By Festus Eriye
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, is in hot water over statements he made in the past that amounted to paeans to terror groups like Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
In one of the quotes from his teachings in the 2000s, Pantami declares: “We are all happy whenever unbelievers are being killed. But the Sharia does not allow us to kill them without a reason.”
“Our zeal (hamasa) should not take precedence over our obedience to the sacred law.”
Responding to questions about his views on Osama Bin Laden during a lecture about the Taliban, he said of the late Al Qaeda leader responsible for the attack on New York’s World Trade Centre that claimed over 3,000 lives in 2001: “I still consider him as a better Muslim than myself.”
Leading to the comments becoming public, Pantami had reacted indignantly to the publication by a national newspaper of unverified claims that he was on some US terror watch list. But while he was threatening legal fire and brimstone, his vocal skeletons started tumbling out of the closet.
Rather than tamping down the fire, his initial attempt to browbeat the newspaper snowballed into a raging inferno.
Many have called for his resignation – arguing that anyone with such extreme views had no place in government.
Sensing the crisis could consume him, Pantami dismounted inelegantly from his high horse to renounce the comments. He now says he’s changed his position and that he made the remarks as a young person. Unfortunately, some of these troubling statements were made in the 2000s – long after he had exited his teens.
The minister claims to have changed his views, but we only have his words about this convenient repentance. Is this conversion genuine or a contrivance to save his skin and secure his high office?
I suspect there may be more gems to be exposed from the complete works of the minister as scrutiny of his past positions intensifies.
While critics turned up the heat on social media with #PantamiResign, his supporters and sympathisers circled the wagons with #PantamiWillStay. The duelling hashtags show how desensitized and un-shockable we have become.
His backers want him let off the hook, arguing he has recanted. We all have our past, they argue.
Everyone has a past but not all are in public office. If you have an interesting past, public office is the last place you want to be because it comes with scrutiny.
The minister insists his views have evolved. Defending himself during his Ramadan tafsir session at the Annur Mosque in Abuja last weekend he gave examples of American leaders who changed their views on issues.
“If we recall, President Joe Biden of the United States, then as a Senator in America, did not support the invasion of Afghanistan by his country,” he said.
“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 hardly see the connection between the two cases. But while we’re at it, let’s talk about a recent American example of someone who paid a price for her verbal indiscretions. In early March, the White House dropped Neera Tanden as nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget after senators across party lines revolted over her past vicious criticisms of the legislators.
Some are defending the minister based on ethnic or religious solidarity, without considering any moral principle. For them, those seeking Pantami’s resignation are anti-North or anti-Muslim. This is emotional blackmail that won’t wash.
This isn’t a North versus South or Christian versus Muslim thing, it’s a moral quandary. It’s about national security. If an individual confronted with these controversial statements and unanswered questions about his activities in the university can cling on selfishly without considering the damage to government and country, we must ask what horror you have to perpetrate in Nigeria to be held accountable.
The revelation of Pantami’s views is a conundrum for Buhari’s government.
For one thing, Nigeria has a serious problem with radical Islamists and terror groups who have turned the North into a tinder box and the Northeast, particularly, into a war zone.
The transformation of the region into a fertile ground for extremist ideologies is the result of the unregulated activities of preachers who sowed radical ideas over several decades – everyone from Maitatsine in the 80s to Mohammed Yusuf with his Boko Haram in the 2000s.
Some of these groups have been inspired by the activities of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Today, the so-called Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) is making common cause with Boko Haram – devastating huge tracts of Nigeria territory.
The conflict they brought has displaced and killed thousands over the years. No one can put a figure on the number of fellow Muslims that suicide bombers from these terror groups have killed in mosques across the North through the years.
Even with an economy on crutches the government is spending billions prosecuting this war that doesn’t look like it will end any time soon.
Despite the best efforts of the last three administrations there is evidence that saboteurs and collaborators from within the system have been providing oxygen for the insurgency. The government just announced the arrest of over 400 such collaborators said to be channelling funds to Boko Haram.
Pantami is no ordinary Nigerian. He sits in the Federal Executive Council and is privy to government secrets and plans at the highest level. With the huge row that has broken out over his past, a cloud of suspicion would always hang around him for as long as he’s in public office.
People have resigned for lesser reasons. Former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, did over her NYSC discharge certificate saga – just because she didn’t want to be a blot on the image of an administration that had integrity as its calling card. No one argued then that the bulk of her critics were Southerners.
For as long as Pantami remains he will be a distraction. This was something Adeosun understood and she quit in the larger interest of the nation.
Those encouraging him to cling on pretend he’s offering some service to the nation that only he can provide. Truth is no one is indispensable.
He’s damaged goods politically. Every day he remains reflects badly on the administration and feeds the conspiracy theory mills. If the president decides not to dispense with his services, he only reinforces certain stereotypes about his government.
