NARC, DSA to hold RoundTable on Asymmetrical National Security Challenges, the Army and National Development
By TOM CHIAHEMEN, Abuja –
A RoundTable on “Asymmetrical National Security Challenges, the Army and National development,” designed as a Third-Party initiative, is to hold in Abuja from June 24-25, to distil and present Implementable Action Points (IAPs) on pressing asymmetrical national security challenges.
These are security challenges that do not take the simple form of easily-identified, routinely compartmentalized, properly isolated and unilaterally targetable problems.
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.
The two-day event is being organised by the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC) and Development Specs Academy (DSA), in partnership with the Nigerian Institute of Public relations (NIPR), the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Voice of Nigeria (VON), the News agency of Nigerian (NAN), the Institute for Strategic Development Communication (ISDEVCOM), Nnamdi Azikiwe Business School (IBS), and the National Drug law enforcement Agency (NDLEA), and the Institute for Peace, Security and Development Studies (IPSDS).
Speaking at a pre-event Press Briefing in Abuja on Friday, the Executive Director of the DSA, Prof Okey Ikechukwu, mni, said the 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,” he added.
He noted that from the organisers’ pre-event investigations, surveys and consultations for the forthcoming 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.
“That is why this RoundTable seeks to drive a new narrative, by getting Nigeria’s various publics to see and understand their roles, and the roles of other key actors, in the wider national ecosystem of synchronized security,” Prof Ikechukwu said.
He said that the NARC and DSA planned to 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,” he explained.
According to Prof Ikechukwu, the RoundTable shall, among other things:
Showcase facts-based reviews of current asymmetrical national security challenges and the achievements of the Nigerian Army in that trgart;
Present a holistic perspective on the imperatives of a “whole of society approach” to national security challenges;
Use Chatham House Rules to project Third-Party presentations, narratives and suggestions that the Nigerian Army and other players in the national security framework may not be a able to put in the public domain, because of constraints of professional protocols and political considerations;
Establish informed linkages between the fallouts of misguided political decisions, overlooked multiplier effects of the operating environment and emerging national security challenges in different parts of the country;
Present our general and specific security challenges, as well as the efforts and achievements of the military, particularly the Nigerian army, in dealing with them.
He explained that the essence of drawing special attention to organisers’ Strategic Partners was to emphasize the roles and relevance of credible and highly regarded professional bodies, institutes and institutions, as well as agencies of government that are headed by professional in public communication, professional information management and the media.
Other notable stakeholders during the pre-event press briefing included the Director-General of the NARC, Major General Garba Ayodeji Wahab (rtd), President of the NIPR, Dr. Ike Neliaku.