President of Nigerian Guild of Editors , Mustapha on Thursday disclosed that Terrorists and Bandits using Media to sustain their nefarious act in the country.
The President made this known at the Opening Ceremony of the 17th All Nigeria Editors” Conference (ANEC) held in Abuja.
President asked participants at the Conference whether the media play up the occasional successes of insurgents and bandits against our military and other security agencies? Shouldn’t the media deliberately give adequate publicity to the gains of our dedicated military personnel against the bad guys disturbing the peace of this nation?
He continued, ” I don’t have specific answers to these questions, and I do hope that this important conference will find the answers.
“But one thing I know is that terrorists and bandits need publicity to sustain their nefarious activities. Denying them that much needed oxygen will be beneficial to our nation.
“Nigerian journalists belong to different ethnic groups and religions. We are facing trying times and might be tempted to align with our ethnic and religious affiliations.
“But as professionals, we should never allow these factors to influence our editorial judgments.”
He admitted, “There is no doubting the fact that insecurity is one of the major challenges facing Nigeria today. The entire country is engulfed in one form of crisis or the other. Every day, front pages of newspapers are replete with headlines – bordering on insurgency, banditry, kidnappings on the highways and schools, farmers/herders clashes, as well as the activities of known and unknown gunmen.
” Lives are being lost; the economy is bleeding, and scarce resources, which, ordinarily should have been used to address the nation’s infrastructure deficit, are being deployed to tackle the security challenges. The nation can’t continue like this.
