Army to convene roundtable on security challenges on Monday

The Nigerian army is set to convene a roundtable on the country’s security challenges. 

The roundtable will be held on June 24 and 25 with the theme ‘Asymmetrical National Security Challenges, The Army and National Development’.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja, on Friday, Okey Ikechukwu, professor of strategic management and human capital development, said the roundtable is seeking to come up with implementable action points (IAPs) on national security challenges.

He said the roundtable seeks to drive a new narrative by getting Nigerians to see and understand their roles, and the roles of other key actors, in tackling insecurity.

“These are security challenges that do not take the simple form of easily-identified, routinely compartmentalized, properly isolated and unilaterally targetable problems,” Ikechukwu said.

“They range from embedded targets, refusal to help the army and other security agencies with local intelligence, the targeting of military personnel for hostile civilian attention, unproductive community engagements, deliberate misrepresentation of the activities and achievements of the Nigerian Army through fake news, deliberate misinformation and disinformation, among other disruptive activities.

“This RoundTable shall project national interest narratives in an objective and professional manner, while promoting public understanding of the roles, and achievements, of the Nigerian Army in the ongoing efforts to protect and secure the Nigerian State. It will also project National Interest Communication without Propaganda (NIC–P) and hopefully metamorphose into a platform for regular updates on the efforts of the Nigerian Army and the national security apparatus.

“From our pre-event investigations, surveys and consultations for this RoundTable, it became clear that more and more Nigerians see and treat national security problems that are threatening their very lives as purely the business of the military and, especially, the army.

“We shall use the Roundtable to re-emphasize, as much as possible, the specific and general roles of the military, particularly the Nigerian army, in the cocktail of structures, activities and processes that constitute the national security architecture.

“This should address the emerging challenges and deliberate misrepresentations of our men in uniform as objectively as possible.”

The Nigerian Institute of Public relations (NIPR), Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Voice of Nigeria (VON), News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Institute for Strategic Development Communication (ISDEVCOM), Nnamdi Azikiwe Business School (IBS), and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) were named as strategic partners.