Media Should Be Guided By  Principles Of Social Responsibility -Maj. Gen Kevin Aligbe 

By Chris Akhabue

The  Nigerian Army in conjunction with Security Affairs Limited  have  sought the cooperation of the Social Media lnfluencers and Online Bloggers on the need to educate the general public on dangers of misinformation and fake news syndrome.

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt – Gen Faruk Yahaya, who was  represented by the Chief of Civil- Military Affairs, Major General Markus Kangye, stated this yesterday,  in Benin-City, the  Edo State  capital, during the 22nd Edition of the Social Media Seminar.

The Seminar with the theme, “The Nigerian Army’s Non-Kinetic Lines of Operation: Critical Roles of the Social Media”, is aimed at Strengthening the Nigerian Army’s Civil- Military Cooperation and curbing the menace of fake news syndrome.

In his opening address, Maj Gen Markus Kangye observed that the  Seminar was an avenue to interact with the civil populace to foster a harmonious and cordial civil-military relations.

In his speech, Major General Kangye said, ”  the social media seminar is one of the several ways the military seeks to interact with the civil populace in order to forster civil- military cooperation and to rob minds and find ways to curb the social menace of insecurity as we all have roles to play in the promotion of peace and security in our nation.”

” what we say and the way we say it and how it is spread on the social media has a far reaching implications on the country’s security environment

Social media plays a crucial role in promoting peace and shaping public opinions”.

He said that in a bid to forster civil-military cooperation, the Military in 2010, established the department of  Civil Military Affairs which has carried out a lot of skills acquisition programmes as part of its corporate social responsibility aimed at winning the hearts and minds as well as bridging perceived gaps between the Nigeria Army and the Civil populace.

” In the last five years, the military has carried out more than one thousand impact related Civil- Military projects across the country aimed at bridging the gap between the military and the Civil populace while also projecting the image of the military.”

He observed that social media is the domain of modern warfare, a veritable tool to influence and shape  public opinions and therefore advice  media houses and social media influencers and bloggers to refrain from headlines and reportage which tend to undermine the efforts of the military in fighting insurgency and general insecurity, stressing that such acts give credence and boost the moral of the perpetrators to commit more crimes

In his remarks, Major General Kelvin Aligbe advised media to be guided by the principles of social responsibility stressing that disparaging remarks and statements about the military in social media is unpatriotic.

He further  said” patriotism must be strengthened by inculcating the right values in the citizens right from the cradle, because inculcating the right values will increase patriotism which has a multiplier effects that would go a long way to mitigate incidences of insurgency and terrorism”.

He said  it is difficult to determine when insurgency will come to an end in a country,  stressing that nobody can put a terminal date on insurgency, but at a point there are bound to be reversal of trajectory of narratives as already seen by the mass surrendering of Boko Haram insurgents in Nigeria.

On his part, Brig Gen EF Oyinlola who delivered a speech on the topic,” Leveraging the Social Media as a  Non-Kinetic Tool in Joint Operations Environment Imperative of Civil- Military Cooperation ” he said before a Journalist publishes his or her story, the person should ask the vital question,” who does this story benefits?  Is it the individual, the terrorists or the state or who does the story injures at the end of the day?

He therefore advised that responsible headlines should be adopted in such a way as not to glamorise the insurgents but to be done in a way that portrays us as  taking sides with the state, he concluded.