Abuja – Dr Tonnie Iredia, Former Director-General, Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), has stressed the need for synergy and dialogue between security agencies and the media in the bid to rid the country of terrorists.
Iredia said this in his paper at a one-day seminar on “Do the Right Thing: Close The Security Gaps’’ Role of the Media in Security Reporting in Nigeria, organised by the National Orientation Agency (NOA) on Thursday in Abuja.
He said “we have entered into a changing phase and because the phase is changing, we all must change our approach and begin to seek ways and means of changing the old order of despairing to the new order of dialoguing.
“We must dialogue on how to build and sustain collaboration between the different actors and their strategies in the fight against terrorism.’’
He said that the goal of the media was to serve the society “but the media cannot serve the society under a period of insecurity.’’
The former NTA boss added that all the media wanted was a secure society and stressed the need for military operatives in the fight against insurgency in the country to build strong relationship with the media in order to get the right information disseminated to Nigerians.
He advised the security agencies to recognise the enormous influence which t the media could have on its work , noting that without the media, it would be difficult for security to get the cooperation of the people.
On his part, Mr Lawrence Alobi, former Commissioner of Police in the FCT, said the media and security agencies were established to work for the good of the society so they should work together to achieve this goal.
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Alobi, who also stressed the need for cooperation between the media and security agencies, said “we must realise that we are not competing at all; we must collaborate to make Nigeria a better place for all.’’
Brig.-Gen. Rodgers Nicholas, the Chief of Civil Military Affairs of the Nigerian Army, said that the gap between security agencies and the media was being cemented through seminars and conferences.
He explained that it was the synergy among security agencies that enhanced their operations in the North-East.
Mr Abdulwaheed Odusile, the National President, Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), said “everybody expect so much from the media but nothing is given to media as people don’t bother about what happens to the media.’’
He noted that journalists were also member s of the same society “and if the society is bad, it will not have a good media.
“The society needs to change what it expects its media to do for it and that also goes to the security agencies which must also collaborate and have confidence in the media to enable it to inform the people accurately and objectively.
Mr Mike Omeri, the Director-General of NOA, said that the seminar was aimed at raising the bar in understanding and synergy between security agencies and media practitioners .
Omeri said the seminar was also organised to put national interest on the front burner of all media reports.
“It was therefore imperative that all stakeholders remain in constant collaboration to strengthen all security frontiers as we support President Muhammadu Buhari and the military to meet the December 2015 deadline. (NAN)