It is hard to underestimate the significance of the next 12 months for Nigeria. As all eyes turn towards next year’s presidential election, the stakes could not be higher. Some six decades after the country gained independence, Nigeria’s vast potential has yet to be realised. Poverty is entrenched. Unemployment is rising.

Despite Nigeria’s abundant potential, security is perhaps the country’s greatest obstacle. From Islamist extremism and militancy to the rise of kidnappings, banditry, and intercommunal violence, public confidence in the country’s political leaders is waning.

With Nigeria’s security crisis liking to feature prominently in this year’s election campaign, our panel will examine the challenges and opportunities ahead.

About the panel

Dr Alastair Masser - Visiting Fellow, Department of War Studies

Dr Alastair Masser is the founder of Toht, a social impact consultancy that working with an array of businesses, philanthropists, and charities to help support victims of conflict in the Sahel and sub-Saharan Africa. He spent the first decade of his career in politics including serving for four years as a UK Government Special Adviser. He holds a PhD from the Department of War Studies, examining UK-Nigerian security cooperation against Boko Haram during the period of Britain’s Coalition government between 2010 and 2015.He is a Research Fellow at the Legatum Institute in London and teaches at the UK Ministry of Defence’s Joint Services Command Staff College (JSCSC) at Shrivenham. He is co-editor of a new two volume series entitled New Perspectives on Diplomacy, published by Bloomsbury in April 2021.

Dr Richard Ikiebe – Co-founder, International Organization for Peace Building and Social Justice

Dr. Ikiebe is co-founder of the International Organization for Peace Building and Social Justice based in Lagos. He is a member of faculty, School of Media and Communication, SMC, of the Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria, where he is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Centre for Leadership in Journalism (CLeJ).

Mr Fola Aina - International security and development policy specialist

Mr Fola Aina is an international security and development policy specialist. He has worked as an consultant for the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) on Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin and as a Research Analyst for the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). He is currently a Senior Research Consultant for the Geneva Centre for Security Governance (DCAF) on security in West Africa. He is also a non-residential Hans. J Morgentau Fellow on Grand Strategy at the Notre Dame International Security Center, Univeristy of Notre Dame, U.S.A.