The Commandant, Nigerian Defence Academy, Major General Abdul Khalifa Ibrahim, has said that Kaduna State, the seat of the Academy, is now safer than it used to be.
The NDA commandant, however, added that much needs to be done to ensure wholistic security situation because, “We are not yet where we want to be.”
Ibrahim stated this when the executive members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Kaduna State Council, paid him a courtesy visit at the NDA permanent site, Afaka, Igabi LGA, Kaduna, on Thursday.
The NDA boss, who noted that journalists are the watchdogs of society, called on them to sensitise the general public on the need to report suspicious persons in society to security agencies, adding that NDA and NUJ are partners in progress.
He said, “We are in the process of organising our security help line, and very soon, it will be operational.
“It will be ready so that if there is anything, we will be able to tackle it much earlier.
“We are not a security outfit per se, but we are also senior military officers who have taken part in working to maintain security in our society.
I can beat my chest to say that Kaduna State in the last few months is much safer than it used to be. But we are not where we want to be yet.
“So we must join hands and work together so that we can have a country we can be proud of. Each time people travel outside Nigeria, and after one or two weeks, they would like to come back to Nigeria. So it is better to work together and build a better country.”
Ibrahim added, “So, we appeal to NUJ to help us in projecting the activities of the Nigerian Defence Academy. We appeal to you to help us to sensitise the general public, not just because we are a training institution, we are a security organisation, and we have Demonstration Battalions that sometimes support whatever information.
“If there is any issue of security breach in Kaduna, because there is a nexus between security and development, without one of them, one cannot survive on its own. So help us sensitise the general public that if they see anything suspicious, they should have a way of reporting to us, and then we take it up.
“Journalists are the watchdogs of any society. We refer to you as the fourth estate of the realm, very, very important. So for us, you people do not just educate, you inform and also entertain us.
“The NDA is mainly a training institution founded over 60 years ago with the mandate of training young Nigerians for leadership positions in the Armed Forces. They have trained over 20,000 officers, both from Nigeria and outside Nigeria and even outside Africa. So basically, that is what we do in the area of training.”
Earlier, in his remarks, NUJ Chairman, Abdulgafar Alabelewe, commended the commandant for the quality training given to officers of the Armed Forces, admitting that journalists have a bigger role to play in ensuring a peaceful society.
