Plateau State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mr Yiljap Abraham, has praised the media for bringing peace to the state. He said circumspection; sense of proportion, fair play and accommodation should be the watch-words of the profession.
He spoke at the second Plateau International Film Festival, organised by Deborah Ododo’s Media Initiative on Film and Social Development, at the National Film Institute Jos. Yiljap said in the past, it would have been difficult converging on Jos and sitting under a convenient mood celebrating the film industry.
He said the unending Plateau crises have been reported by national and international media for wrong reasons. He said parts of the country were continually under attack by forces, which sought to cripple social, cultural and the economic life of the state. These forces, he said,unleashed terror on the state,to reduce the home of peace and tourism to a house of pain and sorrow.
According to him, “today as we look back to those days of horror we can only but thank God almighty for his mercies and blessings. The peace we are enjoying should make us resolve to work, even work harder to ensure that peaceful co-existence is sustained and such tragedies do not visit our land again. Your presence here should be seen as a bold statement by us all that we shall stand against evil and prosper everything no matter what betides us”
“Today, the sad reality is that these anti-Nigeria forces are out to set one tongue against the other, one faith against the other and one region against the other. They have shown that they will spare nothing to severe the bond that has long held us together and they are very adept at using our diversity for our adversity. But they are doomed to fail because our diversity can only be for our prosperity” he said.
The Managing Director, Nigerian Film Corporation, Mr Afolabi Adesanya, said film is used to popularise government policies and ideologies among the masses. He explained that following its ability to hold a captive audience, films are used more than any other means of mass communication as well as to consolidate and build new relationship between culture and national development.
“It is, therefore, obvious that a well-developed film industry can contribute immensely to peace and national building. We must exploit the full potential of this medium to meet the twin challenges of peaceful co-existence and national development” he said.
He also added that film serves as a means for social mobilisation and national solidarity. “The colonial government used film effectively to mobilise the citizens to identify with their programs and take part in the process of national development.
