By Punch Newspaper Vows To Prefix President Muhammadu Buhari’s Name With His Military Dictator Rank Over Human Rights Abuse
One of Nigeria’s leading newspaper, The Punch, has vowed to henceforth prefix President Muhammadu Buhari’s name with his rank as a military dictator in the 80s, Major General.
In its editorial titled, “Buhari’s lawlessness: Our stand” published December 11, 2019, the newspaper said it will not take a “self-defeating attitude of many Nigerians looking the other way after each violation of rights and attacks on the citizens, the courts, the press and civic society, including self-determination groups lawfully exercising their inalienable rights to peaceful dissent. ”
The Punch Newspaper’s stand is coming on the heels of the Gestapo-styled rearrest of Omoyele Sowore, the publisher of online news medium, Saharareporter. Sowore a presidential candidate at the 2019 general elections is currently on trial for treason after leading a #RevolutionNow campaign purportedly designed to unseat the government.
The newspaper editorial stated emphatically that, “as a symbolic demonstration of our protest against autocracy and military-style repression, PUNCH (all our print newspapers, The PUNCH, Saturday PUNCH, Sunday PUNCH, PUNCH Sports Extra, and digital platforms, most especially Punchng.com) will henceforth prefix Buhari’s name with his rank as a military dictator in the 80s, Major General, and refer to his administration as a regime until they purge themselves of their insufferable contempt for the rule of law.”
