By Dele Ogbodo
The Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, to President Muhammadu Buhari, has said the Punch news paper editorial of Wednesday (today)
on President Muhammadu Buhari, can best be described as personal hatred for the president.
Reacting to what he termed as an attack on Buhari, in a statement made available to SHARPEDGENews, the SSA, averred that Punch newspaper’s double standards in cuddling some of our past dictators and their open contempt for Buhari clearly show that the paper has sinister motives for its current curious editorial judgment.
Shehu, stressed further that the editorial is therefore a personal hatred for and animus towards President Buhari should not be allowed to becloud its good judgment.
He said: “The reported news editorial policy of the Punch newspapers to address President Muhammadu Buhari as Major General in his official title and refer to his government as a regime instead of administration, comes to us as totally curious and utterly incredible.”
According to him, the paper claimed that it is changing President Buhari’s official title to General because of his government’s alleged disregard for the rule of law, adding that: “Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), for that is his title, and he was indeed a Major General, but today retired from that position and now twice democratically elected president of Nigeria – is not the choice of Punch Newspaper’s editors and owners, that is clear.
“He is, however, the two-time electoral choice of the voters of Nigeria, those very people who Punch Newspapers described this morning as “lethargic”: a disdaining epithet apportioned to decent, hard-working, everyday Nigerians for not agreeing with, and for not having voted in line with their publication’s editorial and political opinions.
“Punch’s editorial today is, however, entirely in line with holding and exercising the right of free speech and freedom of the press, as my friend and colleague, Femi Adesina said earlier today.”