By Adamu Usman Garko
It is clear that in Nigeria today, if one wants to be silenced, he just needs to be honest and stick to bringing about practical changes even if at the detriment of one’s life. There are many subjective critics out there galvanizing their swords, waiting for anyone who has the interest of the masses at heart, using their dishonest swords as a mechanism to create appalling silence, silence that if you are targeted with, will make you feel discouraged and ready to succumb to failure.
These subjective critics do not mean well for the country. They want, forever, to continue seeing the masses suffering, dreading the emergence of a change maker like Dr. Pantami. But you know what? Dr. Pantami is a unique one, no subjective criticism or any form of malice targeted at silencing positivity and erecting the pillars of negativity can discourage him. Unlike others, Pantami doesn’t beg for opportunities. In fact, he was once denied of a superior opportunity to come down here to Nigeria to work for the betterment of the masses.
For obvious reasons, Pantami has been a subject of criticism since his emergence as a minister. Many didn’t bother to take a memory tour into the archives of his antecedents during his tenure at NITDA. They do not care to appreciate the much he had done to bring NITDA to limelight when the majority knew not even about the agency or what it stands for. More so, they do not appreciate him getting to pilot the whole of Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, the position he deservedly got due to his unbeatable achievements when he was a DG at NITDA. Additionally, in few months of his emergence as a minister, he did what could have taken forever to complete. Constructive criticism is important, no success comes without criticism. Criticism that is objective and coming with a pure unadulterated intention of making the targeted to gauge his activities and effect change. And not subjective criticism coming consequently of hypocrisy, hatred and jealousy.
Despite the subjective criticisms flooding his way, he remains committed to his duty. There is no reason to begin to enumerate many of the great works he has fostered since he became a minister. His impacts are ubiquitous everywhere in Nigeria today. This is besides the humanitarian activities he is silently carrying out, of which I, personally know many. He is never an attention seeker, that is why many who are ignorant of this might continue to fume on social media; since to their knowledge, social media is the beginning and end of showcasing achievements and apportioning rewards.
Obviously, Pantami’s emergence is clearly an answer to our prayers for a better expression of what leadership should be in Nigeria. But you know what? This is not what subjective critics want from him. They want him to fall a prey to failure, they want him to derail, so that many of us that are optimistic of a better nation and leadership would have our hopes dashed. So that they would have many a vintage position to send their poisonous arrows of manacing criticism his way, so that he would eventually resign under the deluge of their malicious criticism. They are busy sponsoring dubious people to paint him black, forgetting the positive changes he is ushering in. They are already appalled by his being an up and doing member of the executive arm who is doing so incredibly well, who is one of the few reliable intellectuals holding leadership positions today, who is also most morally and educationally sound.
You know what? Sheathe your swords of subjective criticism, he won’t resign, he won’t compromise the great work and arrays of innovations he is bringing into this country. Even before he left a country with so much mouthwatering opportunities at his disposal, he was and he is still aware of where he is going. He knew and he still knows that to effect changes means to hug a naked transformer. He is aware, as we all crtically are, that effecting changes in this country makes you liable to be insulted, stoned at or subjectively criticized. He knows that the bottom line here is, do no good, don’t stand for the truth, shun justice and eschew fairness. Whenever many of us who are optimistic come across someone blackmailing him because of the positivity he champions, we remind ourselves that when he was appointed as a minister, he said this:
“Leadership is a burden, a trial and sometimes a calamity.” There’s no amount of hatred, jealousy, sponsorship of e-thuggery by anyone or institution to blackmail or silence him that will succeed. He is beyond that. This is what happens when you have a seasoned personality as a leader.
May our eyes never go blind to the vista of truth.
Adamu Usman Garko writes from Gombe State.
