Recently, Nigeria has been home to various human rights violations, disregard for the rule of law and disregard of various independent institutions. The police have continually brutalized its citizens, journalists have been arrested and detained beyond the stipulated 24 hours, court orders have been disregarded and the president remains silent about these activities.
On Wednesday, Punch in their editorial titled ”Buhari’s lawlessness: Our stand” Punch said,”… will henceforth prefix Buhari’s name with his rank as a military dictator in the 80’s, Major General, and refer to his administration as a regime until they purge themselves of their insufferable contempt for the rule of law.” This statement was made due to the various issues surrounding the Buhari regime. From the disobedience of the court’s order by the DSS, human right violation by the police, the social media bill and hate speech bill, the newspaper took its stand.
This news was met well by the people of Nigeria as they took to social media to express their joy. The newspaper was commended for their action against the government and was said to be an example other media outlets should emulate.
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Signal, an online media platform also took to social media to say ”NOTICE | As a show of protest for the consistent disregard for the rule of law and clampdown on freedom of expression in #Nigeria, we shall henceforth address President Muhammadu @MBuhari with the prefix: ‘Dictator’ in all our publications.”
This news wasn’t received well by those associated with the President. Special advisor to the president, Femi Adesina said ”If you decide to call him Major General, he wasn’t dashed the rank, he earned it. So, you are not completely out of order. The fact that you can do so is even another testimony to press freedom in Nigeria.” This statement didn’t sit well with Nigerian as they attacked his line of thought because, if there is press freedom, why are journalists being arrested?
After the publication, the correspondent of Punch newspaper has been kicked out of Aso Rock and the newspaper has been bar from covering events in the presidency.