The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Tukuru Buratai has asked media practitioners in the country to stop vilifying the personnel of the Nigerian Army through their reports.
Buratai who was speaking at a 2 Day Civil-Media-Military Relations Summit organized for journalists practicing in the Southeastern part of the country accused both print and broadcast media journalists of choosing to paint the Nigerian Armed Forces negatively than positively before their audience.
The COAS who was represented by the Chief Training and Operations Officer, Nigerian Army, Major-General Eno Obong Udoh while noting that an organization like the Nigerian Army cannot rule out bad eggs amongst its personnel accused the media of demoralizing the moral of the military who he said stake their lives to keep the country safe.
“How can you be vilifying the same people that are staking their lives and their troops everyday and actually paying the Supreme price for you? How can you be vilifying them every day?
“Some people will just sit down on television holding discussions only about the Nigerian Army, thinking that they will win awards for doing so.
“This (summit) is a great and historic occasion that will hopefully create the awareness of what the Nigerian Armed Forces and all the security agencies are doing in this country to curb the mirage of security threats that is facing this nation so that there can be development in our great nation; so that Nigeria can be as great as it is supposed to be.
“In 2007-2008, our oil production level was only 700 barrels per day; who has forgotten that? Today, people are saying, why should Nigerian Army defend pipeline? Is it because we are not producing? Is it because we are not producing 2.2million barrel and above per day? Or should we go back to 700 barrels per day?
“Not too long, bombs were exploding in the whole Abuja, even UN (United Nations) building was hit. Today because of the efforts of the Nigerian Army and other security agencies, nothing of such is happening again. Only some days back, the UN building was opened and people now have the atmosphere to sit down and keep on vilifying the same people that made this possible and one of those offenders is the media; the greatest offender, this is because you (media) shape the public opinion.
“The media is the one who is emphasizing on the casualties of the Nigerian Army as against the casualties of the Boko Haram, bandits and so on. You are the one, writing and supporting them unwittingly through your publications and by so doing, demoralizing the moral of the troops. The media forgot that they should be the one raising the moral of the troops who have put their lives on the line. The media is the greatest offender and this historic event is not just for Atilogwu Udo, it is to correct the wrong impression or perception that we spread in our media; that the Nigerian Army is against the people.
“Even right here, from the contributions that have been made, it shows that many people are still in doubt as to the fact that the Nigerian Army is the people’s Army.
“The Nigerian Army is rightly the pride of this nation because without the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Armed Forces, this nation would have gone down since; it is the Nigerian Armed Forces that made it possible for us to remain as one from the Civil War till today.
“That we are not fighting civil war today, does that give you the right to publish all sort of negativities against the Nigerian Army, instead of praising them and encouraging them in your publications? Do you know that by your very publications, you are working against the national security? This is because you shape the public opinion and what you say about your Army matters a lot. Please, take this home to your colleagues, that what you say about the Nigerian Army that you are paying with your own money in demoralizing.
“I am sure that nobody here will deliberately want to be supporting criminals, but you are doing so unwittingly with your publication daily which is mostly anti-national development. We can see it on televisions, they will only sit to discuss about the Nigerian Army, saying all sort of things.
“The time has come for the media (not just because of Atilogwu Udo) to realize that the Nigerian Army is your own army and there is every reason to be proud of the Nigerian Army. The media should encourage the Nigerian Army, they should encourage those soldiers who are acting on your behalf. These set of people have sacrifice their sleep so that you can sleep at night and you (media) don’t recognize that.
“Please, Nigerian Media, have a rethink. Help us to do the work that we are doing for you and the entire Nigeria professionally. You should stop vilifying us (Army) through your publications.”
Speaking on the internal mechanism to check the excesses of its personnel even as various operations are going on across the six geo-political zones of the country, Udoh said “I want to inform you that we have our mechanism for dealing with acts of indiscipline. You will agree with me that an organization as a large as the Nigerian Army has the chances of having the bad eggs in it. Just like the issue of Ibii in Taraba State where some bad eggs maybe in collaboration with the state police did what they did and the media in Nigerian portrayed the story as if it was the Nigerian Army that sent those soldiers to do what they did.
“No disciplined organization like the Nigerian Army will send its personnel to do that kind of thing. We also have what we call Exercise checkmate which is to checkmate the activities of our men on the road even during this Exercise Atilogwu Udo. We have equally arrested some undisciplined soldiers who stand on the road to extort money from motorists. We don’t tolerate that.
“Inspite of all the vilification, we have continued to carry out our duties and we are seeking the support of the media to help us to do so.
“We are not against the people of this area. The same exercise here is going on in other parts of the country. It is just that we try to adopt the name that suits each region or AOR. It is the same thing that we have done in the North Central and any other place. The difference is just the names, but the same exercise.
“We are not targeting any peace loving citizen, but the criminals and I want to say that the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) has received commendations from many people in this area about this exercise because the exercises have provided the enabling environment for our brothers in the Diaspora to come home and celebrate with us and also invest their money. It is unprecedented.
“When they come home, they will get kidnapped because the kidnappers believe that they came back with a lot of money. But the media has kept vilifying us and have faced us with their negative reports.
“The entire objective of this exercise is positive; to allow everyone celebrate this festivity in peace, not in pieces.
“During this exercise, we conduct sanitation exercises. We hold both medical and Educational outreaches. As we speak, we have road construction for this exercise in 7 places and also engage in other things that we can do for the people to know that we are indeed, the people’s army.
“In addition to our interest in improving civil-military relationship, we are conducting this exercise with other sister security agencies. We are doing it because every other security agency has their constitutional mandates. The police will carry out the mandate of police, Road Safety will carry out the mandate of the Road Safety, Civil Defence which is responsible for protecting critical national infrastructure and others to carry out these responsibilities very well and together, we will secure the entire region.
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“I want to implore you; the media to please know that we are your army; we are not your enemies. Please, stop projecting us as your enemies. It is your money that is being used to pay and keep us in order to secure you not as your enemies. Please let us have a rethink. The Nigerian Army is asking you to stop the negative reports, but to see the good side of what we are doing in your interest which is in the overall interest of this nation.”
