Insecurity: Nigeria Heading Towards System Collapse, Say Northern Media Owners

In a related development, the Northern Broadcast Media Owners Association (NBMOA) has decried the deteriorating security situation in the north, warning that the country was heading towards a system collapse.

The acting Chairman of the association, Abdulahi Yelwa disclosed this yesterday, at a press conference in Abuja, where he announced that the association would commence media advocacy and crusade against some of the ills confronting the north and the nation.

He said the country has been engaged in the fight against the scourge of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, out of school children and drug abuse, stressing that added to these myriad of challenges was the problem of poverty and underdevelopment.

Yelwa said: “As media practitioners in the region, we have been in the eye of the storm of insecurity. Daily we are confronted by the negative consequences of these vices on the lives of our people. Our reporters daily report on villages being sacked and people abducted.

“We daily report the news of bandits writing demand notices to communities for ransoms or payment for permission to go to farms. We hear about executions of abductees for failure to pay for their freedom. We hear governors express their frustrations or confess that some parts of their communities are no longer under their control.

We report about people who once were self-sufficient but are now languishing in IDPs camps.”

The chairman noted that in continuation of efforts to fight insecurity and contribute to the search for peace and prosperity in the north and the nation, NMBOA would flag off its media advocacy and crusade against some of the major challenges bedeviling our society.

Yelwa said the association would use outreach and various platforms spread across the north and beyond to engage governmental institutions at all levels, as well as the civil society, traditional and religious leaders and key stakeholders to evolve sustainable and community based responses and for community ownership of the war against insecurity.

On the increasing rate of ritual killings in the country, the chairman blamed it on get rich quick syndrome.

Yelwa added: “These are common but a lot of it has to do with our desire to get rich quickly. This is something for the entire society. Leaving it in the hands of the authority alone may not solve the problem. We must go back to our moral orientation and of course we must do the due diligence.

“Morally, the parents must do the right thing and do what they are supposed to do. In some areas you hear traditional rulers also involved in this, religious leaders also involved in this. We are heading towards a system collapse. Collapse of social orientation and norms. We are really at a crossroads,” he added.