President Buhari has given a direct order to Ministry of Justice and the Honourable Attorney General Of the Federation to publish and gazette the June 12 pronouncement and awards issued to recipients in the Federal Government Gazette.
The directives was given a few munites ago, and it is expected that both the Attorney General’s office and the Ministry of Justice adhere to this directive for record purposes.
President Buhari who only yesterday, made a change to the May 29th Democracy day in Nigeria to June 12, as the date according to him, is widely seen as the actual date for Democracy in the country.
He said given circumstances that greeted the event of that particular day and other events that followed, it is only right to make that particular date the actual ‘Democracy day’, thereby rubbishing the May 29th, 1999 date former President Olusegun Obasanjo took office from a military head of State.
In making sure everything is backed by law the President has issued this directive. But we do not know if and whether the National Assembly would have a say in all of this.
The Presidency while giving this directive, took to the official social media page to say:
Following his declaration that June 12 henceforth be observed as Democracy Day in Nigeria & that some heroes of democracy be given national honours, PMB has directed the HAGF & Min of Justice to take immediate steps to publish the Presidential Order in the Fed Gazette as follows:
Chief MKO Abiola – Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (Posthumous) Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe – Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger Chief Gani Fawehinmi – Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (Posthumous)
The President also directed that this should be done so that the awards slated for June 12, 2018 can go ahead as planned.