Information - NEWS AGENCY OF NIGERIA

Philip Daniel Yatai
Feb, Tue, 2025

Centre advocates spontaneous reportage of military, security operations

230 total views today

By Sumaila Ogbaje/Martha Agas

The Centre for Crisis Communication (CCC), a non-governmental organisation has called on the military and security agencies to be spontaneous in releasing information on their operations to ensure that citizens are carried along.

The Chairman of CCC, retired Maj.-Gen. Christopher Olukolade, made the call at a news conference organised by the centre on Tuesday in Abuja.

The theme of the News conference is, “Setting Agenda for Nigerian Security Forces in 2025”.

Olukolade said there was a need to review the current communication strategies to carry the public along and ensure that Nigerians understand and appreciate what the agencies are doing to ensure security.

He urged military and security agencies to allow professionals to run their information management.

“We want to advocate, for instance, that in terms of their strategy that these agencies, particularly the armed forces, should discard this tendency of biweekly reporting.

“We are advocating a more spontaneous reportage on the achievements and activities related to the nation’s security.

“A practice where we have a biweekly briefing by one agency or organisation, or even collectively, may not be able to carry the public along sufficiently.

“This approach often leads to information overload, and it makes it difficult for the public to fully comprehend and appreciate the efforts of the agencies.

“So instead of that, we are recommending that they adopt a more responsive communication strategy that provides regular updates, if possible, on a real-time situation or as much as possible.

“This will ensure that the public can be properly and well carried along and ensure that they will no longer be in doubt of both the achievement and the essence of security operations all over the country,” he said.

Olukolade, a former defence Spokesman, said the public would appreciate the work of the security agencies more, if they apply more of operational precision.

He added that the security agencies would need to invest more on training, intelligence gathering and equipment handling to be able to achieve precision.

He lauded the military, other security and intelligence agencies for the recent improvement, urging them to continue to build on their successes in ensuring enhanced security for the nation.

The CCC boss also called for the establishment of clear protocols for identifying and engaging targets, as well as procedures for mitigating civilian casualties during operations.

He added that community collaboration with security agencies should be encouraged to ensure that their efforts were not only appreciated, but contribute to the nation’s security.

“We are already working closely with many of them and the local communities, and the security forces can gain more value and insight into a security situation if they are more disposed to carrying the public along.

“So, the Nigerian security forces should foster stronger relationships with, particularly, the local leaders in areas where they operate.

“Then the issue of interagency collaboration should be consolidated and be made more robust.

“It is interesting that there are less and less clashes among the agencies. We believe and we wish that in the years ahead, such will be upheld, and clashes among agencies will be a thing of the past.

“So, the agencies can continue to share intelligence, they can continue to collaborate, and they reduce the level of duplication that leads to the rivalry that tends to affect operations and possibly cause some crisis, both in terms of the conduct of their mission or in terms of communicating their achievements,” he added.

Olukolade also urged the Nigerian security force to leverage on cutting-edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and all other innovations and development in technology to enhance intelligence gathering.

He added that security forces should continue to build on and improve on what they had, both in terms of logistics base and content, as well as training of personnel.

He said that the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) had made impressive progress in defence production. (NAN)

Edited by Christiana Fadare

Philip Daniel Yatai
Jan, Tue, 2025

General News

PPDC, ministry of justice seek compliance with FOI Act

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By Jacinta Nwachukwu

Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC) and the Federal Ministry of Justice have urged private and public institutions to actively comply with the principles of Freedom of Information Act for more accountability.

The actors made the call during a roundtable engagement on the submission of the compliance reports on Freedom of Information (FOI) Act by public institutions in Abuja.

In her remarks, the Chief Executive Officer, PPDC, Lucy Abagi, said that the event was organised to promote transparency and accountability in governance by ensuring compliance with the Act.

Abagi said that the Act had remained a democratic instrument empowering citizens with the right to public information and fostering a culture of openness.

According to her, FOI has played an official role in social accountability, reducing corruption and promoting public trust in government institutions.

She said over the last 10 years, PPDC had been pioneering the FOI ranking, adding that for every year, it tried to assess the proactive disclosure of ministries, departments and agencies with the FOI Act.

Abagi said although progress had been made, challenges still persisted in achieving full compliance with the Act by public institutions.

“We’ve also identified a lot of gaps; you know, when you are dealing with the government, there’s always some level of transfers that happens with officers to different agencies or to different states.

“So there’s a lot of capacity gaps, one of which is for the FOI desk officers to respond to the FOI Act requests by citizens or other organisations to actually know where monies are going to and what those monies are being used for.

“So this training, in partnership with the ministry of justice, is to begin to identify areas of gaps and challenges that need to be filled across over 150 public institutions.

“We are hoping that governments are not just spending money on the budget, or are not just easily funding without accountability.

“We want to ensure that our procurement process is right; we want to ensure that there is transparency; we want to ensure that there is reduced corruption,” she said.

Abagi also encouraged all stakeholders to consider the training as an opportunity to address challenges, share experiences and explore innovative ways of strengthening compliance.

According to her, transparency is not just a legal requirement, it is a responsibility that promotes trust and drives sustainable growth in the society.

“We are dedicated to advancing procurement transparency and improving citizens’ access to information,” she added.

Earlier, the Head of Freedom of Information Unit, ministry of justice, Mr Garuba Godwin, while giving an overview of the FOI Act, said it was applicable to all MDAs.

Godwin said that the Act also applied to private institutions utilising public funds; hence the need for both government and private institutions to comply with its principles.

He said that with the establishment of the Act, no public document would become secret officially, saying that every Nigerian citizen had the right to access information from public documents.

“Last year, we had about 91 public institutions that complied with the release of government information.

“The honorable minister of justice has taken administrative action to ensure that this year, if not half of the total number of the public institutions we have in this country, we should have a majority of them complying.

“Last year, we engaged about 100, and this year, we are engaging about 300; so they have come to the knowledge that government activities are no longer secret.

“Citizens should have access to exactly what the government is doing, and if you look at the presidency, the president also came out to hold ministers and heads of MDAs accountable for their activities,” he said.

Godwin, however, said that access to government information records was not in all circumstances, as there were some exemptions to the Act.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the training was organised by the centre, in collaboration with the ministry of justice, with the support of MacArthur Foundation. (NAN)

Edited by ‘Wale Sadeeq

Ismail Abdulaziz
Dec, Thu, 2024

General News

Information minister to discuss FG’s tax reforms at Kaduna NIPR AGM

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By Folasade Akpan

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, will be the Guest Speaker at the 2024 Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Public Lecture.

The Chairman, Kaduna State Chapter of the institute, Mr Haroun Malami, made this known in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.

According to him, the minister will deliver a paper entitled “Tax Reform: The Role of Public Relations in Fostering Constructive Dialogue for National Economic Renaissance.”

Malami, who stated that the AGM/public lecture is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 7, added that the choice of the theme for the 2024 event was informed by the controversy generated by Federal Government’s tax reform bills submitted to the National Assembly (NASS).

He said as part of its responsibility to the public as an institute, the chapter felt the need to intervene in the conversation by providing a platform that would promote dialogue and better understanding of issues of national importance.

The chairman also stated that Prof. Mustapha Muhammad, the Head of Accounting Department, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, would be the Lead Discussant.

He added that Human Rights Activist, Sen. Shehu Sani, Prof. Cosmas Eze of Mass Communication Department, ABU Zaria, and Prof. Hauwa’u Yusuf of Kaduna State University would be panellists to further discuss the issues thrown up by the paper.(NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu

Philip Daniel Yatai
Nov, Mon, 2024

General News

Broadcasters want policy to guide ethical, responsible broadcasting

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By Emmanuel Mogbede

The Society of Nigerian Broadcasters (SNB) on Monday in Abuja emphasised the need for a National Information Policy as a foundation to guide ethical and responsible broadcasting across the country.

Mr Ismail Sani, Vice-President (North-Central Zone), of the SNB, in a statement, said that such policy would ensure consistent and fair dissemination of accurate information to the public.

He said it would also ensure equal access to reliable information across regions of Nigeria, including rural areas.

“It will also promote media independence balanced with accountability to support the industry’s role in national development,” he said.

Sani said that the SNB, at its recent National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Lafia, resolved to collaborate with government bodies, regulatory authorities and private sector partners.

He said the essence was to advocate for priorities to create a broadcasting environment that would serve public interest, support national development goals and uphold the integrity of the Nigerian media on local and international platforms.

“While recognising the risks associated with the profession, the SNB called for stronger security measures to protect broadcasters, including physical security, for those working in challenging or high-risk environments.

“The SNG also called for cyber-security measures to protect data and infrastructure from digital threats, safeguarding the integrity of information,” he said.

He reiterated SNB’s commitment to welfare and continuous professional training programmes to equip broadcasters with skills in emerging technologies, ethical journalism and industry best practices.

Sani assured Nigerians that the society would pursue welfare initiatives aimed at supporting broadcasters’ well-being, enhanced job security and improved working conditions to promote motivation and long-term dedication to the profession.

He appealed to government at all levels to provide appropriate incentives to media houses to ameliorate the cost of energy that had forced some broadcasting stations to reduce hours of transmission.(NAN)

Edited by Ephraims Sheyin