'Lai Olurode These are some of the key assumptions that activated INEC's collaboration with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung(FES) in October 2010 when the first workshop on Security challenges of election management was held. The workshop brought together an array of intellectuals and security practitioners including policy makers. The meeting signposted security preparations for 2011 elections. Of course, some elements of providence were at work in the limited success of those elections, a measure of hard thinking was indeed helpful in the security strategies and approaches that were the hallmark. Emboldened by the success of the 2010 workshop, especially its input into the 2011 elections, our two organizations(INEC and FES) decided to partner again ahead of the 2015 elections with a view to responding to the outstanding challenges of election security. These are two rationales for these early preparations. First, as resonated in the opening remarks that were culled from FES publication, the risk of violence is present in nearly every election. Second, there is the need for review of the approaches adopted in 2011. How appropriate will they be in 2015? What has changed? More specifically, the 2012 workshop was driven by the following objectives: 1. To assess the 2011 elections vis-à-vis the recommendations from the workshop in October 2010; 2. To identify and analyse new and emerging security challenges that were thrown up in 2011 especially the trigger to the post election violence in some states; 3. To recommend ways to contain these challenges in future elections. 2 ELECTION SECURITY IN NIGERIA: MATTERS ARISING Election Security in Nigeria: Is there a Silver Lining? One could be asked to produce empirical proof that those elections were better than the ones that preceded them. Permit me to refer readers to a sample of comments by international observers who had no reason to be blatantly partisan: “The April 2011 elections marked a genuine celebration of democracy in Africa's most populous country and a key member of the Commonwealth. Previously held notions that Nigeria can only hold flamed elections are now being discarded and this country can now shake off that stigma and redeem its image. The elections for the National Assembly and the Presidency were both credible and creditable and reflected the will of the Nigerian people.” (2nd interim statement by H. E. Festus Mogae, Chairman Commonwealth Observer Group). We are convinced that security preparations for the elections were a critical factor in the general acceptability of the elections. More than ever before, there was an effective coordination of security agents involved in elections under the auspices of the Inter Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security(ICCES), itself an outcome of the security challenges of election workshops. Through this, the power of incumbency was somehow contained and sundry mal­practices checkmated to some extent. A brief theoretical excursion will be helpful at this point. ELECTION SECURITY IN NIGERIA: MATTERS ARISING 3