Aisha, wife of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Tuesday opted to refer to her husband as “General” in her birthday message to Buhari, who turned 77.
In a congratulatory message she posted on her Facebook wall and also on her verified Twitter handle @aishambuhari, Mrs. Buhari decided to refer to the President as “GMB”, an acronym for General Muhammadu Buhari.
Others, including top government officials who took to various social media platforms to congratulate Buhari, however, chose “PMB”, an acronym for President Muhammadu Buhari, which the President’s handlers 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.
She 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 tweet:
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
The 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 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.”