The Nigerian Army has warned citizens to be security
conscious and extra vigilant as the Christmas and New
Year celebrations approaches
The warning was from the Director of the Army Public
Relations, Sani Usman, who made the call at the Inaugural
Annual Lecture of Class 1992 Alumni of Mass
Communication Department of Bayero University Kano
(BUK) this weekend
Usman made the remarks while delivering a paper titled
“Crisis Communication for security Consciousness- A
Case Study of Nigeria.”
Usman encouraged Nigerians not to rely only on security
agencies for protection but should play their own role by
being security conscious and provide useful information to
the authorities.
He said: “With the kind of intelligence we receive regularly
from the military and security operatives, the citizens need
to be proactive and security conscious while the media
intensify campaign on same.
“Internal security challenge is not a problem unique to
Nigeria. The US, UK, France and many other countries,
face similar challenges within their borders on daily basis.
The difference between these countries and ours is the
management of threats by the government and the
citizenry, how knowledgeable they are, how patriotic and
united their citizens are against threats of insecurity and
crisis.
“The countries are never divided on political, ethical,
religion or professional ground when the interest of the
nation is the subject. These cushion the effects of these
crises on their national security and image. The fact
therefore is that if Nigerians hope to build a nation of good
brand, they have to work for it. It is at a time like this that
all patriots must rise to the occasion and place the
interest of the country above every other consideration.
“The media need to mobilize people during crisis as a
cardinal element of national security effort. They have a
duty to enlighten the public on the true situation in
national war effort to guarantee national security. The
report must focus on national unifying factors,
emphasising the desired end state of the Armed Forces,
which is to safeguard public good.
“In the on-going war on terror for example, the media
must focus on atrocities of Boko Haram Terrorists (BHT),
the monumental humanitarian crisis and promote efforts of
the Nigerian Army and other security agencies in bringing
the carnage to an end. This outweighs narrow compulsions
of local and international media houses and individual
reporters.”
Usman, a colonel and alumni of the BUK mass
communication department, commended the organisers of
the lecture, while praising the school for being crisis-free
and cult-free.