'Lai Olurode and MK Hammanga observations of political events in the build-up for 2015, do not support this optimism. Transition democracies generally face formidable security challenges as most of them are emerging from warfare and the emergent democratic states themselves are products of protracted civil wars. Arms proliferation was and remains a challenge in these young democracies. In some worst cases, the state has become highly paralysed and unable to fulfill its core objective of maintaining law and order. Indeed, life has become very cheap in most of these countries as violence has become generalized and a common experience. Children are socialized into warfare. Through, some of these young democracies have witnessed democratic reversals(e.g. Mali and Guinea Bissau; Cote D' lvoire is under threat), military coup is no longer fashionable. The use of force to gain privileged access to state institutions during election has, however, remained attractive. It is for this that there should be no contemplation of withdrawal of security personnel from securing our elections. It is therefore a premature proposition that Nigeria can now dispense with security personnel in managing its elections. An attractive perspective on election security seems to be one that regard strong ethics which is founded on institutions of policing and of society as being the most effective strategy to secure our elections. No matter the strength of its police force, no country can adequately police every stage of the electoral process. Nigeria presently has close to 120,000 polling units. With its police strength of about 400,000 and its 68 ELECTION SECURITY IN NIGERIA: MATTERS ARISING Deployment of Security Personnel in Elections: Challenges and Lessons from the Field numerous security challenges, Nigeria cannot afford to secure each polling unit with 2 policemen 5 . Secondly, police must be trusted by the populace and must be believed to act only in the public interest, indeed to protect citizens' rights and not as an organ of a faction of the political class. These are among issues that constitute potential sources of crisis in election policing in Nigeria. Nigeria police was perceived generally, perhaps until the 2011 elections, as partisan and incapable of acting professionally. Nigeria's security personnel also have challenges of training and of equipment. In some other jurisdictions such as Ghana, South Africa, India and Liberia, election security does not pose such a formidable challenge. Politicians, generally, respect electoral institutions and laws and act with less impunity, electoral bureaucracies could also be better trusted and security personnel act more professionally. In the case of India, particularly during elections, police command come under the control of the Chief Electoral Officer. Ghanaian election officials could transport election materials from one point to the other without fear of snatching of the materials or being abducted. They could also take personal custody of election materials a day or two before the elections and without fear of election materials being snatched by hoodlums or election officials being abducted. Election environments in these climes are far better secured than in Nigeria. Nigeria's electoral bureaucracy is too cumbersome and complex than in most other African countries and our elections are too expensive and more consuming. In fact, the organization of elections constitutes an ordeal for election managers, political parties and their candidates, the ELECTION SECURITY IN NIGERIA: MATTERS ARISING 69