ABUJA RESIDENTS PERCEPTION OF ARMED FORCES RADIO’S REPORTAGE ON BOKOHARAM INSURGENCY
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
In a bid to ensure accurate and precise account of activities of the Nigerian military, especially in its ongoing
Boko Haram counter-insurgency operations in the North East, former president Goodluck Jonathan in 2015
inaugurated the rst digital armed forces radio station in Abuja. The radio station, with frequency 107.7FM, has
being transmitting sessions that covers all military activities especially on Boko Haram operations.
The Nigerian government launched armed forces radio as strong weapon to determine outcomes of Counter
Insurgency (COIN). Conversely, Boko Haram groups also use radio as a tools to effectively tilt public opinion.
As a tool of insurgency and COIN, the media is an important element in opinion building, creating heroes and
villains, and creating monsters and enemies. When effectively deployed by insurgents, the media becomes a
threat to National Security (NS) and when properly used by the agents of the state such as the military, the
media serves the purpose of enhancing national security.
The media is a mixture of institutions and technology used for propagation of information to the public. The
media especially the radio is one of the effective tools for shaping public opinion and winning the hearts and
minds of the populace. It is a pillar on which the success or failure of COIN operations depend upon. Media
outlets are categorized as electronic media involving television and radio, or print media such as newspapers
and magazines or social media such as YouTube, Face Book, and Twitter among others. In an authoritarian
system, the media supports and advances government policies. In a Libertarian political environment, the
media informs, discovers the truth and hold government accountable while in the social responsibility system,
the media serves as a means for anyone who has something to say, including propagating ideas and
entertainment, to disseminate such views Hussain N et al (2008). It is within this last political environment that
insurgents or the military use media tools for propaganda, detraction, or aviation purposes or to put out of
order critical transmission points of structures or processes related to national security. Seeks to contain or
eliminate in order to enhance national security. Globally about 6.9 billion people have access to the media and
3.7 billion use the internet with 2.80 billion using the social media. This has made the media a highly coveted
tool for warfare.
In Nigeria, the Armed Forces Radio transmitting on 107.7 has being on the reportage of announcing successful
attacks, deployment/redeployment, communication and strategic planning on Boko Haram insurgency Chukwu
Solomon (2019).
The Armed Forces Radio reportage include some tactical actions such as the deployed various operations in
its COIN . Such operations included Operation Restore Order, I-III, Operation Boyona which was later renamed
Operation Zaman Laya, which gave way to the ongoing Operation Laya Dole.
These efforts, in addition to others, were to help in containing and decimating the BHT as the COIN strategic
communication through the media effectively provided counter narratives to radical views, thus enhancing the
national security in the North East..
ABUJA RESIDENTS PERCEPTION OF ARMED FORCES RADIO’S REPORTAGE ON BOKOHARAM INSURGENCY