By Sam Kayode
The Chief of the Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Farouk Yahaya, has commended the Nigerian media for the ‘good’ reportage given to the Armed forces in the various war theatres in the country.
Gen Yahaya, who was on a one-day operational visit to the the North East war theatre of operation “Hadin Kai” urged the media to do more in keeping the country together especially as the 2023 general elections approaches.
Yahaya called on journalists and their news managers to be more “nationalistic” in their approach to reportage on the wars going on in the different theatres so that the common enemies will not gain upper hand in any of the war theatres against the Army or the entire armed forces.
Gen Yahaya told the troops of Operation Hadin Kai during a lunch meeting last week that he was satisfied with the operations in the three sectors and the entire country adding that troops are doing well following the new rules of engagement laid down for them.
” I challenge you not to relent, but to stay alert by being vigilant as you address the issues on ground in accordance with our new rules of engagement.
“The basic teachings of a professional Army like ours is for you to be alert every time, to your obligations, following command and control which is very important across all our locations. We can’t afford to take anything for granted. This is the message I gave them at Baga where I visited and it is for all of you too.
“We are continuing our operations in both the kinetic and non-kinetic. Even those who are supporting the terrorists in one way or the other know we are not relenting in our bid to apprehending them. Those who provide information, logistics, those who help them in anyway. We call and urge our own friends here and across to continue also to support and provide relevant information.
“These people are not from the moon, they are criminals; all along are with us, if we see them and we report before they act, we are in a better position before they take any action. When we see anything across all other theatres, we should report to relevant security agencies, so that we take action.” said Chief Farouk Yahaya.
The Army Chief said that troops will continue also to relate with all other security agencies adding that they appreciate other services, like the Nigerian Airforce, Navy and all other security agencies that has been contributing to calm the tide.
He called on troops to endeavor not to relent in doing what they are doing, “all our achievements have being possible by the support of the present Commander in chief President Mohammad Buhari who has provided all the resources that we require, all the enablement and he continuously placed enormous confidence in the Nigerian Army and other security agencies and that is what he has also given us, in proportionate measure every time.
” The present effort is clear and we are carrying out, we are not relenting to provide secure environments, secure country or our social activities. Elections are here, we are all from here, we know they come for here and with there own additional challenges, but we also have experience from the election being conducted since 1999, so we should continue to learn on our experiences, our contingency plan of large area of trouble. We should enhance our drills and especially liaise and relate and co-operate with others security agencies across, leading agencies like police and other security agencies that provide support.
“Our operation that I mentioned are usually together with this other services and other agencies in order to enhance synergy between us because no one side could do it alone, but together no adversary can defeat us. I want to appreciate you all the press for the support you have put in the reportage of our activities, you have a critical role to play. Please continue.
“So we take it that way I am sure will ever harness our strength and I know no one enemy or adversary can take all of us. It is not possible, together we will beat him.
“So I want to thank you all gentlemen for all your support, sacrifices for every time we are here you are always here, and for the reportage you are doing which to us is a national call, national duty that you have do, we do it too. The press is a professional body, it has his own rules also, you can even call them rules of engagement too. How they should deal with professional threats and, how they should report.
“Now they are provisional threats, you should also know you have a national duty of Nigeria to support the provision of security and good governance and democracy. A great helping you are all doing, I would only appreciate you, to continue to do that.
“The Commanders, officers and men of Nigerian Army, and other services, Navy, Airforce and other security agencies, I like to appreciate you all. We look forward to see more successes for every engagement we have like you know is a time to learn from there, continue to learn and improve our experiences and improve on our operations we have being improving and improvement is continuous, we can still continue to improve and improve until we we conclude this operation.”
