{"id":175151,"date":"2019-12-11T18:56:33","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T16:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=175151"},"modified":"2019-12-11T17:58:48","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T16:58:48","slug":"oby-ezekwesili-advises-buhari-as-punch-vows-to-call-president-major-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=175151","title":{"rendered":"Oby Ezekwesili advises Buhari as Punch vows to call President \u2018Major General\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

A former minister of education, Oby Ezekwesili has hailed PUNCH Newspapers for standing up against President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s alleged dictatorial regime.<\/p>\n

In a notice titled \u201cBuhari\u2019s lawlessness: Our Stand\u201d, Punch stated that it will \u201chenceforth prefix Buhari\u2019s name with his rank as a military dictator in the 80s \u2018Major General\u2019 and refer to his administration as a regime until they purge themselves of their insufferable contempt for the rule of law.<\/p>\n

The newspaper made the decision while making reference to DSS non-compliance to court orders on trial of Omoyele Sowore, publisher of SaharaReporters; invasion of courtroom and trial of Shiites\u2019 leader, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky amongst others.<\/p>\n

Punch said its decision shows its protest against autocracy and military-style repression under Buhari\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

In reaction, Ezekwesili called on President Muhammadu Buhari to read and reflect on issues highlighted by Punch.<\/p>\n

On her Twitter page, She wrote: \u201cNo one needs to tell me about the importance of the free press in a democratic society or about the essential role a newspaper can play in its community-Robert Kennedy<\/p>\n

\u201cGlad you rose to this ideal Punch. I advise Buhari to read and reflect deep on all you wrote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in reaction to Punch\u2019s decision, Femi Adesina, a Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, said the newspaper\u2019s decision to call Buhari \u2018Major General\u2019 is not out of order.<\/p>\n

Adesina on his Twitter page @FemiAdesina added that Buhari has earned the rank \u2018Major General\u2019 According to him, Punch\u2019s publication is proof of press freedom under Buhari\u2019s administration.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former minister of education, Oby Ezekwesili has hailed PUNCH Newspapers for standing up against President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s alleged dictatorial regime. In a notice titled \u201cBuhari\u2019s lawlessness: Our Stand\u201d, Punch stated that it will \u201chenceforth prefix Buhari\u2019s name with his rank as a military dictator in the 80s \u2018Major General\u2019 and refer to his administration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":175152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[41,633,7370,13136],"class_list":["post-175151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-more","tag-buhari","tag-garba-shehu","tag-oby-ezekweseli","tag-punch-newspaper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=175151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/175152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=175151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=175151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=175151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}