…As Muslim group aligns with Presidency on embattled minister
The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has decried the retention of the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isah Pantami, in the cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari, describing the situation as absurd and ludicrous.
The Christian group said the defence of Pantami by the Buhari administration is an indication that the government is not serious about its fight against Boko Haram insurgency and other related security challenges facing the country.
The President of PFN, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, said the controversy arising from the Pantami saga is needless as he (Pantami) ought to have resigned or be sacked on account of his past complimentary stance on Boko Haram and other terrorist organisations.
Oke made the comments in a statement issued by PFN Media Department and signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Bishop Emmah Gospel Isong.
“That Pantami is still in Buhari’s government tells much about who we are and the mockery that trails us. What is the man still doing in government, why has he not resigned or why has he not been sacked by the government? More questions than answers, or are we running a government of abradacabra, the more you look, the less you see?” the cleric stated.
Oke, who is also the Presiding Bishop of Sword of the Spirit Ministries Ibadan, lamented that Buhari government’s fight against insurgency, banditry and the like, is, after all, a facade.
“To us at the PFN, the Buhari’s government is not sincere in its alleged war against Boko Haram, killer herdsmen and other criminalities.
Do we have to look beyond our shoulders for sponsors of the mindless killings and bloodshed currently ravaging our country? The answer is no! The government knows them.
“Regardless of our religions, where we come from and who we are, Nigeria belongs to us all as enshrined in our constitution. That’s sacrosanct and must strictly be adhered to and respected by all,” Oke said.
According to the cleric, criminal activities have been festering under this administration because it has been treating those behind it with kid gloves.
But some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have thrown their weight behind the decision by the presidency to clear Pantami of any wrong doing over his favourable disposition to activities of Al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorist groups over the years.
Spokesman of the group of APC members, Kabiru Duhu, at a press conference in Abuja, urged Nigerians not to be swayed by the “pull him down antics of Pantami’s traducers who do not mean well for the country.”
The group maintained that Pantami has done well and should be judged by his work in office, not by rhetoric that he had long recanted “and for which he is Boko Haram’s number one enemy today.”
Citing the growth rate of 15.90 per cent recorded by the telecommunications sector with Pantami at the helm of affairs, the group argued that the minister deserved praise for his itinerant anti-Boko Haram preaching in the last 10 years.
“He was in fact one of the few Islamic preachers that dared preached publicly against the deadly sect, before it was designated as a terrorist group, and which was why Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the insurgent group, in February 2020 issued a fatwa on him and reminded Nigerians how his group shot and killed other preachers.”
But holding a contrary view, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has commended the Presidency for defending the embattled minister.
MURIC in a statement issued, by its Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, today called on Pantami’s critics to allow the country to move on.
Professor Ishaq Akintola said:
“In a tweet dispatched yesterday 26th April, 2021, Dr. Ben Gbenro (@bengbenro) opened another vista to the Pantami discourse. He disclosed how he was trained in martial arts and weapon handling for the church in the past but that he no longer subscribes to the idea. ‘I was once an impressionable young man. I was a member of CAN brigade trained in martial arts and weapon handling to fight for d Church in late 80s & early 90s, I was a strong advocate of Nigeria’s break up in mid 90s, today, I no longer subscribe to any of these ideologies.’ (https://twitter.com/bengbenro/status/1383678818569789450?s=20)
“This is a very honest disclosure of one’s past which no longer has any influence on the speaker. We expect Dr. Pantami’s critics to have a better understanding of the Pantami affair if they can juxtapose his own case with that of Dr. Ben Gbenro who sent the above tweet.
“Although today was born from the wombs of yesterday, it can still effectively sustain an independent life and character which is completely different from the previous day. History is a continuum. It has a remote past, an immediate past and a present. You cannot amputate the remote past for use as a parameter on the actions of today without considering the immediate past and the present. Otherwise, you would have mutilated history and done tons of injustice to homo sapien.
“What the minister’s critics tried to do was to hold on tenaciously to his remote past of twenty-five (25) or more years ago and to cut off his immediate past and the present. The radical statements were uttered in the remote past when he was still easily impressionable. He made up for these more than ten (10) years ago by condemning violence and terrorism. He also challenged the terrorists to debates at that time and actually engaged them. At present, he is into a project that is expected to debilitate terrorism and criminality (NIN) and the terrorists themselves have threatened to kill him because of it.
“It is not healthy for our country to find that a large chunk of his critics come from one part of the country and from a particular faith while his supporters come mainly from another part of the country and from the other religion. It does not portray us as people who are objective.
“The desperate attempts to nail him made by critics who go as far as circulating fake documents are ludicrous. How far can we go to ensure that we implicate an innocent man? When will Nigerians learn to allow meritocracy? When shall we stop sacrificing excellence on the altar of mediocrity? Who did this to Nigeria?
“We call on Nigerians to allow the country to move forward. We have dissipated too much energy on this debate. It is time to move on. In the words of Richard Paul Evans, ‘I think the secret to a happy life is a selective memory. Remember what you are most grateful for and quickly forget what you are not.’ According to Raquel Cepeda, ‘For some, excavating the past isn’t an adventure, it’s more akin to tearing a Band-Aid off an open wound.’
“MURIC commends the presidency for its bold statement on the matter. We can watch open debates and listen to criticism without feeling hurt. But there comes a time when the leadership must demonstrate indisputable clairvoyance and guide the citizenry to objectivity and what is best for the nation,” the statement concluded.