By ABDULLAHI ABUBAKAR LAMIDO
A lot has been said and written about the well-orchestrated trending campaign of calumny against the vibrant Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami. A newspaper fabricated a story linking him to terrorism. The same newspaper faced with threat legal action retracted it and apologized, describing it as simply baseless and misleading. Yet some fifth columnists or those who instigated the “fake news” in the first place, used the fabricated story to launch a “war” against the promising minister. Sadly, some citizens became gullible to their mischief.
The mischief makers used the strategy of selectively picking statements from some of Pantami’s old sermons, as well as gross mistranslations and interpretations. But which writer or public affairs analyst can escape the trap if the same formula of mutilating people’s statements and mistranslating some their selectively picked sentences were to be measured against moderate standards, as was done in the case of Pantami’s old sermons? How many people and nations should we condemn today if we were to judge them by their past? And, by the way, when did it become a sin for one to denounce his past mistakes, join the path of peace building and dedicate his entire life to fighting what he mistakenly used to perceive to be good? Even if he held some strong opinion before, isn’t it plausible that he not only denounced it but also declared a sustained intellectual war against it?
Wait! Before anybody supported Al-Qaeda it was the USA itself that supported and financed it. The US later became its number one enemy. Should we, then, judge the US based on its earlier position and say it is Al-Qaeda’s ally? Back in Nigeria, who was President Buhari in the 1980s: a democrat or a military “strongman”? He was on record as having despised democracy and politicians. After the seismic global collapse of communism, the fall of the Berlin wall, and with more maturity in age and experience, he made a complete turn-around, embracing democracy and growing to be the most popular politician in Africa. Many Nigerian politicians and intellectuals, as well as the global prophets of democracy, embraced and celebrated his conversion.
Fact is, no matter what he believed and uttered as an exuberant university student, like many of his contemporaries, Isa Ali Pantami is now a completely changed person. Views are modified by time. Exposure adjusts perception. That has been the case with all great men in documented human history. Pantami should even be congratulated for having grown to maturity so early, judging by the short period within which he swapped his emotion-based preaching to an intelligent, eloquent, progressive and persuasive approach.
It is actually disappointing how “intellectuals” could abandon clear evidences in favor of fabrications. How could they disregard thousands of lectures and lessons of a person where he promotes peace, and rather begin to judge him on scattered, often misinterpreted statements he made at a young age? It is an accepted standard that action speaks lauder than voice. So why are fifth columnists disguising as objective journalists and professors seeking to judge him by some weird criteria?
One also wonders how a person who has been recognized globally as a peace advocate, an interfaith bridge builder, a fearless anti-terrorism and de-radicalization hero who has risked his life to fight extremism through intellectualism and beautiful preaching, is now forcefully “promoted” as an ally of terrorists? In recognition of his contributions towards fighting violent extremism, Sheikh Pantami has been invited by various governments and international organizations for talks and to contribute towards ending violent extremism, including the government of Switzerland. Before joining government, he participated as an invited resource person in dozens of conferences, roundtables and conferences on combatting and preventing violent extremism organized by embassies, regional organizations and so on. He was commissioned to partake in developing policy documents on de-radicalization, and preventing violent extremism. His name reverberates in all meetings and conferences on combatting Boko Haram ideologies as a fearless “commander” in the intellectual war against terrorism, who defeated the founder of the group in a debate, saving thousands of youths from extremist tendencies. Yes, he not only gave counter-radicalising public lectures but was actually hosted as Imam of the Friday prayer at the famous Indimi mosque, so that his orthodox and moderate interpretations of the critical Islamic teachings the Boko Haram first leader, Mohmmed Yusuf, twisted out of context could be corrected in the minds of the many youths attending. That was taking the battle to the lion’s den, to put it mildly. Is it any wonder Shekau some months ago threatened his life, over the SIM-NIN registration? As someone who has been in the business of interfaith dialogue, de-radicalization, and preventing violent extremism for at least 15 years now, I know this pretty well. I am not analyzing a secondary data here.
But why all the mischief against Pantami? Why the enmity? It is hard to dismiss the fact that one of his major sins for which he is being witch-hunted is his being a Muslim, an Imam, and a Sheikh who occupies a position that some Islamophobes would never want to see a Muslim occupy. The fact that he, in an unprecedented manner, seamlessly combines ministerial and scholarly roles, with the rank of Sheikh, is not palatable to Islamophobes. How could a person leave the venue of the Federal Executive Council Meeting only to go straight to a mosque pulpit? They wonder! But this kind of thinking represents a typical case study of religious intolerance. As a pluralist nation, we must accept the fact that a Sheikh can be a Minister and an Imam can be a Senator just as a Pastor has the right to be a Vice President and a Reverend Father a Governor. Failure to accept living with this reality would continue to cause some people hypertension. Those who are ignorant of the fact that in Islam, the temporal and spiritual exist in harmony, have to live with the agony of their envy and bitterness. We pity them.
But is this the only reason why the vibrant Minister is being hunted? Actually there are more serious ones. I believe the whole uproar needs to be situated in its proper context; as the calculated diversionary strategy that it actually is, by expert criminals who believe that the best defense is attack. They think by putting the Honorable Minister on the defensive, they would succeed in getting him abandon his long awaited project of linking SIM with NIN, which targets to bring an end to their business of criminality, insurgency and destabilisation. Here is a Sheikh who has refused to dance to the tune of selfish criminals that have always used their privileges to milk the poor. He has refused to succumb to their corrupt offers. As the first and so far the only Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, he has doggedly pursued digital reforms that are systematically killing their “crime economy”!
A major capital of these conflict entrepreneurs is modern communications technology. The indefatigable Minister Sheikh, on the other hand, has insisted on practical strategies that would eventually push them out of business. So for them, the fight against Pantami is the beginning and end of wisdom. It is the only guarantee for their survival in business. He promotes digital economy. They promote criminal economy. They are, simply, irreconcilable antagonists. It is worrying how we have failed to understand their game. Most of the discourse on the saga rather focuses on the shadows, as planned by the criminals. It is gratifying that the media itself has reported that a telecommunication industry cabal bent on frustrating the NIN-SIM link project had been bribing it (media) to tarnish the Minister. We also have on record Shekau publicly issuing death threats against the Minister. We do not know how far the sponsors of the insurgents would go or do, to anyone who constitute a stumbling block to their evil plans.
What is expected of patriotic Nigerians from the North and the South, Muslims and non-Muslims, the elites and the masses, is to rally around Pantami by supporting the NIN-SIM and other good policies and ensure that together we work towards a better and safer Nigeria. And if the reward for hard work is more work, then what we should be thinking of is not only how to ensure Dr. Pantami succeeds as a Minister but also how to retain him within the influential political class so he would contribute more in making Nigeria a better place for all of us and to inspire young Nigerians towards joining the peaceful movement for better Nigeria.
Dr. Pantami is divinely destined to be a Sheikh, an Imam, a PhD, an international scholar, a NITDA DG and a powerful, promising Minister in Buhari’s cabinet. This is God’s making. No amount of blackmail can change it. And if God has designed that he would hold a higher rank in the future, this campaign of defamation can only be a facilitator. He is not infallible. He is human. But a uniquely blessed one. Yes, his detractors see him as a man with so many sellable qualities that portend grave dangers to their selfish economic, political and religious interests. He would of course be a subject of envy being a man of faith, knowledge, wisdom, eloquence, hard work, determination, incorruptibility, doggedness, creativity, initiative and “finishiative”, as well as concern for the development of, and creating opportunities for young Nigerians; qualities that have collectively earned him a rapidly growing national political relevance. But those calling for the resignation or the sack of the Digital Boss are deceiving themselves by dreaming that Buhari would expel the Digital Minister for doing exactly what the retired General invited him from Madina to come back home and do. He has only started. Sky is his limit. If not starting point! No amount of propaganda should make him resign.
And for the records, Dr. Pantami owes nobody any apology for statements he made over 20 years ago which have been mutilated and deliberately mistranslated. In fact, what Pantami deserves is a national merit award for being consistent in his fight against violent extremism and banditry. He deserves commendations for being the first person to engage the leader of the dreaded Boko Haram in an organized debate that saved thousands of young Nigerians from the group’s dreaded path. He merits national commendation for his doggedness in making life difficult for bandits, terrorists and kidnappers as well as their financiers in the now highly insecure Nigeria. What he deserves are gold medals for his nearly two decades of consistent engagement in peace building, fighting violent extremism, promoting religious tolerance, and building interfaith understanding and harmony. He should be judged and rewarded by his current unequivocal stance against terrorism. Patriotic, well-meaning Nigerians should be thinking of giving awards to the energetic Minister who, at the risk of being attacked from every angle by the godfathers, financiers and accomplices of bandits, terrorists and kidnappers, has remained resolute in using technology to end the insecurity that characterizes our dear nation. The wise doesn’t allow himself to be stung twice from the same hole. We should avoid aiding our foes in fighting our friends. We should shine our eyes. #IstandWithPantami
Lamido
