Essential Ndubuisi
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has stated that addressing President Muhammadu Buhari as a general and dictator is abuse of press freedom.
Speaking on Tuesday April 12, when executives of the International Press Institute (IPI), Nigeria chapter paid a courtesy visit to him at his office in Abuja, Lai maintained that the government of the day in Nigeria is not a threat to the media.
The Minister also claimed that despite the abuse of press freedom, those doing that have continued to practise their profession without hindrance.
He said;
“I remember saying at the opening of the 2016 IPI World Congress in Qatar that the government of the day in Nigeria is not a threat to the media, and that it is not about to stifle press freedom or deny anyone his or her constitutionally-guaranteed rights.
“That statement remains true today as it was then. I even told the congress that the Nigerian media have no reason to fear the government, and that — if anything — it is the government that is at the mercy of the media. That, too, remains true today.
“After all, this must be one of the very few countries in the world where a section of the media can refuse to recognise popular sovereignty, or how does one describe a situation in which a president who was duly elected by millions of Nigeria is willfully stripped of that title, president, and then cheekily cloaked in the garb of a dictator by playing up his military title?
“Despite that abuse of press freedom, those doing that have continued to practise their profession without hindrance.”
