Communication and Digital Economy Minister, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, has been in the news for bad for some days now and all his efforts to bring himself out of the mess he’s in hasn’t yielded any positive result as some aggrieved Nigerians are already calling for his sack or removal as a minister. To them, people of Dr. Pantami’s ideologies cannot be trusted with the prestigious office he’s a boss.
A few days ago, a well-known newspaper in Nigeria, Daily Independent, had indicted Dr. Isa Pantami of being on the US terrorist watchlist. The publishers of the news would later rebut their claim when the minister threatened to take them to court. It was obvious that Daily Independent didn’t have any genuine link or file to back their mischievous claim. They’d only published the story to dig deep into Pantami’s ugly past.
Dr. Isa Pantami had in the past shared and held the same ideologies with some terrorist groups. He had been seen on YouTube videos and heard on audio wherein he preached violence, encouraged religious reprisal attacks, and glorified its masterminds. There was a time he was said to have exalted the late Osama and asked Allah to grant some terrorist groups triumph in their fight against the unbelievers.
Nothing had made Dr. Pantami to make all these utterances in the past outside his extremism and fierce religious ideology. No doubt, extremists like him are the reasons why this country has been finding it difficult to unearth peace for more than a decade now. What would have made Mohammed Yusuf (May God not be pleased with his return) founded Boko Haram if not his extremism?
Boko Haram have killed many Nigerians and made many homeless. And when about 700 of them were eventually caught by our gallant soldiers, some politicians persuaded the president to rehabilitate and grant them amnesty. A northern politician was even said to have asked the president to give them a scholarship to study abroad. Extremism!.
There’s a piece of news presently on social media wherein Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami renounced some of his fierce, uncivilised and inhumane religious ideologies. He said he had held the now discarded ideologies when he was young and that he had turned a new leaf. Now, the question is, will the people who are calling for his sack or removal listen to him?
Meanwhile, the bitter truth is that we’re all Pantami. Every one of us who is on his neck today has had a bad past like him. Though, not exactly as his. Some of us will admit it and some of us will not. But for those who will want to play a saint, they should vie for a top political post or pray to hold a high position in the country as Dr. Pantami.
The moral lesson in Dr. Isa Pantami’s travail, however, is that we should be mindful of our utterances for they may later have an impact on our lives. We should not use our positions to preach hate but peace. We shouldn’t encourage and glorify evildoers no matter what.
May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Aremu Lukman Umor is a PGD student at NIJ (Nigerian Institute of Journalism). He’s the author of The Mad Prophet
