If bandits can bring down fighter jet, then they are more than being called ‘bandits’ — Rep
The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Army, Abdulrazak Namdas, on Thursday said if bandits could shoot down a fighter jet, there is more to their activities than being tagged banditry.
Namdas spoke against the backdrop of the downing of an Alpha Jet of the Nigerian Air Force on Sunday.
Gunmen brought down Jet in Zamfara State.
Namdas stated this in Abuja at the opening of a two-day Capacity Building Workshop on Conflict Reporting for Journalists organized by the Konrad-Adenaeur Stiftung, a German foundation, in conjunction with the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism. He noted that journalists play critical roles in the fight against insecurity through ethical reportage and pace setting, as agenda setters.
He said: “It is important that the right terms and terminologies are used when reporting or describing any act of terror, attacks or conflict to better inform the people.
“If a bandit can graduate to bringing down a fighter jet and you still call him a bandit, then there is a problem.
“It is the responsibility of the media to report with the correct names because there is no religion, tribalism or party lines in any form of conflict.”
According to the lawmaker: “When you get kidnapped, nobody knows if you are APC (All Progressives Congress) or PDP (Peoples Democratic Party), so we need to be together.
“The politicians should not be setting the pace, the media is supposed to set the pace.
“As chairman, House Committee on Army, the challenges before us are very enormous in terms of security and all stakeholders must be on board because we cannot resolve insurgency, banditry with kids gloves.
“We felt the need for a capacity building with the media because today if you look at some of the terminologies and cliché on who is a bandit, terrorist, cattle rustler, armed robber, you begin to wonder who is giving such names.”
Namdas said the Nigerian media has been very vibrant from time immemorial as it played a key role in ending the days of military dictatorship for the …