Army Resource Centre seeks stronger military-media collaboration

The Director General of the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC), Major-General Garba Wahab (Rtd), on Friday, urged the military to strengthen its relationship with the media through a three-tiered engagement strategy.

Gen Wahab who canvassed this while speaking at a Roundtable interactive session with members of the Defence Correspondents Association of Nigeria (DECAN) in Abuja on Friday, Wahab emphasized the need for targeted engagement with three key groups: Media owners, Editors, and Defence Correspondents.

The DG pointed out that there was a need to begin to build trust and declared that such collaboration would enhance trust and improve cooperation between the military and the media.

According to him, “Both parties, both sides need to find a way of moving ahead, and that is why the center is getting the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) and the services informed as to what the gaps that have been identified by the media practitioners, particularly the defence correspondents.

“There is need for them to block the gap from their side, and from the media side to also be mindful of the reportage, putting national security into consideration.

Wahab said that the military must engage with the three layers involved, saying that the defence correspondents, the guild of editors, and media owners were the critical layers to deal with.

He said that all the layers must work in agreement with the military to be able to project national interest and also ensure national security.

According to him, “We need to keep on talking to Defence correspondents, but the Guild of Editors need to be brought in at one point, and the owners of all the organisations need to come in.

“So different levels and different sets of people. We will have to identify those that we believe should be the ones dealing with each of these strata and then find a common ground for the three to regularly talk and discuss among themselves.

“Otherwise, if, for instance, the owners discuss, for instance, with the minister or CDS, if the message is not passed down to the Guild of Editors, the efforts have been wasted”.

The Roundtable session with the theme “National Interest versus National Security: A Quest for Responsible Journalism”, was organised by DECAN to take steps to bridge the gaps that had been observed in military-media relations.

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