In the past week, Nigerians all over the globe have been calling for the resignation of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami. Here’s why.
The drama around Pantami began on the 14th of April 2021 when reports about comments he made several years ago in support of Al-Qaeda – an extremist group founded by the late Osama bin Laden who masterminded the September 11 2001 attacks in the United States surfaced online.
Pantami was also reported to have made comments in support of the Taliban – a Sunni Islamist movement and military organization in Afghanistan currently waging jihad within the country. According to reports, the comments are contained in three audio recordings of his teachings in the 2000s.
The Communications Minister is equally alleged to have once declared that he was always happy when infidels were massacred.
Reactions consequently trailed the publication of the reports with many Nigerians on Twitter calling for the sack or resignation of the minister with the hashtag #pantamiresignnow. While others campaign for his stay in office with the hashtag #pantamiwillstay. So far the tweets have garnered over 50,000 reactions.
While some allege an ethnic bias and undertone to the #pantamiwillstay campaign despite allegations of his sympathy for terror groups, others equally allege that the #pantamiresignnow campaign for the minister’s resignation is being sponsored by his political enemies and those against his mandate of the ongoing national identification number (NIN) and subscriber identity module (SIM) integration exercise.
Whichever way, many Nigerians insist that the minister cannot be trusted with the data of Nigerians, especially with the NIN and SIM integration exercise under his watch. Some have also cited the case of former Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun, who had to resign from office in September 2018 after the publication of a forged NYSC certificate surfaced online, as a precedent that must be upheld for accountability to not be seen as only applicable to southern officeholders in the country.
Although Pantami has renounced his past controversial comments saying he was young when he made them adding that he now knows better as he is now more mature, many Nigerians especially on Twitter are not having it. As of Sunday #pantamiresignnow was trending at number one on the social media platform.
Perhaps this is also because lives have been lost as a result of his past utterances. Reports have it that while in the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in Bauchi, as the chief imam of the University mosque, the minister was, directly and indirectly, involved in the instigation and coordination of attacks against non-muslims in the institution, one of which was when he passed a fatwa on 5 ECWA students who embarked on evangelism in the school, claiming that one of the tracts distributed was blasphemous against the Prophet. The incident reportedly led to the death of the leader of ESM, Mr. Sunday Achi, a 400L student at the time, who was stoned to death in a remote part of the school premises.
The story gets more interesting as the opposition party PDP equally weighed in on the matter joining millions to call for the sack of the embattled minister. PDP’s National Chairman Uche Secondus was reported to have said that it is best the minister resigns and tender an unreserved apology to Nigerians for his utterances in the past.
In what appears to be a battle of supremacy of both hashtags, Twitter continues to go agog with the #pantamimustgo and #pantamiwillstay Hashtags.
However, a civil society organization, Concerned Nigerians, has petitioned the United States embassy in Nigeria, urging the Joe Biden-led administration to investigate the Minister over his alleged involvement with terror groups. The group also demanded that the American government place the minister on its terror watch list if the allegations against him were found to be true. The petition titled, ‘Terrorist Watch list –Isa Pantami’ signed by the convener of the group, Deji Adeyanju expressed certainty that Mr. Pantami would not resign or be sacked despite the public outcry because President Buhari is drawn to men like him.
In what could be termed a funny and unfortunate twist of events, the Minister’s official account on Facebook responded to a post castigating the person of Deji Adeyanju, saying in Hausa: “Allah ya tsine masa alubarika.” This is roughly translated as: “May Allah reject his blessings.”
However, following the backlash his response generated, the minister’s account has since deleted the comment and he has since said his account was hacked, a claim many Nigerians find too ludicrous to believe.
It is worthy of note that several reasons abound why Nigerians are calling for the Minister’s resignation, some of which include unethical practices in office, like giving government contracts to fully religious organizations, using the ministry’s official account for his personal campaigns, alleged disrespect meted out to chairperson of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, and so on. But the overwhelming opinion of many Nigerians is that a person with such a controversial past regardless of their current convictions is not fit to hold and should not be rewarded with such a sensitive position in government.
At the time of filing this report, there has been no reaction from the presidency about the matter, unsurprisingly. One cannot help but wonder… will Pantami yield to pressure from Nigerians and resign? Will he be sacked? Or will this be swept under the carpet as though it never occurred? We will be watching.
