By Emmanuel Onwubiko
Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai is a hard core
military officer with some impressive academic laurels. He is reputed to have
garnered good enough battle fields’ credentials which in the first instance qualified
him for the top job in what is regarded as the biggest Army in Africa.
But he has also shown dexterity for effective media and
public communication. The Nigerian Army runs an open and an accessible media
department. Nigeria is blessed also with highly trained professional media
workers. I must therefore state that there is a working synergy between the
media and the Army. This active partnership intensified with the coming of the
current Army Chief of Staff.
As the head of the Nigerian Army at a time of tumultuous
national security challenge thrown at us by the armed boko haram terrorists, he
has not shied away from leading the battle from the war front. Wherever he
goes, the media is kept abreast of the progress of the war on terror in line with
the Freedom of information Act of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
On one of his many visits to the flashpoints of the war
on terror in the North East of Nigeria, he was quoted in the media as throwing
some words of caution to the media practitioners on the need to exercise
professional caution and play the social responsibility role as the conscience
of the nation in total compliance with the section 22 of the constitution of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It is notorious that section 22 of the Nigerian
constitution provides as follows: “The press, radio, television and other
agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental
objectives contained in this chapter and to uphold the responsibility and
accountability of the government to the people”.
As a public officer abreast of these noble roles
assigned to the media, the chief of Army staff as I said, challenged the media
practitioners to ensure that the terrorists unleashing devastating destructions
and violence on the Nigerian state are not made social celebrities through
generous reportage of their dare-devil activities.
The Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, urged the
Nigerian press to stop using “glorifying” titles while addressing the Boko
Haram insurgents.
Buratai, a Lieutenant General, said addressing the
insurgents with titles like ISWAP, or JAS only glorifies and gives them “undue
publicity.”
He said calling the insurgents such names “has further
boosted the image of the criminal gang thus assuming larger than life status.”
Buratai made the plea in Maiduguri while visiting troops
in the North-east.
Speaking through the acting Director Army Public
Relation, Sagir Musa, the army chief said “it is wrong for any person to
eulogize or support murderers, bandits and armed robbers that the known Boko
Haram terrorists group has turned into.
“Consequently, referring to such gang of criminals,
bandits, insurgents such as Boko Haram Terrorists Group, JAS or ISWAP in
Nigeria could amount to supporting or encouraging terrorism.”
His words: “the Chief of Army Staff said that it is also
important to note that the mode of operation of these elements is pure
criminality for personal gains.
“It is common knowledge that the criminals no longer
pretend to be championing any cause other than quest for materialism as
manifested in murder and terror on hapless people.”
He said Gen. Buratai had pleaded that “as peace loving
people, Nigerians should not be glorifying these criminals by calling them by
any name other than “criminals,” “rapists,” “kidnappers”, “armed robbers” and
“murderers.”
“Unfortunately, many Nigerians are not aware that giving
prominence to the criminal activities of the terrorists group through
sensational headlines and fake news in both electronic and print media could
also amount to tacit support to terrorism which violates the Terrorism
Prevention Act 2011.
“It is therefore important that all Nigerians to rally
round our gallant troops as they fight these criminals. All should know that
the support to the efforts of the Armed Forces of Nigeria in the counter
terrorism efforts would boost their morale and it will be highly appreciated.
“The Nigerian Army is asking for the continued
understanding and cooperation of all Nigerians and well-meaning people.”
There is no gain saying the obvious that these
observations by the top military officer is a reality that the media managers
must confront with the zeal that it requires so as not to endanger the nation’s
national security interests.
The observations have also come at a time a certain
vexatious glamorization of the terrorists occurred in some sections of the media.
This has to do with a report that went viral to the
effect that the boko haram terrorists have signified their intention to bomb South
African interests to teach the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa a lesson
on why he must not encourage xenophobic violence against Nigerians and other
blacks living in South Africa by black South Africans.
The purveyors of these sorts of tainted story may have
set out to confer undue high profile status on boko haram terrorists and to
rubbish the current Nigerian government over what is perceived as a weak
response to the cocktails of xenophobic attacks against other blacks by black
South Africans.
Ironically, this substantial fake news trended alongside
another tendentious and unsubstantiated rumor of the bombing of the south
African embassy in Abuja circulated resulting in the intervention by the
Nigerian government which rightly showed that the video been circulated was
from the scene of the previous bomb attack some years back at the Barnex plaza
vicinity in Wuse 2, Abuja.
In effect, what it implies for the media to continue to
give generous coverage to the terrorists in glamourizing characteristic is what
Robert Greene spoke about in the Number 7 law of powers of his book on the laws
of powers thus: “Get others to do the work for you, but always take the
credit”.
It therefore goes without further debate to stress that
if the media glamour created by the media for the terrorists is not checked it
means that terrorists have used the media to reap the advantage of this number
7 law as enunciated by the journalist Mr. Robert Greene.
However, we must pause and ask the hard question whether
this glamorization of the activities of boko haram terrorists is a deliberate
ploy to undermine national security.
As a media practitioner myself, and after over two
decades on the job, I must emphatically state that the Nigerian media does not
have any deliberate agenda to destabilize national security.
I must state that the media in a lot of occasions, have
actually demonstrated the highest sense of national duty to the truth just as
the observance of the virtue of objectivity, balance and adherence to the truth
in news reporting, is the guiding principle of many national media houses that
I know. And I know so many.
Another question to ask is if the pursuit for commercial
profits may have influenced the texture, color and sometimes sensational
headlines the media manager gives to stories on the terror activities of boko
haram in the last ten years unknowingly.
To this question, I will refer to the authoritative
media book by Dan F. Hahn titled: “Political Communication; Rhetoric,
Government and Citizens”.
The author is of the opinion that media houses are in
business essentially to make profit in as much as they are ethically guided to
adhere to their social responsibility duty to the nation in which they operate.
He wrote that the media are biased towards what makes
money.
“The commercial media exist to make money for the
owners. Like any business they do what they must to make. Political ideologues
who assume media personnel are in the business of “selling” political positions
misunderstands the business in which media owners and practitioners are
engaged. What media really do is sell their readers and viewers to their advertisers.
The more readers or viewers they have, the more they charge for an ad. That
means they have to keep the public happy, which they cannot do if they are too
obviously political”.
The author also examined this commercial theme governing
the running of media industry as follows: “Their commercial nature favors
whatever will make money and leads to at least two deleterious effects that
have political consequences—trivialization and a conflict orientation”
Citing the well-respected Peter J. Boyer, the author of Who
Killed CBS, a book about the history of the CBS News Division, the
author was quick to remind us that the pursuit of profits as the essence of
media business makes it stronger to attribute the trivialization of the news to
the money-seeking nature of television.
He argues that when the big corporations took over the
television networks, one of the first changes was to order that the news
divisions, which always had been partially subsidized by the entertainment
divisions, hence forth would have to pay for themselves. To meet that demands
the news divisions “weapons agreements gave way to coverage of Zsa Zsa’s
misdemeanor assault trial”.
He reminds us also that: “Another major effect of the
moneymaking demand on media is a focus on conflict to the detriment of the
search for truth."
He quoted Deborah Tannen, professor of linguistics at
Georgetown University and the author of You Just
Don’t Understand, as having
successfully explained this thesis in a recent article.
She claims that in our society there is a fundamental
belief that truth emerges from opposition. That too applies to our
climes.
Delving further on the underlying commercial interest
behind media business, the author reminds us that Deborah Tannen said that
orientation of essentially focusing on profits may explain why we place so much
faith in debate.
But, Dan Hahn stated that as Tannen points out, the
media—as moneymaking institutions—do not seek out the most reasonable and
informed partisans to represent the two sides.
Rather, he said they often choose and air extreme views
to satisfy the audience’s predilection for “watching a fight”.
"Two problems, then: (1) the truth may not
emerge from the clash of the two sides, because there may actually be four or
five or twenty sides, and (2) even if the truth is there someplace, in what
Tannen calls the “complex middle” rather than in the “simplified extremists who
were brought together to produce steam for ratings rather than light for
decision-making.”
But to be candid, the position of Lieutenant General
Tukur Yusuf Buratai is not far from the sacred task and duty that the
constitution imposes on the media to balance their pursuit for profits
viz-a-viz the need to safeguard national security interest which section 22 of
the Nigerian Constitution has clearly espoused.
The media must play the role of agenda setting mechanics
of the nation state.
Also the overwhelming demand of the greatest number of
Nigerians is that the Army be supported to very rapidly restore stability to
national security.
This isn't too much to demand from the media.
I hereby second the motion by General Buratai that the
media plays the role of key stakeholders in the protection of our national
security interest.
*Emmanuel Onwubiko heads Human Rights Writers
Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and blogs@www.huriwa.blogspot.
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