The Nigeria Institute of Public Relations, NIPR, has called on the new service chiefs to exhibit high level of professionalism in the discharge of their duties while taking the whole Nigeria and Nigerians as their constituency and their people irrespective of ethnic and religious leanings.
The body came up with this in a communiqué issued at the end of the monthly PR Moment it organised in Port Harcourt.
The communiqué was signed by the public relations officer, Chinedum Emeana, Apianbo Abbey and Parry Saroh Benson.
The body observed that the out gone Service Chiefs actually performed fairly at the initial period of their appointment but began to derail as time went on.
It added: “The out gone Service Chiefs dabbled into politics as they resort to excuses and propaganda to explain away their underperformance.
“There was obvious lack of synergy amongst the different arms of the Armed Forces and other security agencies which negated the counter insurgency fight.
“There was palpable distrust between the citizenry and the Armed Forces and the other security agencies which also contributed to the failure in defeating the insurgents.
“The strategy hitherto adopted by the military in fighting the pervading insecurity in the country was more of reactive instead of proactive. This was attributed to poor intelligence gathering and sharing by the different arms and agencies in the security architecture.
“Men and officers in the military and other security agencies were not properly motivated to fight insecurity in the country”.
In the light of the above, “the chapter deemed it necessary to set the following agenda for the newly appointed Service Chiefs in order to redeem the country from its seeming nosedive into total anarchy and ethno-religious crises, that;
“They should avoid being used for the political interest of any group or persons but must be loyal to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“They should undertake a proper evaluation of the fight against insecurity in the country to find out the progress made, the failures of their predecessors and the areas that need to be strengthened.
“They must work to engender synergy amongst the different arms of the Armed Forces as well as with the other security agencies for optimal performance in the fight against insurgency and other criminalities.
“A more proactive strategy based on Intelligence gathering should be adopted in the fight against insecurity in the country instead of the reactive model hitherto adopted.
“Adequate crises management and prevention mechanisms should be put in place to forestall the brewing ethno-religious crises at different parts of the country.
“The different arms of the Armed Forces and other security agencies must activate and empower their public relations units in order to properly sensitize and create goodwill amongst the citizenry as a way of building trust and understanding with the civilian population.
“The citizenry on their part should be supportive of the security agencies in the fight against insecurity by way of volunteering information whenever needed.
“The country’s borders must be adequately protected in order to prevent the influx of miscreants from neighbouring countries while any suspected criminal elements should be properly profiled to ascertain their nationality and if necessary, repatriated to their countries.
“Men and officers of the Armed Forces and other security agencies should be adequately motivated by way of remuneration, promotion and special performance awards in other to boost their morale for increased efficiency. Also, the security agencies must be adequately funded and equipped to place them at vantage position over insurgents, terrorists and other criminal elements.
