AJIMOBI STRESSES MILITARY-MEDIA PARTNERSHIP OVER BOKO HARAM

Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State has stressed the need for the military and the media to partner over the insurgency ravaging some parts of the country.

According to him, the relationship would make nationalism to be the major consideration in reporting of the insurgency which is ravaging some states in the Northern part of the country.

The governor spoke at an interactive session on Civil Society Organizations-Military Relations in Nigeria with the theme: ``Consolidating Civil-Military Relations for Improved National Security’’ held at the 2 Mechanized Division of the Nigerian Army, Ibadan on Monday.

Ajimobi, who expressed concern over what he called unfavorable and unpleasant media opinions and news reporting which he said had affected military morale and operations, said that a partnership between the two would change this tone of reporting.

Consequently, he stressed the urgent need for a definition of the relationship between the military and the media as a sub-set of the civil public.

According to him, the relationship between the military and the media has become necessary, as it will lead to training media practitioners on constructive and nationalistic news reporting. 

``The media stands to play a very great role in the process of dialogue between the military and civil society on civil-military relations. Since the advent of these insurgents, there is no doubt that some unfavorable and unpleasant media opinions and news reporting have affected military morale and even operations.

``That is why the relationship between the military and the media will lead to training media practitioners on constructive and nationalistic news reporting.

``Apart from the fact that knowledge of the precarious nature of the insurgency would shape media reportage of the bloodletting from a national perspective, rather than a sensational one, dialoguing with the media would make its practitioners see security issues from their proper perspective, rather than the usual journalistic quest for bad stories that are good stories.

``This will effectively tame influences of judgment on the insurgency which are most times driven by ethnicity, religion, inaccuracy and plain mischief,’’ he said.

While acknowledging the strategic role being played by the media in the formation of opinions by the people on national and international issues, the governor said the media thus needed to be brought into the nature of the challenges posed to the territorial integrity of the nation by the rampaging insurgents who had made bloodletting their pastime. 

Governor Ajimobi noted that the Nigerian nation was facing dire security challenges at the moment, stressing that the onslaught of Boko Haram insurgents in some parts of the North had posed a serious threat to the survival and continuous existence of the nation.

``The Nigerian military has so far successfully contained and repelled the advancement of this needless insurgency but at very great cost to its officers and men.

``Being a recent development in Nigerian civil/military relations, the two civil/military publics must take into consideration these challenges, as well as the roles expected to be played by both parties in this most recent national threat,’’ he said.

Governor Ajimobi recalled that during the long years of military rule, the relationship between the civil and military publics was mutually hostile and full of suspicion against each other.

``While the military saw the civilian public as responsible for the decay of the Nigerian nation, as epitomized by the hard knock it always gives the civil elite in its take-over speeches, the latter held the military responsible for the ills that have plagued the nation and held her backwards in her decades of existence.

``The refrain in discourses of long military rule was that if the military had allowed the civilians to tumble and fumble on the way of democratic governance, Nigeria would have been closer to the democratic Eldorado sought by the nation. The mutual antagonism and no-love-lost relationship between the two was therefore expected.

This, he said, was worsened by the fact that the civil public had little or no knowledge about the military institution or even security matters.

He, however, added that the civil rule of the last 14 years had redrawn the map of that relationship, adding ``it is daily occurring to the two publics that they need each other to move the nation forward and engender peace in the nation’’.

Governor Ajimobi also said that his administration had been partnering with the military towards ensuring peace and order in Oyo State, assuring that his government would continue on the path of good governance.

The Chief of Civil-Military Affairs, Major-Gen. Bola Koleoso reiterated the commitment of the military towards the harmonious relationship between the Nigerian army and the public in order to make the country a safer place for Nigerians and foreigners alike to live in and do legitimate businesses.

The Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika described the interactive session as unique as it would provide a veritable platform for the military to interface with Nigerians to foster better understanding and help the Nigerian army to fulfill its constitutional role.