A former National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega has said that the predicted disintegration of Nigeria as a nation may come to pass if urgent preventive measures were not taken.

Jega gave the warning on Wednesday in Abuja while delivering a keynote address at a conference on ‘20 Years of Democracy In Nigeria’ organized by the management of TELL magazine.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had in the build up to the 2015 general elections predicted that Nigeria would disintegrate but the anticipated crisis was averted when former President Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat to President Muhammadu Buhari.

His words: “The CIA thought that 2015 was the do-or-die period for Nigeria, that there would not be a Nigeria in the way you know after the 2015 General Elections. That has come and passed but I think if we do not take care, a lot of these predictions will come to pass.

“That is why we need to do quite a lot, much more than we have ever done in order to protect the integrity of the electoral process before 2023,” Jega said.

The former INEC boss also notes that the deployment of soldiers and other security operatives during elections in Nigeria was meant to address what he described as systemic security challenges.

He added: “A lot has been said about the deployment of security during elections but we should recognize the fact that in Nigeria, we are faced with systemic security challenges.

“The presence of security is to ensure that the people have the peace of mind to come out to vote freely. The most important thing is to ensure that the security deployed is impartial and non-partisan. They should be professional in their conduct.”

While blaming the low turnout of voters during elections on the lack of trust in the electoral process , Jega said a lot of improvement has been made in the past few years to re-establish the trust and reverse the trend in the 2023 elections.