under  a serious strain if corrupt political actors collude with compromised electoral officials and security personnel to thwart the people’s will or free choice in next year’s elections. In a fragile democracy like ours, such manipulative tendencies could aggravate ethno- religious schism, further inflame the already tensed  politcal and security atmosphere and widen our fault lines as a nation.

There is no gainsying the fact that uppermost in the minds of majority of politicians in Nigeria is how to circumvent electoral rules, manipulate the process and award themselves undserved victories. This is the bane of our political system. As I said earlier, rogue politicians colluding with compromised electoral and security officials to rig next year’s election may spell security doom for this country. The already angry and dissatisfied masses, egged on by a bruised opposition will likely resist by any means possible and this could further push the country to the precipice as criminal elements, including the marauding Islamic terrorists in the North may capitalize on the choatic situation to unleash mayhem in parts of the country.

Governor of Oyo state and  presidential  candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, Engr. Seyi Makinde is already sounding a note of warning about next year’s elections.  After a closed door meeting with Bauchi state Governor, Bala Muhammed recently, Governor Mankinde declared that “the outcome of the 2027 polls must reflect the wishes of the electorate, stressing that the opposition would resist any attempt to manipulate the electoral process”.

Resolute statements such as Mankinde’s and the obvious resolve of the opposition and masses to resist any attempt to subvert the will of the people are the reasons I wonder if the country is truly ready for next year’s election security-wise. Can our security agencies, their  personnel  and INEC officials play impartial roles during the election?

An election can be likened to a house harboring many tenants with variety of household items. It will be foolhardy to expect any of the tenants to be lackadaisical and careless about the security of their apartments and then helplessly watch a thief invade and cart away his property without any resistant.The property in this light are the votes of the people, which means so much to every politician and which also is the reason  they do everything to win the votes legally and secure them or steal them violently or silently via hired thugs or via compromised security and electoral officials in the form of altering voting  results or writing fake ones.

According to security observers,many Nigerians, concerned about the parlous state of security in the country, are beginning to doubt  the posibility of the elections holding as scheduled.

Just recently sporadic kidnappings attacks were witnessed in parts of the country thus plunging the citizens into fear. In the North-East, which is the flagship of Islamic insurgency in the country, ISWAP and Boko Haram terrorists are increasingly intensifying  their kidnapping and other criminal activities.

Impressively, however,  troops of Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK) recently repelled an attack by ISWAP terrorists on the 120 Task Force Battalion in Gonori under Sector 2. The attack, which began in the evening lasted the early hours of the following day.

The assault came barely 24 hours after troops had foiled another coordinated attack on the Headquarters of 27 Brigade in Buni Gari and the Buni Gari checkpoint. During that operation, no fewer than 50 insurgents were reportedly killed, while a cache of arms and ammunition was recovered.

Within 48 hours, ISWAP fighters attempted attacks on four military formations across the North-East theatre, beginning with the assault on the Forward Operating Base in Magumeri under Sector 3. The attack reportedly claimed the lives of two soldiers, while several terrorists were also killed.

The terrorists equally unleashed mayhem and kidnapped helpless citizens in Kaduna- Kankomi, Kachiya and Kajuru local government areas. The same day they kidnapped Oyo children and their teachers, they also  kidnapped 52 children in Lasa,  Askira Uba local government area of Borno state as well as students writing NECO exam.

Security sources describe the repeated attacks on military facilities as a disturbing trend requiring urgent action, stressing that troops must intensify offensive operations against terrorist enclaves instead of remaining defensive.

These attacks continue to send jitters down the spines of ordinary citizens.

No doubt, the terrifying incidences of insecurity as enumerated above could grossly affect the conduct of the coming elections. Again, are we ready, security wise, for the 2027 elections? The coming days will tell.

Abuja insecurity

Last week, daredevil bandits attacked an area in Mpape, a community in the Bwari Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) where they k!lled a security guard and abducted three persons, including a pastor.Mpape is located a few minutes’ drive from the Abuja highbrow district of Maitama, and also close to a military barracks, within the nation’s capital.The attackers, who were said to have arrived the area some minutes before 11 pm on Wednesday, July 9, 2026, reportedly went to a new layout there known as “Yellow House”,  targeting a particular home in the neighborhood.

“They didn’t succeed in breaking into the home when a police patrol team that had been alerted about the incident, arrived. They withdrew immediately just as they were exchanging gun shots with the security men to beat a retreat”, one of the sources told Daily Trust.