Since The Punch Editorial was published, which exposed President Buhari for who he is, a lawlessness leader; there is now a strong indication that Femi Adesina, one of the aides to the President, could be in a serious trouble. This is as a result of his “slavish” response to the explicit editorial of The Punch that truly exposed Buhari as a worse dictator of the present times. This is so because president Buhari, in his bid to stop the #RavolutionNow movement, had through many of his lawless action and intolerance to the truth in the Punch editorial, triggered the very revelation that the #RevolutionNow had hoped to achieve.
It could be recalled that Omoleye Sowore, the presidential candidate of the AAC in the last election, had sought to enforce good governance in Nigeria, through a sustained peaceful protest, which he tag #RevolutionNow. An idea that many Nigerians actually bought into, but before he could commence the protest, president Buhari intolerant of free speech and protest, arrested him and put him in detention without trial. And also went on to frustrate all efforts by Sowore legal team to have a proper trial. However, last Friday while Sowore was in court with his legal team, to finalise his bail, the DSS, supposedly under presidential order invaded the court, attacked him, and later got him arrested within the courtroom. This act by the DSS, and the presidency management of it has set off the very #RevolutionNow that Buhari had tried to stop.
Though there was initial denial, then later acceptance, but justification of the invasion of the court by the DSS, the involvement of The Punch, through their heavily worded editorial in the cry against such lawlessness, became the game changer, which seemingly has commenced the revolution against Buhari’s government’s oppression and lawlessness. As the Punch editorial helped increased the consciousness of Nigerians, about their right to stand up against any form of evil by the government, the Buhari’s presidency in jittery mode, came out with two uncoordinated and conflicting responses. The first of these came from Femi Adesina, the same response that seem to have landed him in trouble with the presidency.
In Adesina response, while tacitly disparaging the Punch, he admitted that there was nothing wrong in addressing president Buhari as Major General Buhari, and calling his government a regime, which was the position of the Punch going forward, as contained in their editorial. Adesina had said, “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 is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces”. He even pass off the Punch ability to do so, as a testament of Buhari’s allowance of freedom of the press under him, when he said “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 is a matter of semantics) has pledged to uphold and preserve.” But This line of thought by Adesina was contrary to the thought line of the presidency as Garba Shehu later revealed in his press release. However the Presidency is not decided yet on what to do with Adesina on this.
Unfortunately, Garba Shehu Press statement, which was confrontational to both the Punch and the sensibility of the Nigerian people, has worsen matters. He deliberately left out addressing the main issue of the editorial, which boarders on the Buhari’s government’s repeated disregard of the rule of law, disobedience of court orders, illegal detentions, the recent invasion of an Abuja court by armed operatives of the DSS and many other human rights abuses; and went on to accuse The Punch of hatred, and also tried to justify Buhari’s lawlessness. This he did by referencing some violations by previous government of OBJ. According to him, Punch “never changed President Olusegun Obasanjo’s title from the President to General Obasanjo, despite the latter’s refusal to comply with the Supreme Court judgment ordering him to release N30bn to Lagos State”. The truth is the presidency is truly hugely shaken by The Punch editorial. Garba couldn’t hide this when he said, “The Constitution of Nigeria recognises the President as the formal official title of the occupant of that office. Can the Punch newspapers, in their hubris address the President as Prime Minister as it pleases?”
So, other media houses are now ready to tow the same line as The Punch in holding the Buhari’s government to account for its deed; the very purpose the #RevolutoonNow had Hoped to achieve. Interestingly, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has also joined the league of resistance to Buhari lawlessness. Mr. Kunle Edun The National Publicity Secretary of the association, has said that the Punch did not violate any law by its decision. According to him “We all know that military regimes have no respect for the rule of law and the judiciary is usually under attack,” the exact thing Buhari is clearly doing. He added that the Punch is only taking advantage of its right to freedom of expression in responding to Buhari’s lawlessness.
Also adding his voice to the growing league of resistance is a Lagos rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana who insisted that The Punch has violated no law. Mr. Falana wondered why the presidency in their responses, did not address the grave abuses that has characterised the Buhari’s government. Especially what he tagged “the desecration of the Federal High Court in Abuja last Friday. An act which the DSS has apologised to Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu and the Chief Judge of the court, for the armed invasion of the temple of justice.”
Apart from Falana Another human rights lawyer, Mr Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN, also reechoed the fact that The Punch, committed no offence punishable under any law, by its choice of referencing the President as a major general. He shockingly added that “It is illegal to refer to Muhammadu Buhari as President Muhammadu Buhari; his name is Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.). That is the expectation of the Armed Forces Act. When he contested elections in this country, there was no President affixed to his name. It was his rank of major general that he used in contesting elections. It was when he won in 2015 elections that he sought to change his nomenclature, which was illegal.”
With all these support from Nigerians to the Punch declaration of resistance, to the Buhari’s lawlessness, the revolution he had sought to stop, may have started in earnest. Nigerians only need to bring out their resiliency to be able to overcome the Buhari’s lawlessness, as they have done in the past, during the Military days.
