The maiden Media and Security Summit, organized by the Arewa Broadcast Media Practitioners Forum in collaboration with the Kebbi State Government, with the theme: “THE NORTH: EXISTENTIAL THREATS AND NATIONAL SECURITY”, has ended in Birnin Kebbi.
The summit was attended by media owners, media professionals and practitioners as well as veterans from Northern Nigeria that focuses on issues affecting the region and the broadcast industry
The Summit calls on the Northern Nigeria governments and all stakeholders to confront the issues of insecurity, Food insecurity, Climate Change and rejuvenating the healthcare system in the region.
This was contained in a communique issued at the end of the summit and jointly signed by the chairman communique drafting committee, Zubairu Abdulrauf, Hassan Kera and Shuaibu Mungadi.
It noted with concern,the multi dimensional security challenges and poverty in the North,and called for unity and understanding among the diverse ethnic religious groups in the country to confront the menace of insecurity.
It equally observed that lack of Good Governance and disregard for the rule of law have been identified as the reasons for existential threats to security in the North. The Participants also called for a strengthened partnership between governments and institutions towards accountability and to hold the perpetrators of terrorism justice as the foundation of addressing the security challenges.
The meeting agreed that the synergy between the media and civil society organizations is one of the strongest collaborations that will help the fight against corruption because the CSOs are knowledge based and the media have the platform and the audience to get across information to aid the fight against corruption.
The Participants also recognized the role of traditional institution and religious leaders to mold the society towards reorientation for the revitalization of family value system to address issues of Insecurity, and recognized the need for recruitment of more security personnel, training as well as provision of modern warfare equipment to address insecurity in the region.
The Communique further noted that the fight against insurgency is not only on the battle field but in communication and media space through the use of propaganda and hate speech, particularly in the social media calling for responsive journalism in both conventional and social media as agenda setting to promote diversity and national core value agenda
It also advised governments to forge and define clear roles for traditional authorities in governance to enhance mechanism of conflict resolution and peace building through intelligence channel and information sharing.
Regarding the current community initiatives of peace negotiations with the bandits and terrorists elements the Communique condemned the ‘compromise peace deal’ (Sasanci) with the terrorists, and commends the Arewa Broadcast Media Practitioners Forum and the Kebbi State Government for convening the summit and urges governments to take prompt actions on all recommendations to ameliorate existential security threats.
