THE Chief of Army Staff,Lt.General Tukur Buratai, yesterday, warned personnel of the Nigerian Army against divulging official secret of the service on social media.
Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai / AFP
He equally charged them to always follow the laid down procedure in tabling issues they were qgrrieved at,saying the Army leadership under him would not condone anything done outside the required law. Speak yesterday,at the opening of the Nigerian army office management and document security workshop for officers in Abuja,the Army chief insisted that the use of social media by aggrieved personnel has often times hindered operational strategies which could be injurious to the country’s national security. Speak through the Chief of Policy and Plans, Major General Rasheed Yusuf,Buratai,Buratai said resorting to the social media was completely prohibited by the military, disclosing that the authorities has established a directorate to focus solely on the management of the social media in the army. “The social media has brought out additional challenges to information security which are being used by misguided personnel contrary to our service rules. “The Nigerian Army has an extant policy on the use of social media which prohibits among others, the use of social media to discuss or disclose service matters. “It is indeed unfortunate and unprofessional for service personnel to resort to social media to disclose classified information or express grievances when the Army has well established channels for addressing complain”,he said. The army chief said the workshop was aimed at equipping officers on the importance of securing service documents, in a manner that will not jeopardize any operations and administration. Hear him:“The ultimate objective of the forum is to build your capacity to effectively support my vision which is to have a professional responsive Nigerian Army in the discharge of its constitutional role”. He therefore called on the participants to take the workshop seriously, saying “some service documents are highly classified to the extent that their disclosure could be injurious to our national security and so officers need to be updated on how to preserve the sanctity of service documents and the threats in these areas. Earlier in his address, the Chief of Administration, Major General Idris Alkali, said security of documents is one of the cardinal requirement for effective operations and administration in the military, especially at this time when the Nigerian Army is engaged in numerous operations within the country. Alkali, who said it was unprofessional for any officer or soldier to disclose official information without authorization, pointed out that the workshop was organized for officers involved in the generating, drafting and releasing of documents that could jeopardize document security.
