Media Owners in the Northern Region under the auspices of the Northern Broadcast Media Owners Association (NBMOA) has expressed frustration on the activities of terrorists, bandits, and other social vices eating up the North.
The association has in this regard announced the commencement of media advocacy and crusade against some of the ills confronting the region and the country in general.
NMOA is a forum for Northern Media broadcast owners and other stakeholders in the broadcast industry for the promotion of regional and national development, professionalism, and the growth of the broadcast industry in Nigeria.
Addressing a [press conference yesterday in Abuja, the acting Chairman of the association, Alh. Abdullahi Yelwa, said, media practitioners in the North have been in the eye of the insecurity storm.
Yelwa said, the country has been engaged in the fight against the scourge of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, out-of-school children, and drug abuse, adding that this myriad of challenges wee attributable to the problem of poverty and underdevelopment.
According to him, the governments at all levels have been doing their best to deal with these monsters and restore normalcy. Both kinetic and non-kinetic strategies have been employed. Now weapons of war have also been thrown into the fight.
He said,’’ Daily we are confronted by the negative consequences of these vices on the lives of our people. Our reporters daily report on villages being sacked and people abducted. We daily report the news of bandits writing demands notices to communities for ransoms or payment for permission to go to farms; we hear about executions of abductees for failure to pay for their freedom; we hear governors expressing their frustrations, or confessing that some parts of their communities are no longer under their control.
We report about people who were once self-sufficient but are now languishing in IDP Camps!
‘’The Northern Media have been at the helms of reporting on their challenges. Some of our members have indeed been victims of insurgency, even as we daily engage in Advocacy for the welfare of our troops and the victims’ insecurity. We shall, in fulfillment of our sacred duties, continue to hold government accountable, even as we offer our platforms for all shades of opinion on the search for a secure North and Nigeria.’’
The association further announced the flag-off of its media advocacy and crusade against some of the major challenges confronting the Northern region.
‘’In continuation of efforts to fight insecurity and contribute to the search for peace and prosperity for our region, and nation, therefore, NMBOA wishes to announce against some our major challenges bedeviling our society’’.
‘’Our strategy is to use our outreach and various platforms spread across the North and beyond to engage government institutions at all levels, as well as the civil society organizations, traditional , religious leaders and key stakeholders, to evolve a sustainable and community –based responses and for a community ownership of the war against insecurity’’.
‘’Through carefully tailored programming targeted jingles, etc, listeners will be educated on their roles, and how their actions or inactions contribute to the outcome of the fight against insecurity .
This is in continuation of our corporate social Responsibility (CSR) as the 4th Estate of the Realm’’.