{"id":1500,"date":"2017-08-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/placng.org\/i\/mixed-reactions-trail-president-buharis-speech\/"},"modified":"2017-08-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-08-22T00:00:00","slug":"mixed-reactions-trail-president-buharis-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/placng.org\/i\/mixed-reactions-trail-president-buharis-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixed Reactions Trail President Buhari\u2019s Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mixed reactions continue to trail President Buhari\u2019s first speech since his address to Nigerians on Monday, 21st<\/sup> August 2017 after a medical leave to London had seen him out from office for more than hundred days.<\/p>\n

Notably, the speech covered issues pertaining to Nigeria\u2019s unity in addition to other burning issues that had been at the forefront of national discussions during his leave such as insurgency, kidnappings, farmers versus herdsmen clashes and ethnic violence, which the President urged security agencies to tackle in his address. The President also affirmed Nigeria\u2019s unity as \u201cnot negotiable\u201d stating that every Nigerian had the right to live anywhere without let or hindrance\u201d and asserted his commitment to economic security, political evolution, integration and lasting peace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However, while the President\u2019s speech has been perceived in some quarters as giving further \u201cassurance\u201d to Nigeria\u2019s security and indissolubility despite earlier threats to the contrary by some groups, sceptics including Nigeria\u2019s main opposition party (the People\u2019s Democratic Party) have dismissed his speech as a \u201cmonumental anti-climax[1]<\/a>.\u201d They have also urged the Government to \u201cwalk the talk\u201c by instilling confidence that Nigeria belongs to all instead.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Others also point out to gaps in the President\u2019s speech such as his direct attack on social media users whom he accused of causing the agitations leading to ethnic tensions while failing to denounce the actions of some groups that are \u201cactually\u201d believed to be responsible for same. Related to this, some online users responded to the allegations yesterday warning that it could be an indirect attempt of the government to restrict social media access through the back door. The President\u2019s attack on social media users was also viewed as hypocritical as social media has been credited as a factor that led to President Buhari ousting of an incumbent President for the first time in Nigeria\u2019s political history. It will be recalled that a Frivolous Petition Bill that sought to regulate the use of social media in the country to prevent unwarranted negative spotlight on public and political office holders was rejected in the Senate in May, last year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Further criticisms of the President\u2019s speech have also included his alleged \u201cinept\u201d reference to the late Chief Emeka Ojukwu \u2013 who infamously championed an independent Biafra state in the 1960\u2019s. Although the allusion was used in a context that highlighted Ojukwu\u2019s consensus for national unity, some commentators have suggested that the reference was \u201cineffectual\u201d and that a mention of the National Conference Report in 2014 would have been more adequate in the call for unison.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Other highlighted gaps include the President\u2019s silence on the on going strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities in federal tertiary institutions nationwide due to the Federal Government failure to implement a 2009 agreement. The President also kept silent on the true state of his health despite protests within and outside the country that are credited to have forced his return.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> PDP Criticizes Buhari\u2019s #PresidentialBroadcast http:\/\/www.premiumtimesng.com\/news\/top-news\/241082-pdp-criticises-buharis-presidentialbroadcast.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mixed reactions continue to trail President Buhari\u2019s first speech since his address to Nigerians on Monday, 21st August 2017 after a medical leave to London had seen him out from office for more than hundred days. Notably, the speech covered issues pertaining to Nigeria\u2019s unity in addition to other burning issues that had been at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"PLAC","author_link":"https:\/\/placng.org\/i\/author\/olumide-adebayo\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/placng.org\/i\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2017-08-21-at-2.45.48-PM-300x222.png","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["News<\/a>"],"unlinked":["News<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 9 years ago","modified":"Updated 9 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on August 22, 2017","modified":"Updated on August 22, 2017"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on August 22, 2017 12:00 am","modified":"Updated on August 22, 2017 12:00 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}