Headlines
Presidency Attacks Guardian over Editorial on Buhari’s Impeachment
The Presidency has condemned The Guardian Newspaper’s editorial calling for the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Garba Shehu, the President’s media aide made the condemnation in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.
The presidential aide frowned at the way and manner the newspaper had taken up the role of regular antagonist and political opponent of the president and his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The statement read in part: “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.”
Mr Shehu said that the newspaper had never hidden its dislike and hatred against the Buhari administration since its inception in 2015.
”The fact is, it should be for presidents to govern and for opposition politicians and the media to hold them to account.
”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 in spite of 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 had 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,” Mr Shehu said.
NAN
The first hostages freed from Gaza under a long-awaited ceasefire agreement are back in Israel. The news sparked jubilant scenes in Tel Aviv where large crowds gathered ahead of their release.
The three freed Israeli hostages – the first of 33 to be released over the next six weeks – are Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari. They are said to be in good health and are receiving treatment at a medical center in Tel Aviv.
In exchange, 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are set to be released by Israel from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military withdrew from several locations in southern and northern Gaza after the truce began earlier on Sunday, an Israeli military official told CNN.
Displaced Gazans have started returning to their homes, while the aid trucks laden with much-needed supplies have crossed into Gaza. Here’s what we know about how the ceasefire deal will work.
Hamas, despite suffering devastating losses, is framing the Gaza ceasefire agreement as a victory for itself, and a failure for Israel.
One of Hamas’ main goals for taking some 250 people during its brazen October 7, 2023, attack on Israel was to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. As Israel pounded Gaza in response, Hamas vowed not to return the hostages until Israel withdrew its forces from the enclave, permanently ended the war, and allowed for rebuilding.
Source: CNN
The leader of UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has said she doesn’t want Britain to be like Nigeria that is plagued by “terrible governments.”
Speaking on Thursday at an event organised by Onward, a British think tank producing research on economic and social issues, Badenoch expressed fears that Britain may become like Nigeria if the system is not reformed.
“And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it,” Badenoch told the audience.
“I don’t want Britain to lose what it has.
“I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation.
“I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life.
“So I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”
Badenoch has been in the news of late after she dissociated herself from Nigeria, saying she has nothing to do with the Islamic northern region.
She also accused the Nigeria Police of robbing citizens instead of protecting them.
She said: “My experience with the Nigeria Police was very negative. Coming to the UK, my experience with the British Police was very positive.
“The police in Nigeria will rob us (laughter). When people say I have this bad experience with the police because I’m black, I say well…I remember the police stole my brother’s shoe and his watch.”
