“Although I started preaching as early as when I was 13 years old, my viewpoints had consistently changed as a result of acquiring more knowledge, exposure, travelling and maturity, as he advanced in age. I have changed my stance on some issues based on additional facts even after expressing Fatwa, a nonbinding religious opinion in response to a question posed to me” – PATAMI

media, complete with audiographic evidence, in which it unearthed alleged sermons by Pantami that amounted to his endorsement of terrorism and intolerance of non-Muslims. The Gazette also unearthed an audiotape in which Pantami was allegedly engaged in an emotional defense of Boko Haram terrorists against extra-judicial killings and advocated an amnesty for them in addition to open support for Jihad in Nigeria.

Another media report by the Daily Independent, also alleged that Pantami had “ties with Abu Quata¬da al Falasimi and other Al-Qaeda leaders and that he revered and spoke glowingly of them in several of his videos on YouTube” on the basis of which he is now “on the watch list of the [sic] America’s Intelligence Service.” The paper however later retracted its report on Pantami being under the US watch and apologized to Pantami for the false report.

Since these publications, there have been an avalanche of other reports accusing Pantami of deep sympathy for domestic and international terrorists as well as his rhetorical entanglements with extremist Salafist ideologies, and his actual involvement in terrorist and extremist Islamic agenda.

Initially, the minister, who until his appointment in 2019 was the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency, denied the allegations. But when he was confronted with incontrovertible evidence of his preaching in the 2000s on social media, he backtracked and claimed youthful immaturity at the period he made those statements.

Among the earliest calls for Pantami’s resignation or removal from office was by a civil society organization, under the auspices of Concerned Nigerians, in an April 11 petition it sent to the United States government titled, ‘Terrorist Watchlist –Isa Pantami’, signed by the convener of the group, Deji Adeyanju, urging the Joe Biden administration to investigate Pantami’s alleged involvement with terrorist groups and urged the US place the minister on its terror watch list if the allegations against him were found to be true.

The petition alleged inter alia that Pantami had in the past openly supported and endorsed global terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and the Talibans and is said to have praised Osama Bin Laden describing him as a hero, describing  his views as extremist and a threat to a multi religious nation like Nigeria.

The petition noted that Pantami “is a senior member of President Buhari’s regime and we are of the view that a supporter of Mullah Omar and Osama Bin Laden should not hold a sensitive position and be in charge of the database of Nigerians. We are confident that Mr. Pantami will not resign or be sacked despite the public outcry because President Buhari is drawn to men like him. “We implore you to investigate these allegations and if true, place him on your terrorist watchlist permanently. Those who express extremist views remain a threat to world peace as they support mass murder of both Christians and Muslims globally. This remains unacceptable”. The petition ended with a repudiation of the claims by Pantami’s defenders that he may have had a change of heart, maintaining that “terrorists don’t repent, they are only looking for an opportunity to get close to power so they can strike harder.”

One Muslim human rights lawyer known as Abdul Mahmoud, alias the Great Oracle as he is popularly known shared minutes of an alleged meeting of JNI of four states chaired by Isa Pantami on his Twitter handl, as evidence of Panatmi’s guilt over the extremist allegations against him and in support of  #PantamiResignNow campaign. In the alleged minutes of the meeting as was seen online, one of the agenda to be discussed was to  strategize towards the full implementation of jihad in Jos, Plateau State and Kaduna. Another agenda according to the alleged minutes was the liberation of Kaduna, the addressing of the growth of Christianity in the North, amongst others.

It was also alleged that another agenda at the meeting was how to assassinate the former Kaduna State governor, Mr Yakowa, who was of Christian faith. According to reports credited to People Gazette, Pantami plotted the assassination on July 13, 2010, when he chaired the meeting of Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), a foremost Islamic body led by the Sultan of Sokoto. During the meeting, the minister and the Muslim leaders allegedly agreed that Mr Yakowa and his family must be eliminated because he was a Christian leader leading a state in the Muslim-dominated North. The meeting also allegedly complained that Mr Yakowa was making moves to contest for governor in 2011 and he had the support of former President Goodluck Jonathan, a fellow Christian.

“We must either use the security or other means to eliminate the governor, his family and all those they perceive as supporting him,” Mr Pantami and other leaders were alleged to have said in their communique adopted at the meeting held at Bauchi Central Mosque.

Yakowa became governor in 2010 when Mr Jonathan tapped Namadi Sambo, then Kaduna governor, as his vice-president, Mr Yakowa contested in 2011 and won a substantive four-year term. He was killed in a helicopter crash barely a year later in 2012, alongside former national security adviser Owoye Andrew Azazi. The event had long been suspected to be more than just an accident, and investigation into what happened was never concluded or made public.

Another media report quoted one Professor  Samuel Achi of accusing Isa Pantami of having a hand in the killing of his son, Sunday, at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University mosque in Bauchi State in 2004 by Muslim fanatics. Late Sunday, a 400-level student of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University was allegedly killed by fanatical Muslim students on the back of a fatwa passed on him by the Pantami who was then the institution’s Chief Imam over claim that Sunday blasphemed Prophet Muhammed. According to Professor Achi the deceased’s father in an interview he granted Punch Newspapers, “the incident happened in the early hours of the 9th of December (2004). It was from the night of  December 8  to the early hours of December 9 that it  happened. From the fact that I had; from clear indications; from the confirmed information that I had, he was not stoned. He was actually strangled inside the mosque. His body was discovered outside the university mosque,” Professor Achi reportedly told the paper.

The Punch Newspapers also lent its voice in the popular demand for Pantami’s resignation or sack from office on account of his extremist religious and political views and sympathies. In its April 20 editorial titled “Why Pantami must resign or be sacked?, the newspaper described the allegations against Pantami as “far too weighty”  and  “therefore, the honourable step is for him to resign. Otherwise, Buhari should sack him for unfettered investigations to be undertaken”, describing the case against Pantami as “dangerously earth-shaking”, adding that although Pantami claims that he has “repented” of his Salafist ideology, “his violent preaching of those days is damagingly chilling”.

“Beyond that, Pantami’s elevation to high public office exposes the ridiculous state Nigeria finds itself. All around, mediocrity, incompetence and questionable compromises are evident in the current miasma.  First, Buhari was wrong to have appointed Pantami as a minister. It means the President’s yardsticks for such appointments are too pedestrian, perhaps based on extraneous ties apart from competence”.

Whether Pantami admits it or not, his preaching then must have enticed some innocents into joining the Salafist crusade to cause mayhem and establish its global caliphate through bloodshed. The Boko Haram jihadists whom he now claims to have opposed, have tormented Nigeria, especially the North-East of the country, since 2009 with their vicious ideology. They have conquered territories, murdered people in thousands, kidnapped schoolgirls in Chibok and Dapchi, blown up the UN HQs in Abuja, attacked military formations and currently threaten the country’s corporate existence”, the Punch argued inter alia.

Quoting the UK Institute of Government which says that  individual ministerial accountability ultimately means an expectation that they should resign if something has gone seriously wrong, the Punch averred that “ truly, many things have gone awfully wrong with Pantami’s jihadist pantomime. His credibility as a minister has run out. He should bow out or be kicked out”.

However, there has also been a flurry of defenses and stout apologetics on behalf of Pantami, notably from his Northern and Muslim friends and associates, including paid and unpaid media and social media “influencers”, to quote one  Pantami’s “friends” in his veiled apologetics for Pantami.

These defences were largely a re-echoing of Pantami’s own defence of terrorist linkages after a brief period of youthful exuberance that tended to extremist and terrorist sympathy but which he has since abandoned with maturity and more knowledge, and even claimed that he never held extremist views nor maintained rigid stances on issues. He also claimed that no Islamic preacher both in the past and in recent times has criticized and condemned the activities of Boko Haram terrorists than he did, avowing that as a Muslim, he has never supported the Boko Haram sect, neither has he promoted terrorism.

“On the claim that I am a Boko Haram sympathizer, I want to say that people who have been following my religious evangelism, as a scholar, dating back from 2005 and 2006, know me better. They know what I often preached about,” he said, citing his travels to many Northern States in the last two decades where he ‘vehemently’ condemned Boko Haram’s ideology.

“Besides these evangelism missions I embarked on to speak against religious fundamentalism, I also published pamphlets on the nefarious activities of the terrorists sect,” he added, blaming the media allegations against him .on political and economic reasons, and that he was not perturbed.

Pantami explained that although he started preaching as early as when he was 13 years old, his viewpoints had consistently changed as a result of acquiring more knowledge, exposure, travelling and maturity, as he advanced in age.“I have changed my stance on some issues based on additional facts even after expressing Fatwa, a nonbinding religious opinion in response to a question posed to me,” he said.

He claimed that as a scholar, he was able to preach to many fanatical youths who shunned terrorism and went to acquire quality education, becoming engineers and other professionals and averred that he does not stomach injustice, and that every Nigerian has the right to practice the religion he likes, in line with the constitution’s provision for freedom of religion.

“If we recalled, President Joe Biden of the United States, then as a Senator in America, did not support the invasion of Afghanistan by his country.

And at that time, I also did not. So, anything that will lead to war is what I have always been against. That is why I don’t like injustice”.

“I once saved two Corp members who were about to lynched in Bauchi State during a fight between Christians and Muslims. I personally took them to the mosque to save their lives. So, anybody who will protect Christians will you still call him a fanatic? Also, I want to say that I was never suspended or expelled from any school as a student or lecturer because of my views, especially on religious matters,” he said.

 One of the early defenders of Pantami was Farook Kperogi who claimed to be Pantamis friend. In his veiled defence of Pantami, which he titled “Pantami is my friend, but he can’t be defended” Farooq Kperogi  ostensibly held Pantami liable for the allegations against him, with copious references to support his judgment. In that article, Farook began by asserting inter alia that “the truth is that it’s impossible to deploy the resources of logic, reason, basic decency, and even religious morality to defend some of the sermons Pantami gave in the early to late 2000s, especially in light of his current position as a federal minister in charge of a vast treasure trove of citizens’ sensitive information”

Farook admitted that “there are many more indefensible rhetorical endorsements of extremism that can be found in Pantami’s past preaching”, admitting that in his opinion, “it is legitimate for non-Muslims to be concerned that someone with that sort of baggage is a federal minister—just like it would be valid for Muslims to be outraged if a Christian minister has been shown to have espoused extremist views before they became minister”.

Farook then turned to the defence of Pantami, and engages in a mea culpa on his behalf: “Nevertheless, while I denounce Pantami’s past embrace of extremism in his public preaching, I want to point out that there is a vast disjunction between his rhetoric and his person. People who know him outside the pulpit attest to his compassion, kindness, and peacefulness…I also think he has evolved from the days of his fiery homiletic entanglements with stochastic terrorism.”

Another defender of Pantami, Fredrick Nwabufo  traced  the terrorist allegations against Pantami to  religious hypocrisy on the part of Nigerian Christians.

According to him, “we live in a country that is autochthonously Christianized. Our ways are Christian. It is commonplace to profile Muslims who hold strong beliefs as ‘’extremists’’ but not Christians who arrogantly profess their beliefs anywhere and everywhere, even commanding obeisance to their faith. I have never heard any Christian described as an extremist – even when some church leaders make galling and inflammatory statements”.

Citing instances, Nwabufo recalled that in the build-up to the 2015 presidential election, Bishop Oyedepo vowed to open the floodgates of hell on the opponents of former President Goodluck Jonathan.” Is this not an incendiary statement – by a man of God?”, he queried., noting that the same pastor also physically assaulted a penitent who came to his church for deliverance. But it was excused because he is a Christian leader.

“Christians are not extremists even when their actions vouchsafe this fact – but any Muslim can be summarily tagged an ‘’extremist?’’ When a Christian leader makes extremist comments, we call it ‘’holy anger’’.  It is hypocrisy”.

“In 2017, the DSS attempted to arrest Pastor Johnson Suleman after he publicly said he asked his security guards to kill any Fulani intruder around his church. He also threatened the government after state agents swooped in on a hotel he took residence in Ekiti. In addition, Pastor Enenche and others in the same phylum have made ungodly threats that border on bigotry and extremism. But they were all palliated – because they are Christian leaders. It is hypocrisy”.

“Our society is subliminally attuned to certain precepts and ways that are predominantly Christian. Any otherness sets off an alarm. It is societal conditioning. Our society has been conditioned to readily see some people in one divide as ‘’extremists’’ and others in another category as ‘’devotees’’. A conditioning in hypocrisy”.

The avalanche of attacks – both sponsored and taxied – against Isa Ibrahim Pantami, minister of communication and digital economy, accents some Nigerians’ atavism and aboriginal hypocrisy. I would not want to dwell on the contents of some videos and abstracts rippling on social media because they have been politically ammunitioned…”

Also in the long list of Pantami’s apologists were The Nigerian Advocates for Digital Reporting (NADIR) which condemned  what  they described as “sensational and speculative media reports unleashed on the personality of  Pantami in  a desperate attempt to stop him on his transformative tracks by linking him up to terrorist associations”.

Among Pantami’s defenders was also the  Muslims Rights Concern (MURIC) which described the report linking Minister of Communications, Isa Pantami with terrorism as fake news.

Director of MURIC, Prof. Ishaq Akintola,  said  in a statement that “Our attention has been drawn to a trending report that Dr Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy is on the U.S. watch list for having links with terrorists. It is fake news. It is a lie from the pit of Jahannam.

“It is a product of malice, envy and evil desire concocted in the laboratory of the notorious pull him down syndrome. It exists only in the imagination of the authors of the evil plan, It will not stand the test of authenticity,” he said.

 “Pantami is an honest, diligent and uncommon Islamic scholar whose ability to combine his discipline with digital expertise has raised him above his peers and made him an indispensable asset to this country. It is only people with diseased minds, who do not want progress for Nigeria that can make such malicious yet false allegation against him.

“We have been reading Pantami’s articles and watching his lecture videos long before he became minister, and on no occasion did he pour encomiums on terrorists or their aides. On the contrary, he always condemned violence and terrorism. Therefore, those who claim that he ‘spoke glowingly’ of associates of terrorist leaders are apostles of Lucifer and pathological liars,” Akintola said.

Again, in defence of Pantami, the Caretaker Chairman of the APC in Gombe State, Mr. Nitte K. Amangal has condemned in strong terms, the sustained campaign of calumny Pantami by people he described as disgruntled and unpatriotic.

However, standing with those against Pantami, a former deputy governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and a presidential candidate in the last general election, Kingsley Moghalu, has joined the call for the sacking of the minister over his past radical Islamic views and support for the Boko Haram terrorist group.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Gombe State also came in defense of Pantami. The State Caretaker Chairman of the party, Mr. Nitte K. Amangal condemned what he referred to as “the sustained campaign of calumny” against the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami by some people he described as disgruntled and unpatriotic.

In a statement on behalf of the APC family in Gombe State, the party chairman expressed the belief that the bad narratives against Pantami were being pushed by enemies of progress of the nation and therefore urged the minister not to be deterred nor succumb to any form of blackmail.

“We commend the presidency and all the people of goodwill for coming out openly and boldly to defend the Minister against baseless accusations and attacks by individuals and organizations who do not mean well for Nigeria.”

According to the statement issued by Sabo Ibrahim, State Publicity Secretary, “We identify and stand in solidarity with our dear brother, Dr. Pantami, who is a very dutiful and faithful member of our great party as well as an illustrious son of Gombe. We, therefore, request all well-meaning party members to do so in the interest of our dear nation.

“We are very pleased and proud of the achievements recorded by Dr. Pantami in his stewardship as federal cabinet member and believe that the smear campaign, which we are sure will not succeed, are not unconnected with the wonderful policies and reforms he has been carrying out in the ICT and digital economy sectors in the overall interest of the nation’s security and wellbeing.”

Pantami’s defense-in-chief came from the presidency, represented by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu. Shehu said that while the presidency conceded  that the views expressed by the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami in the past, endorsing some terrorist groups are unacceptable, “the  presidency stands resolutely with him because of his work for Nigerians.”

 In a statement issued by Garba Shehu in Abuja, the Presidency blamed the minister’s travails on political opposition and some unnamed Information and Communication Technology (ICT) companies, pointing out that the minister had righty apologized for the statements he made years ago, which Shehu said Pantami cannot now repeat.

“The Administration stands behind Minister Pantami and all Nigerian citizens to ensure they receive fair treatment, fair prices, and fair protection in ICT services,” saying, citing what he described as “an unfortunate fashion in public discourse that makes leaders in politics, religion, and civil society liable in the present for every statement they have ever made in the past – no matter how long ago, and even after they have later rejected them”.

“This insidious phenomenon seeks to cancel the careers of others on the basis of a thing they have said, regardless of when they said it.  The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami is, currently, subject to a ‘cancel campaign’ instigated by those who seek his removal. They do not really care what he may or may not have said some 20 years ago: that is merely the instrument they are using to attempt to “cancel” him. But they will profit, should he be stopped from making decisions that improve the lives of everyday Nigerians.

“The Minister has, rightly, apologized for what he said in the early 2000s. The views were absolutely unacceptable then, and would be equally unacceptable today, were he to repeat them. But he will not repeat them – for he has publicly and permanently condemned his earlier utterances as wrong.

“In the 2000s, the Minister was a man in his twenties; next year he will be 50. Time has passed, and people and their opinions – often rightly – change.  “But all discerning Nigerians know this manufactured dispute is nothing to do with the Minister’s prior words, but solely concern his actions in the present.”

Claiming that Pantami made enemies because he tried to put Nigeria first Garba said “this Administration is committed to improving the lives of all Nigerians – and that includes ensuring they are not over-charged or under-protected for those services on which modern life depends.  “The Minister has been leading the charge against illegal data deductions and pricing; he has revolutionized the government’s virtual public engagement to respond to COVID-19 and save taxpayers’ money; he has established ICT start-up centres to boost youth entrepreneurship and create jobs; he has changed policy to ensure locally produced ICT content is used by ministries, starting with his own; and he has deregistered some 9.2 million SIMs – ending the ability for criminals and terrorists to flagrantly use mobile networks undetected.

“In two short years, Minister Pantami has driven the contribution of the ICT sector to the GDP to more than 18 percent, making it one of the top two playing a critical role in the emergence of the economy from the COVID 19-induced recession. “In putting people first, the Minister and this administration have made enemies. There are those in the opposition who see success and want it halted by any means. And there is now well-reported information that alleges newspaper editors rebuffed an attempt to financially induce them to run a smear campaign against the minister by some ICT companies, many of which do indeed stand to lose financially through lower prices and greater consumer protections.

“The government is now investigating the veracity behind these claims of attempted inducement, and – should they be found to hold credence – police and judicial action must be expected.”

That was the presidential absolution of Pantami that put paid to the torrent of calls for Pantami’s resignation and gave him victory over Shehu Garba’s perceived enemies of Pantami and the Buhari administration.

However, several Nigerians dismissed the position of the Federal government as lacking weight and substance. These include Abuja-based constitutional lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), who faulted and dismissed as pedestrian, all the arguments put forward by the federal government in defense of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami. Ozekhome argued that even though Pantami committed the alleged terrorist acts before the enactment of the Terrorism (Prevention Amendment) Act 2013, he could be prosecuted under Section 46 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act, 2004 (EFCC Act).

Quoting copiously from the EFCC Act, which he said was much wider in scope and the definition of terrorism, Ozekhome said: “The combustible and inflammable comments of Pantami no doubt were intended to cause fear or make any government or bodies abandon a standpoint, induce fear in the public or government, etc. He can be charged under the EFCC Act.”

But because he made the statements long before the Terrorism Prevention Act was enacted, the senior lawyer submitted that, “Pantami cannot therefore be prosecuted under the Terrorism Act, because his alleged terrorist acts occurred prior to the enactment of the Terrorism Act. The Terrorism Act does not have a retroactive or retrospective Act.”

Section 36(8) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), which provides that, “No person shall be held to be guilty of a criminal offence on account of any act or omission that did not, at the time it took place, constitute such an offence, and no penalty shall be imposed for any criminal offence heavier than the penalty in force at the time the offence was committed”, appears to support Ozekhome’s position.

This, nonetheless, the lawyer said the Presidency missed the point when it rose in defence of Pantami.
“Pantami’s albatross has nothing to do with his alleged effectiveness or efficaciousness in his duties. But, it has everything to do with his dangerous religious antecedents, which on the surface, he says he has renounced, but is still effectively practising in reality.

“Otherwise, why will he invite only a very little known Al-Afrikiy (a wholly Muslim Television station, that broadcasts strictly religious matters) to solely cover a programme of a whole federal government’s activity – the virtual Flag-off capacity development programme on VSAT Installation Skills and TVRO Systems for 600 youths? Why?

“This was only on March 22, 2021. Where were AIT, Channels, NTA, NAN, TVC, ITV, Arise News, SilverBird, Oak TV, or the several Radio Stations across Nigeria? This is Nigerians’ great worry, Mallam Shehu. Do not run away from the substance and pursue the shadow. Please, face the real issues at stake,” je posited.
According to him, Pantami’s religious bigotry, earlier inflammatory speeches in support of and sympathy with terrorist groups, such as Al Qaeda, Taliban and Boko Haram (the third group of whose shed blood he described as “our Muslim brothers’ blood”), are the real issues at stake.

He said: “If we go by Garba’s pedestrian argument that woefully fails the acid test of logic and rigorous reasoning, why did Nigerians not pardon brilliant Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who was accused of forging her NYSC Certificate, rather than pressurise and force her to resign her office?
“Why didn’t the Presidency trenchantly defend Mrs Adeosun, a Yoruba woman? Who was more dangerous – a certificate forger, or a terrorist group sympathiser and supporter?

“Why support only Northern-Muslim Pantami? What about the death of one young lad, Sunday Achi, who was said to have been killed due to his incendiary preachment? What about the consequential killings of Christians in Kaduna, Kano, Jos, Maiduguri, Katsina and other parts of the North, occasioned by his bigoted religious teachings?
“What did former CJN, Onnoghen do that made the Presidency rubbish, hound and hunt him out of office in a most premature, disgraceful and unconscionable manner?

“What was the offence of the #EndSars innocent protesters, that were mindlessly and callously mauled down at the Lekki tollgate, even as they were harmlessly waving the Green-White-Green Nigerian flag in a peaceful protest? Why does the Presidency perennially have a “siege mentality”? he asked.

Furthermore, Ozekhome queried: “Why does the Presidency forever play victimhood, when it is always the aggressor? Why do presidential spokespersons always scramble to outdo each other to beat Adolf Hitler’s Goebel to vile propaganda as exhibited during World War II? Why will the Presidency be defending a Minister? What is it hiding? Why weep more than the bereaved? I cannot understand, or can you?”

However, for continuing to support terrorist groups, Ozekhome said Pantami should be charged under section 5(2) of the Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Act. His words: “Pantami can be charged for terrorist activities, because terrorism includes ‘support’ for; and ‘support’ includes (in the words of the Act) ‘incitement to commit a terrorist act through the internet or any electronic means or through the use of printed materials or through the dissemination of terrorist information’”.

He, consequently, called on Pantami to honourably resign his ministerial appointment and ‘save this clueless government of further infamy, calumny, obloquy and odium’

He said: “Where he fails or refuses to do so (as I know he would), then President Buhari should sack him. Where Buhari refuses (as I know he would), then, any and every Nigerian or NGO that feels sufficiently concerned and aggrieved can approach the courts and ask for an Order of Mandamus, to compel the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, to prosecute Pantami, by virtue of section 174 of the 199 Constitution.
“Every Nigerian has the right (locus standi) to do this. The Nigerian Supreme Court has laid this to rest as far back as 1981 in the causa celebre (celebrated case) of Senator Abraham Adesanya v. President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1981) JELR 54679 (SC).”

The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its leaders of a conspiratorial silence in the face of the worrisome revelation in which Pantami, has been accused of affiliation with terrorist groups.

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP stated that, “Our party asserts that this silence by the APC and its Leaders is a direct confirmation of APC’s support and sympathy for acts of terrorism including the wanton mass killings, banditry, maiming, kidnapping and marauding, which have overtaken our landscape as a nation under its watch.

“We find it unthinkable that the APC as a party, and some of its leaders, who are going about grandstanding on their aspiration to further lead our nation, can be silent in the face of a major threat to our national security as well as our foundation as a nation.

“Our party had always drawn the attention of Nigerians to the manifest relationship and camaraderie between terrorist elements and APC leaders, including those angling to be President,” the PDP stated.

The party urged Nigerians to recall that the PDP had always urged the APC and its leaders to free the nation by returning the political mercenaries and thugs they imported to help them rig the 2019 elections. Instead, the PDP said the APC has allowed their political mercenaries to continue to maraud the country, with Isa Pantami being accused of using his office to compromise the NIN registration exercise to register such aliens with a view to foisting them on the nation as citizens.

“Our party challenges the APC and its leaders to speak out by calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to relieve Isa Pantami of his office without further delay, clean up whatever compromises he may have made in the system and take further steps to protect our nation from terrorist activities,” PDP posited.

A former deputy governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and a presidential candidate in the last general election, Kingsley Moghalu, accused the presidency of double standards in the matter involving the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, over his past radical Islamic views and supporting the Boko Haram terrorist group.
While accusing the presidency of setting two criteria for officials serving in the same government, Moghalu said the minister should just go.

Moghalu, in several tweets said Pantami should be sacked, wondering how he passed through the Department of State Security (DSS) screening before he became a minister. The former deputy governor of CBN contended that Pantami should never have scaled the vetting process and approved for that office.

He reiterated that the presidency exhibited double standards as Kemi Adeosun, a former minister of finance, was made to resign for a wrongdoing in her past.

“I have refrained so far from commenting on the #Pantami controversy. From information available: anyone can a mistake, and has the right to recant from it. But when the evidence shows that a serving minister of Nigeria had expressed open support for global terrorist groups, he should never have scaled the vetting process and been approved for that office.

“The implication of the timing of Pantami’s recanting of his views now is that he has been serving as a minister while presumably still harbouring those views. His disagreement with Boko Haram does not absolve him of, at the very least moral culpability for supporting Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

“For this reason, Pantami should not continue to serve as a minister. For him to remain in his position, and for presidency to support this, is to tell Nigerians that we have two sets of standards from the very same government, one for the likes of former Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun, who had to resign for a wrongdoing in her past, and another for Pantami.

“This position of presidency undermines public accountability, as well as Nigeria’s struggle against Terrorism. He should never have scaled the vetting process and being approved for that office. The implication of the timing of Pantami’s recanting of his views now is that he has been serving as a minister while presumably still harboring those views.

“Two sets of standards from the very same government: one for the likes of former Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, who had to resign for a wrongdoing in her past, and another for Pantami. This position of @NGRPresident undermines public accountability, as well as Nigeria’s struggle,” he stated.

A popular Nigerian columnist, Chidi Amuta, condemned the Federal government stand on Pantami which he said is disturbing. “It is disturbing that in spite of the cascade of anomalies in the Pantami affair, the Presidency, through Mr. Garba Shenu, Buhari’s media Special Assistant, has weighed in to protect Pantami from genuine public demands that he be held accountable for his past.

“It is of course a blatant falsehood to claim that Pantami was too young at the time of his untidy extremist activities. From available records, Mr. Pamtami is currently 48 years old. He was clearly a mature and well educated adult as at the time he was proselytizing for extremists prior to his ministerial appointment in 2019, having been the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NTDA) from 2016. He is bo doubt an outstanding Islamic scholar with deeply ingrained convictions, achieving the uncommon feat of memorizing the Koran at the remarkable age of 13.

“In any case, in every political context, the demons that fell major public figures are most likely to come from a past of unguarded actions. Even the diversionary claim that Mr. Pantami is the victim of a plot by Telcos and other interests to get even with him on policy grounds in a bid to protect and advance their interests is hollow. These interests did not deliver those fiery jihadist sermons or direct Mr. Pantami to issue fatwas against innocent Nigerian non muslims or direct those feverish endorsements of Osama Bin Ladin, the Taliban and Boko Haram. Moreover, documentary evidence of Pantami’s extremist career highlights make nonsense of the Presidency’s weak and rambling defense”.

“In a desperate bid to save his job, Mr. Pantami is playing into existing religious and partisan murkiness. The organization of Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has joined in calls for him to remain in office as, in their view, he has committed no offence. Sporadic voices from from contrary faith bodies and enlightened civil society are insisting that Pantami quits. Our partisan divide has predictably joined the fray. While the ruling APC has rushed to vindicate the minister, the opposition PDP has risen to join voices with calls for Mr. Pantami’s removal. There of course remains the still small voice of genuine patriotic outrage in the middle of the raging fire and storm of desperate partisanship and religious frenzy.

“I think the Pantami debacle is above religious bigotry, partisan trade of abuses or the other silly dichotomies with which we derail sensible national discourse. This is not about the lazy recourse to North versus South among political devotees. Nor is it about the opportunistic recourse to Christian versus Muslim that zealots on bith sides use to trivialize serious matters. This is not about Mr. Pantami’s constitutional right to hold beliefs or pray as many times as he wishes in a day, facing any direction on the compass. It is not even about whether his title remains Sheikh, Bishop, Imam, Arch Deacon or General Overseer. It is not about infringing on his right to enter into alignments, to endorse or subscribe to ideologies of his choice. It is not even about the religious role models he chooses to adopt for his personal sanity. The latter belong in the realm of his personal choices and right to freedom of worship and belief as are constitutionally guaranteed.

“On the contrary, we are dealing with the fundamental realm of the higher ethical requirements for holding public office in a diverse republic with interlocking beliefs, alignments and faiths such as ours. It is about the ground rules that govern leadership selection and the overriding higher imperatives of public office and the trust that ought to go with it. Even more important is the overarching imperative of national security as the strategic bottom line for all public offices in the nation.

“It is therefore immaterial whether Mr. Pantami has repented and recanted. What is paramount is that his position as minister violates all known criteria for the selection of the leadership of any decent country. First, it is flagrant disregard of the principle of a ‘fit and proper person’ to hold high public office. This unscripted principle prescribes that citizens that must be approved to ascend to high office must not in their past or present conduct, activities or affiliations have engaged in acts unbecoming of an occupant of such high public office. Secondly, national security must take precedence in the consideration of individuals for high public office to ensure that such appointments do not in any way jeopardize or compromise national security. Thirdly, the public must be satisfied that the procedure by which persons are processed for high public office have integrity and follow approved due process.

“Forgiveness of an errant public officer may be easy if it were personal. But the erosion of public trust resulting from an official’s error is more difficult. Once an occupant of a strategic public office is found to have betrayed public trust, there is only one route open to the individual concerned and the system he serves. As things now stand with Mr. Pantami, the plain unvarnished truth is that he can no longer be trusted with any public office let alone one as strategic as the one he currently occupies.

“The way out of this unfortunate debacle is a route with only two lanes. The first and easiest is for Mr. Pantami to resign his appointment and tender an unreserved apology to all Nigerians. The other is a recourse to the prerogative of ultimate presidential responsibility. President Buhari needs to quickly relieve Mr. Pantami of his appointment in order to save himself, his administration and the nation the lingering embarrassment of the Minister’s continued stay in office.

“For a nation that has repeatedly echoed its commitment to the global fight against terrorism, the Pantami entanglement is a consequential test. If the president keeps Pantami in office, he will have hugged terrorists and could lead the public to unsavory conclusions that can only load up his already bulging baggage of political liabilities.

Scores of other Nigerians have expressed similar outrage over Federal government’s adamant posture in defense of Pantami and reluctance to remove him from office.