Nigeria confronts a number of critical security challenges as it heads into national elections in February 2015. In the last year, security in the country’s north east has deteriorated badly, with Boko Haram unleashing a series of brutal attacks, mass killings, and kidnappings that have garnered global attention. At the same time the country maintains a fragile amnesty with militant groups in the country’s Niger Delta, and faces recurring sectarian violence in the country’s middle belt.  As politicians gear up for what is likely to be one of Nigeria’s most contested and controversial elections, there is a very real possibility of worsening violence and deepening division.