According to reports by Punch Newspaper, the President reportedly advised media leaders to remove stories about terrorism from newspaper front pages.
If that is indeed the proposal, it raises an important question: can reducing the visibility of terrorism in the media contribute meaningfully to solving the insecurity facing the country?
The fundamental issue is that terrorism is not a media problem; it is a security problem. Removing reports from front pages does not remove terrorists from our forests, communities, or highways. It does not address the root causes of insecurity, nor does it bring relief to victims and affected families.
A lasting solution requires confronting and defeating those responsible for the violence, restoring security in vulnerable areas, and ensuring that citizens can live without fear. Public awareness of the problem may be uncomfortable, but obscuring it is not the same as solving it.
Of course, the President has access to intelligence and security briefings that many of us do not, and he may have reasons for believing this approach could be helpful. However, from my perspective, it is difficult to see how reducing media coverage of terrorism advances the broader goal of ending the threat itself.
Perhaps there are considerations unknown to the public. If so, one can only hope that they form part of a comprehensive strategy that delivers real and lasting security for Nigerians.
May God protect us all, and may our efforts remain focused on addressing the problem itself rather than merely reducing its visibility.
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria. 🇳🇬
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