Senator Iroegbu The Nigerian Army has warned that fake news threatens the country’s national security and downplays the counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency efforts against Boko Haram terrorists and similar groups across the country. This was the highlight of the Monday’s combined Directorate of Army Public Relations (DAPR)/Nigerian Army School of Public Relations and Information (NASPRI) Media…
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Senator Iroegbu
The Nigerian Army has warned that fake news threatens the country’s national security and downplays the counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency efforts against Boko Haram terrorists and similar groups across the country.
This was the highlight of the Monday’s combined Directorate of Army Public Relations (DAPR)/Nigerian Army School of Public Relations and Information (NASPRI) Media Workshop and Study Period in Lagos
for Commanding Officers, Army Public Relations Officers, Defense Correspondents and other media P
Practitioners with the theme: Fake News as Threat to National Security: The Way Forward” .
Speaking at the event, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 82 Division, Nigerian Army, Maj-Gen. Musa Yusuf, noted that the focus of the workshop is timely, since its coming at a time Nigeria grappling with a number of security challenges.
Yusuf said that this will help the nation to gain mileage against fake news in “collective resolve to bring the situation under control”.
“May I also quickly add that some unpatriotic activities of our country men and women have downplayed the level of success we have recorded in our operations is worrisome. More disturbing is their resolve to churn out fake news in a desperate attempt to supplant our narrative. This situation has played out particularly in the new media environment, must be stopped if our narrative in and out of theater is to be sustained. Let me also add that, fake news has eaten deep into all spheres of our national lives as such we must collectively put a stop to it,” he said.
Yusuf urged critical stakeholders in the fight against fake news to “see this as a clarion call to our social responsibility to halt this ugly trend. I also want to urge you to discredit fake news in our society and engender positive narratives that will lead to national cohesion and unity”.
To this end, the Director of Army Public Relations (DAPR), Brig-Gen. Sani Usman, urged the public relations practitioners in the Nigerian Army to embrace their “great role in making the public understand and support the Army as it confronts these security challenges”.
Usman said the assignment is critical to the public perception and image of the Nigerian Army, and they would therefore be required to develop, implement and monitor operational and tactical communication strategies and provide timely advice to all levels of command within the Nigerian Army.
For you to meet up with these duties, he said, you must keep abreast with contemporary development in the field of public relations, this could be attained through training such as this.
The Army Spokesperson said the Directorate has evolved the use of the social media to tell the Nigerian Army’s story and also listen through interaction and gauging feedbacks from the public.
“It is heartwarming to note that the response from the public have been quite encouraging. However, a new development associated with this phenomenon is the issue of inaccurate reporting of events that often graduate to sheer fabrication or fake news. It is on this premise that this media workshop and study period tends to focus on fake news,” he said.
Usman defined fake news, as a misconception and misrepresentation of issues as it affect our operations and other military activities when not properly addressed, it hampers our operational activities and demoralize our troops.
He further tasked the participants on the need to engage the public by telling “our story rightly”, noting thay DAPR is also mindful of the risks associated with fake news hence the need to set aside this training period to help their personnel understand how to liaise with the media and present the true situation of event as they occur.
Also speaking, the Commandant of NASPRI, Col. Mustapha Anka, said that “fake news has become an issue of national concern and indeed a menace which if not addressed at its infant stage can pose great threat to the security of our dear country Nigeria”.
Anka emphasized in the works of Dr.Ugoji Egbujo who described fake news as “a potential weapon of mass destruction, having the stubbornness and ruthlessness of a Californian wild fire”.
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