Army Headquarters, Department of Civil military Affairs today held the Second Quarter 2023 Civil Military Media Chat (CIMIC) at Crispan Hotel, Jos Plateau with the theme “Media as a critical Tool in Addressing Insecurity in Nigeria”
The Department of Civil-Military Affairs was commended for the initiative and noble gesture, which, according to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Col. Faruk Yahaya CFR, who was represented by Major General Abdulsalami Ibrahim, GOC 3 Division, said will further foster better collaboration with the media.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Faruk Yahaya, has a core vision for a professional Nigerian Army that is ready to complete assigned missions in a joint environment for Nigeria’s defense. He emphasized the need for stronger collaboration to combat the fake news epidemic.
Maj Gen MG Kangye, Chief of Civil Military Affairs in his remark stated that the civil military affairs was established
6th Dec 2010 to foster civil military relation activities.
The department seek to achieve this through impasse civil military cooperations
“The event is organize every quarter inline with the Nigerian army’s drive towards keeping the media informed of it’s civil military cooperation and civil military relation activities, also an avenue for creating rooms and proving timely and accurate information inline with global practice”
“Since the formation of the civil military affairs department issues relating to alleged human rights violations and abuses by troops, counter terrorism and counter insurgence operations has been on a declined”.
“Thus, statistic shows that there is a drastic reduction in litigation cases involving Nigerian personnels in recent times”
Furthermore, Maj Gen Kangye reiterate that the department of the Civil military affairs also conduct social media Seminars which serves as avenues for interaction with social media influencers and bloggers, human rights groups, online journalist and civil society organizations among others, this is to curtail fake news and rumors about the Nigerian Army operational activities along the both the kinetic and non kinetic lines of operation.
The Guest Speaker, Emmanuel Ogbeche, Chairman of Council, NUJ FCT speaking on the lecture topic “The Media and National Security: Partners for Development” reiterated the fact that the media and security agencies need to work together and understand each other’s core functions and duties in order to safeguard national interests and security
The media plays an important role in national security by functioning as a watchdog capable of calling attention to serious national issues, and creating a healthy relationship with the security agencies is vital to achieving public safety, protection of economic interests, and political stability, Nigerian media is facing threats and is ranked poorly
Furthermore, he suggested that the collaboration between the media and military is important for safeguarding national interest and security in Nigeria, and this requires capacity building, access, and a common ground to have a society that works for everyone, defining the above point as Building capacity, building bridges
The media chat had a panel discussion as well, and participants were tasked with being honest, impartial, and prioritizing the national interest over primitive impulses. They were urged to support the military organization in achieving its overarching goal of preserving the nation’s territorial integrity.
The event was well attended to by military personnel, media professionals, Journalist and many others.
