The Presidency has said that The Punch newspaper’s decision to include the prefix, Major General, in addition to President Muhammadu Buhari is a testimony of free speech.
The newspaper said in an editorial on Wednesday entitled ‘Buhari’s lawlessness: Our stand’ that Buhari’s administration would now be referred to as a regime until it purges itself of “insufferable contempt for the rule of law.”
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Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said in a statement on Wednesday that the newspaper’s move was a sign that the freedom of the press is not being threatened.
“A newspaper says it will henceforth address President Muhammadu Buhari by his military rank of Major General. Nothing untoward in it. It is a rank the President attained by dint of hard work before he retired from the Nigerian Army. And today, constitutionally, he’s also Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces,” the statement said.
“All over the world, just as in our country, a large number of retired military officers are now democrats. It does not make those who didn’t pass through military service better democrats than them.
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“Rather than being pejorative, addressing President Buhari by his military rank is another testimony to free speech and freedom of the press, which this administration (or regime, if anyone prefers: it’s a matter of semantics) has pledged to uphold and preserve.”
The newspaper’s action followed outrage that greeted the rearrest of the convener of RevolutionNow protest, Omoyele Sowore, last Friday by the Department of State Services (DSS) at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
