You have started again! You should know that PR is not a licence to support atrocities. Innocent persons (at Lekki) were deliberately murdered by your clients (Nigerian Army) and for you, profit is more important than those souls.
– Omoyele Sowore, Publisher of Sahara Reporters.

The above was a text message sent to me by my good friend, Omoyele Sowore after PRNigeria published a 204-page book titled, 101 Fake News on EndSARS” and commenced the serialisation of some of the blunders and inconsistencies contained in the recently submitted report of the Lagos State EndSARS panel chaired by Retired Justice Doris Okuwobi.

In fairness to Sowore, he has been consistent in his brand of activism through citizen journalism. But in our many debates, I have always explained to him that the public relations approach through fact-seeking and efforts at mutual understanding are better ways of managing difficult situations.

I have received similar concerns from people of goodwill and even from unknown individuals, who claim I am on the payroll of the Nigerian Army, and that all the things we do at PRNigeria are for pecuniary gains. I am therefore compelled to clear the erroneous impression about PRNigerias relationship with the Nigerian Army and our position on the EndSARS panel report.

First, while PR is a profitable business in the communications practice, in which a practitioner legitimately deserves a remuneration, we have never had a client-relationship with the Nigerian Army, since the emergence of General Tukuru Buratai as the Chief of Army Staff in 2015. The Nigerian Army is NOT our client but one of the stakeholders in the brand of journalism we practice.

In fact, PRNigeria has never been engaged directly or indirectly by the Nigerian Army in the last six years, but we enjoy the fact of having access to authoritative and sometimes sensitive information from credible authorities and reliable sources in the sector to authenticate our reports.

Having had a good working relationship with all the Army spokespersons, from Brigadier Generals Sani Kukasheka, Sagir Musa, Mohammed Yerima to the incumbent, Onyema Nwachukwu, they are living witnesses to the professional integrity of our communication outfit.

Some public commentators have accused us not a few times of excessively defending the Army, especially General Buratai, the past Army Chief who is now the Nigerian Ambassador to Benin Republic. They ignore the fact that objective reportage is not about defending anyone but providing accurate, timely and credible information. While we objectively reported the clearance of Buratai over the Dubai properties saga and highlighted his earlier successes in decimating Boko Haram terrorists and institutional accomplishments, we were yet very critical of the Nigerian Army over the Zaria massacre of 2015, the unjust retirement of the Army 38 in 2016, the closure of the offices of Daily Trust newspapers in 2019, the killing of Police officers by soldiers in Taraba in 2019, and the tenure elongation of military chiefs in 2020, among others.

Just as the critics attack us, so do the apologists on the other side. For instance, some Army media consultants sponsored a number of articles in several media houses claiming that we are financiers and masterminds of the Boko Haram insurgency. Not only did we report them to the security and intelligence services, but we also sued the accusers in a court of law, to clear our names.

Our support for the military and intelligence services, especially the Nigerian Army, is our own way of showing patriotism in the defence of national interests when doing so could deny us of securing grants from foreign interests. Our editorial policy does not glorify the activities of enemies of the state. We deliberately censor their propaganda by supporting the gallantry of Nigerian security against violent agitations, banditry, terrorism among others.

The Chief of Military Intelligence and now Chief of Defence Intelligence, General Samuel Adebayo, can testify to the fact that while we were not engaged to provide any crisis communication component of the Nigerian counterterrorism strategy, we never felt bad about this. After all, General Buratai only demonstrated his detribalized nature by engaging other firms for the Armys PR services.

Meanwhile, we are equally not unmindful of the fact that the lack of patronage by the Nigerian Army and few others is likely due to the fact that we had worked closely with a consummate spymaster on the national security architecture during the immediate past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Nevertheless, while we had no pecuniary relationship with the Nigerian Army, General Buratai was gracious enough to have acceded to our interventions on the plight of some journalists and media houses in critical moments, and he even delegated officers to attend our programmes.

Still, with all sense of modesty, if the Nigerian Army were indeed our client, they would not have committed the communication harakiri of initially denying the presence of troops at the Lekki Toll Plaza during the height of the EndSDARS protest of October 20, 2020.

The armys blunder, which is also cited in the book, “101 Fake News on EndSARS,” is among the reasons for the public mistrust of the security services and lingering distrust of the government since that incident.

Meanwhile, the EndSARS panels attempt to redefine the meaning of the words massacre and genocide was faulted by professional opinions of pathologists, forensic experts, ballistic specialists, legal practitioners, among others, as contained in the report itself.

Interestingly, the author of the book on EndSARS, Dahiru M. Lawal, was an early supporter of the EndSARS movement, until the peaceful protests turned violent. The decentralised mass movement against police brutality was unfortunately hijacked by hoodlums, leading to violent attacks, including killings and the destruction of property worth billions of naira.

For instance, the initial video of a policeman allegedly shooting a civilian in Ughelli, Delta State, which triggered the EndSARS rallies, and other similar reports, turned out to be fake.

As chronicled in the book, notable personalities, including the Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, and a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, had to issue written and record video rejoinders respectively, to deny the fake inciteful statements attributed to them during the crisis.

Similarly, politicians like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Governor Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had to address the press on falsehoods fabricated against them, which could have inflamed situations then.

Some spokespersons to public officials, Femi Adesina and Funke Egbemode, both incidentally former Presidents of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), were also victims of the mischief of fake news merchants.

These peddlers of illicit information, apart from impersonating celebrities, also lied against religious bodies by grafting the images of Catholic Bishops on their false narratives, claiming that these distinguished clerics were marching in support of EndSARS, while this was blatantly untrue. In another misleading contrivance, some female Muslims were also said to be protesting in Katsina State, while no such thing happened.

Meanwhile, some of the credible, traditional media platforms that published fake stories and footage from that series of protests have since dropped these unfortunate contents from their sites. One of the national broadcast stations “Arise TV” that quoted the famed witness DJ Switchs claim that snipers were shooting protesters from Access bank building, had to tender an apology after the management of the bank issued a statement saying the people located on their head office tower were staff members carrying out maintenance work on the building, and not Nigerian Army snipers who had been drafted to kill protesters.

While some of the media could not offer unreserved apologies for misleading the public, a diligent web search reveals that a number of pages that had initially carried the fake news have since dropped them which are no longer online.

I strongly believe that media platforms should be harnessed as effective tools in swiftly countering false information, especially if this is defamatory, discriminatory, malicious, uncorroborated or clearly dangerous.

We must find a way of protecting our ethnic and religious diversity in Nigeria, which is a source of strength so that our fault lines are not exploited by undesirable elements bent on setting citizens against each other.

Government must find a way of regaining the needed, but already eroded, confidence of the public/masses of Nigerians, due to the high wave of distrust and cynicism about its officials, statements, and actions.

Also, the Nigerian security services should always display utmost professionalism in the course of discharging their statutory responsibilities, while also eschewing the temptation to be corrupt, high-handed and lawless, especially in their interactions with regular Nigerians.

Yushau A. Shuaib
Author “An Encounter with the Spymaster” and Crisis Communication Strategies
www.YAShuaib.com

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It is baffling and hard to believe that the Nigerian Army under the current leadership of Lt. General Tukur Buratai would recruit the service of publicists for dark propaganda, rather than public relations to protect its image.

Just recently, the Army’s publicists shot a movie titled “Fatal Arrogance” that portrays the leadership and members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), popularly known as a Shi’ite group, as terrorists.

In their desperate execution of this plan, the publicists hired a veteran Nollywood Actor, Pete Edochie; a popular actress, Destiny Etiko, and a movie producer, Anosike Kingsley Orji, all Christians and Igbos, to portray Northern Muslims and by extension Islamic religion, in a bad light in the movie.

In the movie, Edochie is featured in a role wearing an Islamic outfit that makes him resemble Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, leader of the IMN, who has been in detention since December 2015, after the altercation that his followers had with Nigerian soldiers. Over 348 people were killed in that incident, and the follow-up aggression having the army lay siege to the IMN headquarters, with the bodies of the dead secretly buried by the army in a mass grave.

The behind-the-scenes clip from the movie, which was shot in Igboland rather than a Northern city, is already generating a lot of controversies.

A popular Kannywood actor who was lured into taking part in the movie, Mallam Yakubu Mohammed, has regretted his appearance in it due to what has turned out as the film’s bad intent.

He said, “I never knew some of the scenes in the film will be portrayed in that manner… It was a film that showed the clash between Nigerian Army and Islamic brotherhood in Zaria, and many members of the group were killed. When I read the script, I saw nothing castigating Islam in it, but you know (a) script can change at some point, that was what happened.

“…There is a place that every Muslim, if he sees it, must be concerned. There is a photo of Mr. Pete Edochie walking around in a Muslim dress, with a bottle of beer in his hand and with a girl. I really regret appearing in that movie.”

Also, according to Mohammed, “I have told the producer to remove all my scenes in the movie, that I am ready to pay for damages, which is what the rule says.”

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria has equally petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, and the National Film and Video Censors Board, over the movie.

The spokesperson of the Movement, Ibrahim Musa, in accusing the Nigerian Army of furthering its campaign of aggression against the group through the sponsorship of the movie, stated that, “If film producers are not careful, some disgruntled elements in governance will make them side with the oppressors against the oppressed, as the film “Fatal Arrogance”, is meant to achieve.

“Genocide is involved here; any move to justify the brutal and inhuman Zaria genocide of December 2015 is an affront (to) the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

“Evidently, for every Nigerian, these clips are meant to disparage the peaceful movement and portray it to the world as a violent armed movement.”

One of the promoters of the distasteful movie against the Islamic group is Terrence Kuanum, a Christian from Benue who authored a book with a similar title, “Fatal Arrogance”, in defence of the Nigerian Army against the Shi’ite. The book is apparently the inspiration behind this film.

I was also once a victim of the same Terrence Kuanum, who parades himself as General Buratai’s publicist. He had falsely accused me of being a patron of terrorist groups, in his distorted and apparently suborned response to my “Memo to President Buhari on the Service Chiefs”, which was widely published in the Nigerian print media.

In his deliberate attempt to incite the military and victims of terrorism against me, on the basis of untrue accusations, Terrence compromised the websites of highly credible, as well as notoriously incredible, media platforms, by planting his offensive article there, mostly without the knowledge of the publishers and editors of some of these platforms. Subsequently, about 15 of these media organisations had to delete the highly libellous content from their websites, while offering profound apologies for the infiltration of their systems that allowed that to happen.

In his over 3,000-word defamatory piece, revelling in insidiously deceitful claims, Mr. Terrence labelled me a Boko Haram supporter, an ISWAP propagandist and that I was on the payroll of terrorists.

Given how defamatory and harmful the allegations in the very lengthy article were, I officially reported this to security agencies, including the Nigeria Police, the State Security Service (SSS) and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). Till date, none of the agencies has taken any action to interrogate the writer on the very grievous allegations that sought to impugn my professional integrity and cast me as a threat to national security. The security services seem to be afraid to invite the author of “Fatal Arrogance” for questioning because of his godfathers in the Nigerian Army.

Apart from moving about freely, Terrence Kuanum has exhibited the ‘fatal arrogance’ of being untouchable, not only by launching his book in Abuja, but also shooting the movie based on the book in Enugu, to the bewilderment of a sane society.

Terrence Kuanum’s odious activities revolve around his membership of an obscure ‘Global Amnesty International Network’, Television Nigeria (TVN) and other shadowy groups that support the leadership of the Nigerian Army.

The painful irony of this publicity attempt gone awry is the fact that the Nigerian military has an enviable reputation of professionalism, gallantry, resilience, and straightforwardness that do not require propaganda to push for a positive social narrative.

It is only the leadership of an institution that appears to have something ugly it needs to cover up that engages charlatans in an effort at dark propaganda, rather than more astute and professional public relations organisations. It goes without much contemplation to know that this very poorly thought-through and ‘Fatal Arrogance’ will backfire very badly on the image and reputation of an institution that should otherwise be encouraged for its potentials, and the work it is doing to keep Nigeria safe.

Yushau A. Shuaib
Author of “An Encounter with the Spymaster” and “Crisis Communication Strategies”
www.YAShuaib.com

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Dear General Buratai,

I thank you for inviting media executives and public relations practitioners, through the Deputy President, Nigerian Guild of Editors, Mallam Suleiman Gaya for the interactive dialogue held in Maiduguri last December, 2018. The event was friendly, frank and sincere, towards evolving stakeholders’ engagement and enhancing military-media relations.

However, a few days after the well-attended engagement, the Nigeria Army declared an activist, Dr. Perry Brimah wanted over alleged fundraising for troops. The military also subsequently invaded the offices of leading national newspaper, Daily Trust and arrested some of its journalists over an ‘exclusive’ report it had recently published on the counter-insurgency strategy of the Nigerian Army.

I must tell you frankly that these incidences were worrisome and portend a huge minus to the desired mutual military-media relations being striven towards.

It might interest the Army, Sir, to note that similar media indiscretions during the previous administration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan were well-managed when news editors were inundated with confidential information in the name of exclusive reports.

For instance, on the evening of Friday, February 13, 2015, almost four years ago, there was intelligence about a sensitive news story that had been filed to the headquarters of Daily Trust in Abuja by Hamza Idris, a war reporter who doubled as the Bureau Chief of the paper in Borno State, and is currently a political editor.

The filed story coincided with the commencement of ruthless military operations in which many Boko Haram terrorists attempting to over-run Maiduguri were eliminated. The Nigerian Air Force had then intensified aerial bombardments of the dreaded Sambisa Forest, leading to the recovery of the towns of Monguno, Marte and others from the terrorists. President Goodluck Jonathan was billed to fly in an airforce helicopter to the liberated towns of Baga, Mubi and others.

At the time, I was assigned by the Security Service to ensure that a sensitive aspect of the filed story concerning special forces was not published. For several hours and into the midnight of that Friday, I was in touch with the Defence Correspondent, Ronald Mutum; the North-East Bureau Chief, Hamza Idris; Daily Editor, Nasir Lawal; and Saturday Editor, Abdulkarim Baba-Aminu appealing to and finally convincing them of the implications of disclosing such sensitive part of the story to the public.

Lucky enough, in the newspaper published the following day, the sensitive portion of the cover story, which was subject of concern, had been expunged. Dozens of towns were later recovered and President Jonathan flew into Baga, Mubi and other liberated towns to felicitate with the gallant troops. That was when Jonathan honoured the late Lt Col. Abu Ali for his military prowess and valour.

General Buratai, sir, there were several instances in which the Nigerian media demonstrated excessive patriotism in protecting national security. During that period, Femi Adesina, who was President of Nigerian Guild of Editors and General Chris Olukolade, the Defence Spokesperson ensured that the security services put news editors in confidence about major operations and the media were very supportive treating highly classified information with the delicateness it required. And, those editorial gestures were at NO COST to the government.

Sir, you may be surprised to note that some of the harshest critics of the military during the Jonathan administration were mostly strong supporters of General Buhari’s candidacy for president. They included media practitioner, Omoyele Sowore of Sahara Reporters, civil society actors like Dr. Ahmed Idris of Citizens United for Peace and Stability (CUPS) and Dr. Issa Perry Brimah of Every Nigerian Do Something (ENDS), among others. Then, the security services tolerated the excesses of critics of the administration to some extent, as some of their outbursts were borne of genuine concerns, which also influenced positive social change and the upgrading of security tactics and strategies.

Meanwhile, on your assumption of office, critics gave the service chiefs breathing space for sometime before resuming their ‘constructive engagements’, not necessarily of the military per se but of you as Chief of Army Staff, after the Zaria Shi’ite massacre and the Dubai property imbroglio.

Surprisingly, some of these persons, who are my good friends, bore me bitter for founding PRNigeria as a platform for alternative narratives on the performance of the military as an institution. Although public relations is a legitimate and profitable communications business, they fail to realise that since the appointment of the current National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno and service chiefs, the Media/PR outfit has never been paid a kobo for managing the reputation of the security agencies and promoting their activities. Yets, PRNigeria takes solace in the fact that we have unfettered access to very top officers and security spokespersons for credible, reliable and timely information in its work.

General sir, you need to establish a better rapport and engage with the media and other critical stakeholders closely, for them to appreciate your efforts as the Chief of Army Staff. Some of them even lack basic information about much of your past accomplishments in commanding troops and in the communities you served. They may have forgotten that as JTF Commander, you stabilised the Niger Delta region, having wrested it from the scourge of armed militancy; that as the Commandant, Nigerian Army School of Infantry, not only did you train cadets on guerrilla war tactics and counter-insurgency manoeuvres, you also endeared yourself to the troops before their eventual deployment as the first special forces to fight Boko Haram in the North-East. Your brief stint as the first Force Commander of the rejuvenated Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), after the recovery of over two-dozen towns from the terrorists, further consolidated our military gains and sustained relationship with neighbours. Your hardline stance and no-nonsense approach to acts of terrorism, even while sustaining the personal losses of your country home in Buratai being burnt and security guard killed by Boko Haram.

The recent altercation of the Nigeria Army and the media is not the first in your tenure as Chief of Army Staff (COAS). You may recall that after the arrest of the publishers of Sahara Reporters and Premium Times in February 2017, I wrote an article titled, “Self-censorship and Security Report”, through which I cautioned that as a service chief you should be wary of busy-body consultants and lawyers who may wish to profit from the misunderstanding between the military and the media by instigating the taking of irrational steps. Like I pointed out there, “No one fights the press publicly, especially the credible media, in attempt to enforce censorship, not self-censorship, and gets away with it unscathed.”

In a nutshell, my dear General, the most recent military siege on the media could be well-managed if we consider the sacrifice and risk being taken by editors who have unfettered access to citizens and troops in embattled communities, with information at their disposal on some unpleasant developments in the North-East. They nevertheless remain steadfast and supportive, with fair and occasional self-imposed censorship in their reportage to protect the integrity of the Nigerian security system.

Much of the security challenges that have come up are associated with misinformation, disinformation and the lack of credible intelligence. While the military can claim to have strong weapons, with their guns and bombs, the media actually possesses stronger weapons, with their pens and keyboards, in changing mindsets, engaging in psychological warfare, strengthening the fighting spirit of troops, boosting the confidence of citizens and weakening the morale of terrorists.

Sir, I dare urge that constructive engagement in information management is very essential at this crucial period our dear General, and the soldiers’ soldier.

Once again, I thank you for the last invitation as I wish you a more rewarding New Year and better-managed relationship with all the critical stakeholders in the Nigerian security system, and its administration.

Yushau A. Shuaib
Author, An Encounter with the Spymaster
Recipient of SABRE African Public Relations Award
and International Public Relations Award (IPRA) on Crisis Management

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