… AS NASPRI HOLDS AN ANNUAL MEDIA WORKSHOP
By Okosun Dennis
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Faruk Yahaya, has once again, stressed the importance of mutual understanding and support among various security agencies to deal with emerging security problems in the country.
While declaring opened a three-day Media Workshop organised by the Nigerian Army School of Public and Information (NASPRI) at the 81 Division Officers’ Mess, Marina, Lagos on Monday, noted that the ability to surmount security challenges is solely based on mutual support from the security agencies.
Represented by the 81 Division Garrison Commander, Brig Gen Nasiru Nagidada, emphasized the need to support the military towards entrenching sustainable peace and security in the country.
In his opening remarks, the COAS was of the view that “Today’s security environment is characterized by several security challenges, such as insurgency, armed banditry, separatist agitations,’ kidnapping amongst other contemporary challenges.
“It is important to note that the ability to surmount these security challenges depends solely on mutual support among various security agencies playing their unique roles while confronting the ugly trends.
“This important gathering is to remind us that the Nigeria Army in particular and the Armed Forces, in general, relies on the support of other relevant security agencies for them to perform their statutory roles as enshrined in the constitution.
“It is pertinent to note that through effective synergy amongst the military and other security agencies with media as partners, we have commendably recorded a lot of successes in joint operations.
While calling for synergy, Gen Yahaya advocated that it should be aggressively sustained so that our respective mandates could be holistically dissected to complement, create the understanding of our various constitutional roles towards achieving peace and security.
“This would in the long-term create a peaceful environment where law-abiding citizens could go about their businesses without fear or intimidation,” Gen Yahaya reiterated.
Commending the timeliness of the Media Workshop with the theme “Enhancing Inter-Agency Collaboration in Internal Security Operations: Exploring the Public Relations and Media Perspectives,” the army boss added that the achievement of peace is the collective responsibility of all citizens of our great nation, reiterating that the “Nigerian Army remains highly committed to her constitutional role of defending the nation and as well encourage her democratic stability.”
To that end, he pledged his full support to the civil authority in whatever capacity that guarantees the protection of our citizens and their properties which is considered the only panacea for development and progress in the country.
“We remain resolute in expending all resources at our disposal to ensure that elements of subversion, criminals and other enemies of the state do not succeed in destabilizing our great nation and would cooperate fully with the personnel of other security agencies to achieve that goal.
On discipline, he admonished officers to be disciplined, dedicated and shun any act of cowardice but would continue to build the capacity of our personnel through training of this kind both at home and abroad.
On the importance of the workshop, the COAS stressed that the workshop has the capability of generating new ideas that would uphold the narrative which would continue to garner public support for the armed forces in an effort geared towards improving national security.
He urged the participants to take advantage of the knowledge and ideas gathered to ensure that all forms of criminal activities that constitute a threat to national cohesion are stamped out through effective information sharing and reportage across the board.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Commandant, Nigerian Army School of Public Relations and Information (NASPRI), Col Aliyu Yusuf said that the theme was carefully selected in consonance with the Chief of Army Staff’s vision which is to have “A professional Nigerian Army Ready to Accomplish Assigned Missions in a Joint Environment in Defence of Nigeria.”
Acknowledging the fact that there were too many unnecessary rivalries in the preceding year among security agencies during operations, he added that such practice must not be allowed to fester.
In his contribution to the lecture on “Contemporary Security Challenges: Changing the Narrative Through the use of New Media”, delivered by Prof Samaila Mande, of the Centre for Human Resources Development, National Open University of Nigeria, (NOUN), the President of Online Publishers, Dotun Oladipo, called on the military to embed Public Relations Officers into the newsroom to be conversant with the operations of the newsroom.
In addition, he recommended targeted training for media handlers of the military on the use of social media advising that they should explore the advanced technology in social media use.
On his part, the former Director, Defence Information (DDI), Maj Gen Chris Olukolade (retd) observed that Inter-Agency rivalry has been an age-long brouhaha but there are different approaches to resolving such conundrum.
While soliciting for political intervention to resolve it, explaining that attempts to resolve such have always been at the focal point of the military hence they open their training institutions to other security agencies to cement camaraderie.
He concluded that a workshop like this brings public relations officers of sister agencies that would help resolve the rough edges. He recommended that “we should build friendship across security agencies to deal with the crisis.”
Present at the workshop included senior and retired army officers including the former Director, Defence Information (DDI) and one-time Director, Army Public Relations, Brig-Gen Fred Chijuka (retd).
The Media Workshop is an annual event that holds at the end of every year’s training cycle of NASPRI, the hub of military public relations training school in Sub-Saharan Africa with the main objective of discussing contemporary media/security issues.
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