The Armed Forces of Nigeria have reviewed strategies and policies in the fight against the insurgency to ensure that the societal approach is given prominence for the effective attainment of military goals and national development objectives.
The Nigerian Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor disclosed this during a 2-Day Workshop with the theme “Use of Broadcasting in Complementing the Military in Conflict Mitigation and Management”.
Represented by Director Training Defence Headquarters, Rear Admiral TY Pani, the CDS said that “National security in the country is a complex issue that requires a multifaceted approach from all sectors of the society”.
According to him, the country has been facing various forms of insecurity in the past decade which include terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, communal clashes, oil theft, and piracy amongst others.
He said, “to curtail this security situation; an all-of-society approach is required”.
CDS noted that the approach involves the participation of the government, security agencies, civil organisations, religious leaders, traditional leaders, the press and the general public.
The Defence Chief said that “the military has been contending with fighting terrorists and other non-state actors in the last decade adding that in order to tackle and subdue the security challenges in the country, several military operations and exercises have been launched by the Armed Forces of Nigeria across the country since 2009”.
He noted that recently, the federal government of Nigeria adopted a non-kinetic approach by developing a policy framework and National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism, NAPPCVE.
According to him, the plan recognizes the integrated roles of the AFN with the larger society as critical, by adopting a whole of Government and whole-of-society approach.
Consequently, the combination of kinetic and non-kinetic efforts has led to a lot of success in the ongoing operations conducted by the AFN across the country.
He said that “one of the benefits of non-kinetic operations is that they can be used to achieve strategic objectives without causing unnecessary damage or loss of life which is especially important in conflicts where civilian casualties must be minimized”.
The Director National Broadcasting Commission, Balarabe Ilelah says organising a workshop on the use of broadcasting and complementing the military conflict mitigation and management or design is very critical.
According to him, Individual spending in Internet security protecting the Nigerian military on behalf of the National Broadcasting Commission as he commended Zalclair Investments Limited for investing in its energy in the promotion that this is quite commendable, and he called on the company not to relent on this effort.
IIelah said that there is no doubt that Nigeria is currently faced with various security challenges, such as banditry and also the context of other security concerns in various sections of the country. “With these challenges, the need for the media to support the military campaign to address this issue”
The Director noted that to capture this, the media should be encouraged by all stakeholders to exhibit professionalism and avoid creating tensions or confusion in the minds of the citizens when reporting security matters.
This is because of its inherent implication on their corporate existence in this case, there are some attributes associated with broadcast media.
According to him, the broadcast should be carefully managed in order not to jeopardise the condition, the code and coordinate and military actions plan or risk the lives of the gallant troops will always try to be very careful in what is important and in doing that they must put at the back of their mind that there are have troops that are all the time sacrificing their lives for the nation so they should be very careful and mindful of such attributes and spontaneity of broadcasting the availability and passiveness for the penetration and receptiveness of radio and television.
“And most importantly, the media power of sourcing information. Broadcasting is simultaneous in nature. Therefore, we can reach millions of people at the same time, some of the recipients because they don’t question the integrity and challenge of whatever is transmitted to the media. This idea has been around the NBC that is the National Broadcasting Commission is tasked with the responsibility of regulating the broadcast industry”, he said.
He said that “the Commission deals with this information and ensures that broadcast content is in conformity with the national interest, public interest, national demands of public security; he believes in morality and also public health”.
“That means as a broadcaster you have a very heavy responsibility. There is a massive quantity over that which undermines the continued existence of our generation is driven definitely by AB Tech. Therefore, this workshop is timely and most recommended against in-trade media professionals and practitioners, particularly content creators, on how best to produce content by military actions in order to change negative narratives” he explained.
Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer, of Zakclair Investment Limited, Adebayo Abdulrazak says there has been step-by-step collaboration with the office of the Chief of Defence Staff and Zakclair Investment Limited towards building a robust relationship between the military and the media.
He implored all participants and stakeholders to take advantage of the workshop and its recommendations to move the country forward.
The workshop had many dignitaries, resource persons and participants in attendance.
Dominica Nwabufo
