CISLAC Partners Journalists To Push Legislation On Protection Of Civilians

LUCKY AKRA

A Civil Society Advocacy Group, CISLAC, has organized a one-day seminar focusing on the issue of Protection of Civilians, (PoC) and Civilian Harm Mitigation for Journalists covering the Defence and Crime beats.

Speaking at the event, Mr Salaudeen Hashim, who is CISLAC Program Manager, said “PoC is new in the whole of Africa and if Nigeria begins to legislate and begin to design in-house mechanism that works, it will help develop Civilian Harm Mitigation infrastructure. And because we are pushing for a legislation, it becomes imperative to engage with the Media, so that they can actually take this forward as a medium to begin to influence decision makers”.

During his presentation, he urged the media to put Protection of Civilians, PoC, in the front burners in their news reportage.

Recognizing and appreciating the power of the Media, Mr. Salaudeen said, “The Media has a whole lot to play in terms of influencing and advocating for a legislation on Protection of Civilians, POC, and that is why we believe in using difference of their own contacts to push this conversation going forward. We cannot ignore the successes the media has recorded over the years”.

“In Post-independence Nigeria, the Media has been very strategic and has come thus far; I think that is not arguable and I think they’ve indeed provided a whole lot of contribution in terms of National development.”
“This is a new project aimed at protecting the rights of the people and projecting the dangers that civilians face during Military operations across the country.”

He further said that if Nigeria goes on to put that policy framework in place, it will become the first in the whole of Africa to do so. And according to him, if the policy is adopted, it will be appreciated and he thinks that those within the regime and corridors of power will want their names to go down well in history.