Alhaji Ladan Salihu, the Director-General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, has accused the international media of “worsening and prolonging the insurgency in the North-East”.
“The international media unnecessarily prolonged the Boko Haram violence by its reckless approach that treated it as just a headline-grabbing conflict,” Salihu told the News Agency of Nigeria in Jos on Sunday.
According to him, the international media “deliberately refused to see the violence as an internecine conflict demanding all hands toward ending it”.
He particularly accused the international media of “failing to give appropriate, fair and balanced reportage that will attract cohesive international attention to end the hydra-headed monster called terrorism.
“What we saw was a media that jettisoned same rules of engagement it deployed in Kosovo, Somalia, Kuwait, Iraq, Yemen, and even in Libya.
“It rather focused on Nigerian military’s inability to win the war with the sole aim of creating an impression that Nigeria was not interested in ending the crises.
“Unfortunately that impression actually sank in.”
Salihu lamented that government’s efforts were neither played up nor encouraged, while basic roadmaps toward galvanizing international funds to fight the menace were never suggested.
He added: “Rather than asking the international community to help Nigeria, the international media were more concerned about what they thought Nigeria should do.
“This prolonged the violence as the country was left alone.”
The FRCN boss, however, observed that regional and international cohesion had begun toward ending the insurgency, but said the nation would have been saved the colossal damage if such efforts had started much earlier.
“The various efforts by the US, European Union, ECOWAS, African Union and even the Nigeria/Lake Chad Basin Commission are commendable, but they are coming after the violence is already dying down,” he observed.
Salihu commended the Nigerian Government media such as the FRCN, NTA, NAN and VON for their efforts at projecting the true picture of the situation to the outside world.
He said: “These media houses discharged their duties responsibly and have been good net contributors to ending the violence in the North East.
“We have moved unguarded to hot spots to file reports that gave credibility to the efforts of our armed forces.
“At a time the media was awash with issues that tended to undermine the morale of our soldiers and threatened the war against insurgency, FRCN sent correspondents to Chibok, where schools girls were abducted.
“As a public broadcasting outfit, we were on ground to give the Nigerian public what they deserved, by seeking the truth and airing it.”
Salihu described conflict reporting as “very delicate”, pointing out that reporters usually worked through minefields infested with all manners of danger, but had to trudge on.
“To get at the truth, we were never bogged or weighed down by the odds; we had to conquer all the obstacles to meet our professional mandate to Nigeria and Nigerians,” he stated.
NAN.