The Nigerian Army (NA) has called on social media to support its campaigns to curb crimes and security challenges in the country.
Maj.-Gen. Usman Muhammad, Director, Department of Army Civil-Military Affairs, made the call at the 9th edition of the one-day Interactive Session on Civil-Military Relations, on Monday in Akure.
The seminar with the theme: “The Evolving Role of the Social Media in Support of the Nigerian Army’s Non-Kinetic Line of Operations,” was organised by the Army Headquarters in partnership with the Security Affairs Limited
Muhammad advised social media operators to spread accurate information because the role of the Army was not only to protect the nation but also to promote good relations with the citizens.
He said: “This is because if you spread the right information, the tendency is that insecurity will be reduced to the barest minimum.
“But, if you spread the wrong information or you twist information the way you want by spreading fake news the tendency is that you are likely to spread information that may undermine the security of the country.
“When you get information, you can verify it if you are not sure of the information”.
Muhammad appealed to the media and Nigerians to support the activities of the army, especially in this period when the nation was facing a series of security challenges.
He urged the social media not to report the wrong information because it undermined efforts of the military and portrayed the military as not doing enough.
“We are not necessarily saying that you must support the military but be objective, get the correct information, analyse correctly and spread it correctly in a right way,” he said.
Also speaking, Mr Austin Peacemaker, Executive Director of Security Affairs Limited, said that it partnered the army because whatever happened online could either promote national security or derail the peace in the country.
“We have seen scenarios where the people would take pictures from war zones like Liberia, attached it and claimed it was the killing of soldiers in the northeast or Christians were killing Muslims in the east.
“The reports have affected our national security thereby leading to the loss of lives. So, we feel the need to address all these issues among the social media operators even with the mainstream media too.
“Whatever we are doing online, I think we should learn to put our national security first because other countries are judging us by what they read on our social media platforms,” he said.