By Nasiru Yusuf

An Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Baba Muhammad has said the threat posed by rampant kidnapping is higher than that of terrorism in Nigeria.

He said Nigeria, especially the northern part, is witnessing a wave of kidnappings, perpetrated by bandits collecting ransom, amounting to millions of naira from innocent citizens.

Speaking at a graduation dinner, organized by the 2019 Class of Masters in Public Relations (MPR) of Bayero University Kano (BUK), held at Chinese Palace in Kano on Saturday, Mr Muhammad revealed that the criminals have now employed news tricks using social media platforms.

According to him, the issue of kidnapping and banditry has taken a huge toll on the country to the extent that even security personnel are not spared by the dastardly act, disclosing that the bandits have employed new technique of recruiting members via social media.

“These bandits no longer engage in physical recruitment where they used to recruit almajiris as members. They are now sophisticated enough to recruit members through Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram and others. They use these platforms to recruit members.

“So, the only way to counter their tricks is to be knowledgeable enough and be on those social media platforms. If they are on Facebook, be on Facebook, if they are on Twitter, be on Twitter.

“As a PR practitioner, you must widen your horizon and be versatile in order to use your profession in checking the menace of insecurity in this country,” he advised

Mr Mohammad also called on PR practitioners to contribute their quotas in checking the menace of kidnapping and terrorism.

On his part, a former spokesman of the Nigerian Army, Sani Usman Kuka-Sheka, shared experience on how he countered Boko Haram propaganda using his PR profession.

He said at the beginning of Boko Haram insurgency, people in the Northeast were afraid to call the name of “Shekau” and “Boko Haram”, adding that he used certain techniques to make the people understand that the insurgents are ” simply criminals”.

“If a video of an attack appeared, I used to spend about 10 hours to analyse it. The missing link between Boko Haram propaganda and the government is communication.

“Boko Haram engaged international Hausa news media like the BBC, VOA, RFI etc to speak in Hausa. When I realized that, I also engaged same media platforms to counter that propaganda in Hausa.

“That was how people got to know the real Boko Haram. I used my PR knowledge to change the narrative because people in the Northeast were insinuating that Boko Haram members are invincible. They have more than one life,” he said

Mr Kuka-Sheka added that, “On the part of the soldiers, I used techniques to keep them brave and in high morale. There was a time when a battalion was attacked 17 times, but I used communication techniques to keep the soldiers strong to the extent that there was a time they killed over ninety insurgents in a day.

“These are the techniques I used to change the soldiers to fighting machines. In this light, I want the graduating students to know that PR is not done in media only. It can be successful in every human endeavor,” he advised.

The retired brigadier-general also recalled how Borno elders once threatened to sue him in the course of his official duty.

He said a suicide bomber intercepted in Maiduguri once told the military that it was her father who took her to Boko-Haram to be used for attack.

In his address, Professor Umaru Pate, the Dean, School of Post-Graduate Studies, BUK charged public relations practitioners to embrace different social platforms in reaching their publics.

He said many opportunities await PR practitioners as universities would soon start looking for them to teach at the proposed department of Public Relations as approved by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

Also speaking the National president of Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) Sirajo Zubairu urged the MPR graduates to join the institute to enable them become professional PR practitioners.

He said the institute would give “special consideration” to those who want register with the NIPR.