By Ali Abare
It’s now evidently clear that some vested interests are after the skin of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami.
Judging from the relentless unearthing of ‘new revelations’ from the Minister’s past, it is also certain those after Dr. Pantami, will stop at nothing, until they achieve their nefarious objective of sacking a minister that has continued to break new barriers, in the effort to turn around the economy of the country, from over dependence on crude oil, to Nigeria’s new bride, digital economy.
Dr Pantami is a role model and an excellent example of the height a Northern Muslim could ever aspire to be. Born 48 years ago in Gombe, Dr Pantami, according to his short biography recently authored by Vice President, Professor Yemi Osibanjo, started his education by attending traditional school for memorizing the Holy Qur’an, called the Tsangaya School. He spent more than four years in the school. He later joined primary school in Pantami. He attended Government Science Secondary School in Gombe.
After his secondary education, he spent additional two years seeking for more religious knowledge before moving to university. He studied Computer Science at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in Bauchi, Nigeria, gaining a BTech in 2003 and an MSc in 2008, before obtaining a PhD from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland. He spent his life pursuing both formal and informal education, by switching from one form to another.
He is also trained on Digital transformation in Harvard University, USA then Management Strategy in both, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Institute of Management Development in Loussaune, Switzerland. He was also in Cambridge University for Management Programme, among others.
Pantami lectured at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in Information Technology before joining the Islamic University of Madinah as Head of Technical Writing in 2014.
In 2016, he was appointed as the Director General/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). He was confirmed by President Muhammadu Buhari as part of 13 newly appointed chief executives for 13 government agencies. His directive for NITDA upon employment was to develop the ICT infrastructure in the North East in the aftermath of the destruction caused by Boko Haram insurgency.
Shortly after the WannaCry ransomware attack, he organized the second annual conference on “Financial Fraud and Cyber Crime” in Abuja with the Federal Ministry of Justice and private sector partners. He also initiated the Nigerian national public key infrastructure (PKI) programme, and went into a security partnership with ESET, an IT security company that offers anti-virus and firewall products.
Pantami received an award as the “ICT Promoter of the Year 2017” in London by The Nigerian in recognition of “positive contributions to the ICT revolution in Nigeria, youth empowerment & good governance”. Within two years of his stewardship, he has received over 50 awards and recognitions both within and outside Nigeria.
Dr Pantami is a fellow of both British Computer Society (FBCS) and Nigeria Computer Society (FNCS). He also has many fellowships to his credit. Pantami is a Jummu’ah Chief Imam who has been leading the Jummu’ah prayer for over 20 years in both Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
He serves as a Member of Shari’ah Board of Jaiz Bank. He is also a Shurah member and Deputy Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Shari’ah (SCS) in Nigeria. He was educated in Islam by scholars including Muhammad Umar Fallatah, Muhammad ibn Al-Uthaymeen and Abdulmuhsin ibn Abbad. He is also the Chairman of Board of Trustees of Al’Hudah Islamiyyah & Mosque Foundation, and a member/secretary of Bauchi State Elders Advisory Committee and Bauchi state National Qur’anic Competition Committee among other committees.
Pantami authored more than a dozen books on ICT, STEM, technology, politics & community reconciliation, religion and peaceful coexistence, as well as over 20 publications in international journals, including International Journal of Innovative Research in Engineering and Management (IJIREM), Macrotheme Review, and International Journal of Computer & Information Technology. Religious books authored by him include Islam and Politics, Synonimity or Dichotomy?, The Essentials of Marriage in Establishing An Ideal Family, Month of The Qur’an & Its Virtues, and 63 Steps of Performing an Acceptable Hajj and Its Spiritual and Moral Lesson.
He is happily married with children.
It is this individual with such enviable credentials, that some people, mostly because they have access and can control both the mainstream and new media, are embarking on assissinating his character by claiming and seeking to portray this digital guru, a minister, an Imam and Sheik, as a ‘terrorist’.
In their collective desperation, they go back in time, to when young Pantami was truly in his elements as a fiery young Islamic preacher cum student, to selectively circulate both audios and videos, where Pantami made statements and pronouncements, that may appear to many as being extremists in nature.
The contents of these audios and videos, cannot be used to paint especially a religious cleric a ‘terrorist’, when one disregards the faked minutes of a purported meeting by the JNI, where Pantami was alleged to have made inciteful comments against Christians. Except for the gullible, at a time in Nigeria, especially after the 2003 religious crisis in Plateau State, both Christian and Muslim clerics, went emotional, each taking actions towards protecting its own.
At the time Dr. Pantami made those statements, there were pastors and Christian clerics that made even worst statements from the pulpit, calling for blood of Muslims, but no such cleric could be termed ‘terrorist’.
Apparently, those who must have been made to feel the heat, in the wake of the landmark achievements by Dr Pantami, especially in curtailing activities of fraudsters and cyber criminals, may have fuelled this vendetta against the minister.
However, searching deeply, and considering that most of those fraudsters and cyber criminals, are mostly from the southern part of the country, and may not know a hoot about the Islamic background of the minister, it’s becoming clearer that those who are after Dr Pantami, may after all be individuals who knew his past and who could easily access those audios and videos from his past. It may not be farfetched, to say that those realising statements Pantami made in the past, may even be people that are close to him but who felt threatened by his actions as the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.
Dr Pantami cannot by any standard be described as a terrorist or even that he supports terrorism, when his sermons and preachings, point the other way. The attack on the person of the minister is more like that of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it.
That some mainstream media are involved in this campaign of calumny, to the point of writing editorials seeking for the sack of Dr Pantami, shows that those behind the smear campaign, have deep pockets. For a national daily to deliberately ignore the mirad of challenges facing the country and Nigerians, and to focus on bogus claims such as that Dr Pantami supports terrorism because of his past statements, tells you that money must have exchanged hands under the table.
Whoever is after Pantami should know that the minister exemplifies everything good that could emerge from the North and its people. Launching a personality war against Dr Pantami is like taking up arms against the entire North because he represents exactly what a Northern Muslim could aspire to be. Pantami is a role model from every aspect of life. He is a doctorate degree holder, minister, an Imam and Sheik. You can’t joke with such qualifications anywhere in the world.
With all seriousness, gold fish has no hiding place. Because of his training and background, it’s inconceivable that Pantimi has succeeded in eluding the searching eyes of countries of the world working hard to stop terrorism. With such qualifications and experience, it’s unlikely that he could have escaped under the radar of countries like the USA and UK, that are leading the fight against terrorism.
Those after Pantami are waging a fruitless war because Nigerians will eventually know that, it’s a squabble against excellent service delivery and an attempt to set back the hands of the clock. Pantami’s giant strides in ICT, data protection and privacy, digital innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as cyber security, has come to stay and the sooner his detractors realize this, the better for them.
Abare, a Muck Rack journalist, writes from Lafia, Nasarawa State.
