Serious security challenges all over Nigeria — Army

Acting Director of Defence Information and Chairman of the Forum of Spokespersons on Security And Response Agencies, Brigadier-General John Agim, says there are serious challenges all over the country.

He said this in Calabar, Cross Rivers State, yesterday at a two-day seminar for spokespersons of security and response agencies, with the theme “Global Terrorism and Crisis of Narratives: The Challenges of Nigeria Security Spokespersons”.

He stated: “We are fighting insurgency in the northeast and we are having serious security challenges all over the country. People usually say what are these security people doing and even when we want to tell them what we are doing; the feeling is that it is their job and we are saying that is wrong.

“The military does not have any problem of their own concerning the insurgents; the problem was there until they said the military, go and confront this problem. So if we are doing it, then we are doing it on behalf of the country, if this is so then we all should be part of it and not isolate ourselves and make it look as if it is just the military problem.

“All along now, people look at it as a military problem, from our environment, some of us find it difficult to give information to the security agencies. There has never been a time that Nigeria has been more confronted with security challenges than now, it, therefore, behooves on security and response agencies and persons to acquire skills on how to manage information so that the citizens can be carried along.

“The seminar is capacity building seminar where we can look at how we can do our job better. We are the ones that give information about our respective organizations and if we are unable to communicate effectively, we are unlikely going to understand what all these security agencies are doing and it will be difficult for the public to understand what we are doing and how to partner with the public”.