Malam Ali Muhammad Ali, the Managing Director, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), says it is about time the agency charts a course on pathways to peace and economic prosperity in Africa.
Ali said this in Abuja on Monday in an interview on the agency’s Inaugural International Lecture slated for Thursday, Oct. 3.
NAN reports that the topic of the lecture is “Insecurity in the Sahel (2008-2024): Dissecting Nigeria’s Challenges – Genesis, Impacts and Options.”
He said the lecture is expected to interrogate the root causes of the violence troubling the Sahel.
According to him, given its strategic importance in the last 48 years of existence, NAN, the largest news agency in Africa, must play a pivotal role in giving direction on political, economic and social issues.
He added that “what NAN is doing is to tell the world that beyond reporting factually and objectively, it can intervene on contemporary issues, with a view to finding pathways to a greater nation and continent.”
The managing director explained that the lecture was aimed at igniting international conversations around flashpoints in the Sahel.
He said “security is the basic; without security, a nation cannot make progress, there will be no economic and social development.
“We’ve seen it in the Northwest where bandits take front row seats, conducting their nefarious activity with impunity, without any fear of reprisals.
“Agriculture has been suffering in the Northeast where there is insurgency,’’ he said.
Ali further explained that the lecture would look at a wide range of issues on insecurity, while proffering ways government could tackle the menace headlong.
“We are not looking at insecurity from a local or national level; we’re taking it on a wider paradigm, a bigger scale.
“So, we also think there is a nexus between what’s happening in the Sahel and here, just like we believe that there is a nexus between corruption and insecurity.”
Ali, therefore, expressed optimism that the outcome of the lecture, after being compiled and sent to appropriate quarters, would contribute to finding lasting solutions to the insecurity issues in the Sahel.
NAN reports that the lecture is also expected to provide public discourse on the debilitating challenges of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping for ransom, militancy and violent ultra-nationalism, among others in the country.
It will also examine the impacts on Nigeria’s territorial integrity and lay bare the options available to policy strategists based on the country’s security architecture. (NAN)
