Presidency calls newspaper Editorial demanding impeachment of Buhari ‘headline-grabbing stunt’

Presidency, Wednesday, described the Editorial of a newspapers (Guardian) published same day which joined in the growing calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to be impeached from office, as a ‘headline-grabbing stunt,’ adding further that the media editors ‘ debase both the political discourse of our nation and public understanding of the law and constitution by doing so.’

According to the Presidency, reacting through Mr Garba Shehu, the Media and Publicity adviser to President Buhari, the Guardian newspaper’s editors ‘clearly do not like the way the President is running the country and therefore they believe he should be impeached.’

It would be recalled that discourse at the senate was halted on Wednesday, July 27, following a chaos which erupted inside the chambers as senators from various political platforms walked out during plenary over demands for the resignation of Buhari and commencement of impeachment proceedings against the Nigerian leader.

The senator afterwards addressed a news conference there they issued a six-week ultimatum to Buhari to resolve the worsening insecurity situation in the country of face impeachment.

Addressing journalists at the Senate Press Corps (SPC) Centre, immediately after the walkout, spokesperson for the senators, the Minority Leader, Senator Philip Aduda (PDP-FCT), said they have resolved to give President Buhari a six-week ultimatum within which to end the insecurity in the country or face impeachment.

The senators who reportedly walk out on plenary were heard chanting ‘Buhari must go’, as they trooped out of the senate chambers.

“It is obvious that Abuja, the seat of the Federal government is no longer safe, as you all can see.

“We went into a closed-door session on the state of insecurity in Abuja and took cognisance that Nigeria is no longer safe.

“Senate has recommended various measures and discovered that even Abuja is no longer safe.

“We agreed in the closed session that we will give President Muhammadu Buhari an ultimatum, but the Senate President Dr Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan didn’t want us to raise the issue.

“However, we have issued six weeks for President Buhari to resolve insecurity or be impeached.

“We walked out of Chambers in protest.”

According to Senator Aduda, the various recommendations by the lawmakers have been made but security challenges have not abated, which he added, now compels them commence impeachment proceedings against President Buhari now.

Aduda who represents the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) said the ultimatum to Buhari was for him to resolve the heightened insecurity in the country or face impeachment.

It was learnt that at the commencement of the plenary on Tuesday, the lawmakers had questioned the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, on why the issue of insecurity was not in the Order Paper.

The aggrieved senators further expressed anger that Lawan refused to abide by their resolution after reverting to plenary after the closed-door session.

They insisted they had during their closed-door session which lasted for two hours agreed that they should debate the issue of insecurity and give Buhari an impeachable ultimatum notice.

Co-incidentally, after thwarting the senators move to initiate impeachment proceedings against Buhari, the senate president, Lawan ruled for a seven-week recess by the Upper Chambers.

Presidential Spokesperson, Shehu, in a message, accused the Guardian newspaper of ‘sensational reports against the President and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).’

“The Guardian newspaper, which has taken up the role of regular antagonist and political opponent of the President and his party, APC for a long time now, has surpassed itself with its latest call for the impeachment of the President.

“The newspaper editors clearly do not like the way the President is running the country and therefore they believe he should be impeached. They debase both the political discourse of our nation and public understanding of the law and constitution by doing so.

“Impeachment is a process undertaken after high crimes and misdemeanours have been proven. It’s a not a process undertaken against a leader whose politics you do not agree with, or who you personally dislike.

“It appears, impeachment has become a newly added partisan weapon in their arsenal – wielded by those who have established a track record of hatred towards the President and an attempt to remove from office one who was democratically elected by the people.

“In a recent editorial published in the Washington Times, the American political leader and commentator Saul Anuzis stated: “There are exceptional circumstances when presidents and other office holders deserved to be impeached… slam-dunk cases of malfeasance in the highest office.

“Referencing attempts to call an impeachment vote in the Nigerian Senate a “headline-grabbing stunt,” Anuzis observed “It is no coincidence this occurs just months before Nigeria’s next presidential election.

“The fact is, it should be for presidents to govern and for opposition politicians and the media to hold them to account. The circumstances of his election in 2015 – the first time a sitting president had been defeated in a re-election attempt and the first time any party save the PDP had won the presidency – was a vast shock to Nigeria’s political and sections of the media establishments. As far as they were concerned, it was not how things were meant to be.

“So, from day one, they set about attacking this president more than any other in Nigeria’s history. The fact they could not defeat him at the ballot box when he was re-elected in 2019 – and now with his APC party very likely to retain the presidency despite all their best efforts – they now turn to all and any means, no matter the political, legal, or constitutional consequences to bring him down. 

“For the benefit of the ones who have forgotten, the Guardian newspaper has in the past, been worshipped as the flagship of the nation’s press; the one that had won every “Newspaper of the Year” awards. Now, they have sadly fallen from the height it once occupied as a medium that sparked intellectual thought and discourse for a fiddler of poorly scripted invective and ad hominem.

“The Guardian newspaper may never be friend or ally of President Buhari, but they should know better than to support this “headline-grabbing stunt,” Garba said.