Wife of Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian President, Aisha Buhari, on Tuesday opted to refer to her husband as “General” in her birthday greeting to Buhari who turned 77.
In a congratulatory message she posted on her Facebook page and Twitter handle, @aishambuhari, Mrs Buhari chose to refer to her husband as “GMB”, an acronym for General Muhammadu Buhari.
But others, including top government officials, who also took to various social media platforms to congratulate Buhari, instead, chose “PMB”, an acronym for President Muhammadu Buhari which the they are more comfortable with.
Apparently, to make it clear that she did not use the acronym in error, Mrs Buhari wrote it twice in the short message.
It was not clear as of the time of filing this report why Mrs Buhari who has been calling out presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu; and her husband’s nephew, Mamman Daura, chose to prefix Buhari’s name with the ‘General’ title.
Aisha wrote: “Happy Birthday to MY incorruptible GMB. “I wish you Allah’s Guidance Protection and Good Health to continue steering the affairs of our dear nation .
“Long Live GMB. “Long Live Federal Republic of Nigeria!”
See Aisha’s greeting on Twitter
Happy Birthday to MY incorruptible GMB.
I wish you Allah’s Guidance Protection and Good Health to continue steering the affairs of our dear nation .
Long Live GMB
Long Live Federal Republic of Nigeria ! pic.twitter.com/t0fKZqlUuP
— Aisha M. Buhari (@aishambuhari) December 16, 2019
Punch had in a front page editorial titled, “Buhari’s lawlessness: Our stand” published last Wednesday, assessed the President and stated that Buhari, who ruled the country as a military Head of State from 1983 to 1985, had failed to “wean himself off his military antecedents.”
The widely read newspaper had said, as a symbolic demonstration of its protest against autocracy and military-style repression, all its titles would henceforth prefix Buhari’s name with his rank as a military dictator that he was in the 80s, ‘Major General’ and refer to his administration as a regime, until agencies of government purge themselves of “their insufferable contempt for the rule of law.”