Pantami: President Buhari Under Fire For Backing Controversial Minister

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has continued to come under fire of criticism for his statement on Thursday backing Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, over his extremist religious views that have led to calls for his removal as minister.

Activist and former minister, Oby Ezekwesili, took to Twitter on Friday to state that Buhari’s choice showed that he was not different from Pantami in his views on terrorism.

She wrote: “In that singular act of siding with his Minister of Communications, @NGRPresident @MBuhari actually conveyed a message on his view of terrorism. Nigerians now know that his views align with that of his minister. It is now left to Nigerians to convey whether we agree with them.

“I do not agree with @NGRPresident@MBuhari and his Minister of Communications that any citizen can get away with such bloodcurdling rhetoric the latter made through the years. Worse that one who swore an oath to public office said and did the things@NigeriaGov has waved off.

“Yesterday’s action by our president was an anti-climax. He has persisted in badly managing our country’s diversity.

“Nigeria cannot at this stage avoid a genuine conversation about its future. The signs are all too obvious for all to see and act on.

“Citizens are the only legitimate centre that can midwife credible dialogue. Citizens have to step up. Nigeria cannot at this stage avoid a genuine conversation about its future. The signs are all too obvious for all to see.

“The people of Nigeria are due for a conversation.”

An Associate Fellow, Africa Programme, at the Chatham House, London, Dr Leena Koni Hoffman, in a series of tweets, also said Pantami›s extremist position deserved deeper interrogation.

She said: “I want to go on the record on what I think this Pantami issue is symptomatic of and as I don’t have a blog, I’m doing this thread. I’m partly responding to how I think it is deeply problematic to argue that Pantami’s statements are taken out of context and because he was an opponent of Boko Haram, there is no more to see here. I’m understating things when I say there is more than a lot to see here. I will focus on just two points, not because they are more important, but at this present time, I think they are most urgent.

“First, it is incomplete to infer a contrast between Pantami and Muhammad Yusuf simply because they debated. Many have pointed out that Pantami also espoused Jihad implementation in Nigeria but through a gradualist approach (gyara) – he disagreed on the means not the end. We know what gyara means. To dismiss questions about these views as positions he held when he was young and naïve or as an example of cancel culture is premium gaslighting. That he has moderated his view on establishing overall Jihad is one that has not been properly interrogated and an honest and accountable government would show an appetite to do so transparently.

“Second, Pantami is representative of a hyper-zealous cadre of clerics who proliferated the puritanical Salafi literalist creed of Islam which has reshaped northern Nigeria in deeply volatile ways. He wasn’t a fringe voice in this restructuring, he was a forefront charismatic cleric and debater who indoctrinated and suffocated the critical thinking and development of a generation of Muslim youths.

“Northern Nigeria is in the grips of a crisis of moral vigilantist chauvinism because of a steady diet of extreme, puritanical doctrines from the likes of Pantami. Where is the personal accountability for his moral chauvinism and extremist views about non-Muslims?

“These views were not just prescriptive but punitive and have molded northern Nigeria into its present culturally closed, volatile and intolerant state.

“As a woman, researcher and northern Nigerian, who has travelled through the region for many, many years, I have witnessed its increasing hostility and judgmental conservatism and nothing good or prosperous can come of this. «The evidence is overwhelming, from Sokoto to Borno, that nothing good or prosperous has come of this trend in northern Nigeria. I am going on the record to say these dots are connected.”