Nigeria’s Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed has urged Media practitioners in the country to accord national security priority in the discharge of their professional duties to the nation.
The Minister stated this at the opening ceremony of a two day National Conference on Peace, Culture and National Security: the Role of the Media, organized by the National Institute for Cultural Orientation, NICO, in Kano state north Western Nigeria.
He said jettisoning national security by hampering on skewed reporting as well as the phenomenon of fake news, hate speech and misinformation have the capacity to worsen security challenges facing the country.
“They do not only create fear among the citizens but can adversely affect the morale of our security personnel.
“We therefore appeal to our media practitioners to accord national security priority in the discharge of their constitutional and professional duties,” said the minister.
According to him, all hands must be on deck, especially media stakeholders to overcome the security challenge, which has become impediment to the nation’s national development aspiration.
He urged the media to cooperate with the Nigerian government as it is investing in both human and material resources, including collaboration with other countries to surmount security challenges bedeviling the nation.
“Apart from investing heavily in security equipment, the President… has sent two bills to the national Assembly on transmission of explosives as well as control of small arms and light weapons.
“It is also having constrictive and meaningful engagement with friendly countries and collaborating with member states of ECOWAS and other regional blocks in order to effectively and decisively deal with security challenges in Nigeria,” he stressed..
He commended NICO for organizing the conferences, which focuses on the importance of culture as well as advocacy for peace and non violence as recipe for sustainable national development.
The minister was represented by Mrs. Memuna Idu-Lah of the ministry of Information headquarters, Abuja the nation’s capital.
The Executive Secretary of NICO, Ado Yahuza said the conference focuses on the media because of their role in nation building through non- violence means.
“We are convinced that the media can play a leading role in the fight against insecurity in Nigeria by consistently sensitizing citizens to appreciate that there can be no development in an environment of Violence and criminality,” said Yahuza.
Governor of Kano state Dr. Umar Ganduje urged media practitioners to be culture sensitive in their reportage as each environment has its own peculiarity.
“Media practitioners should select what to report in an environment in order to douse tension and promote peace in the society.
“Negative reporting causes wide gap in the society. So youths should sensitized on what news to report, especially when it comes to breaking news,” he advised.
The Governor was represented at the event by a former Head of Civil Service of Kano state, Aminu Shehu.
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