Nigerians, including former Education Minister, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, have taken to social media to express their displeasure at President Muhammadu Buhari’s silence over the controversy trailing Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami.
The minister is being severely criticized by many Nigerians for failing to resign after videos circulated of him expressing support for some terror groups – Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
He was also quoted to have described the infamous terrorist, Osama Bin Laden as a better Muslim than himself.
The minister said, after the controversy started, that he had renounced his extremist views, which he blamed on immaturity.
The Herald reported on Wednesday that Pantami virtually attended the 42nd virtual meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Thursday despite the controversy.
This newspaper also quoted Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed as admitting that Pantami’s matter was not discussed at Wednesday’s FEC meeting.
Critics said that the admission by the Information Minister further proved President Buhari’s non-chalant attitude towards the matter in spite of public outcry.
Read comments monitored on Twitter on Thursday:
The @NigeriaGov @NGRPresident @MBuhari may not realize that the world is following the ugly developments on our country’s Minister of Communication and how his government is handling or in fact ignoring to handle it.
Nigeria must avoid the List of States that Sponsor Terrorism✍🏾
— Oby Ezekwesili (@obyezeks) April 22, 2021
The silence of the FG on this Isa Pantami issue is quite telling.
Even if it's a cooked up statement or whatever, just release. Pretend to care kwanu even if they genuinely don't care but oh well…
— UG (@UgwunnaEjikem) April 22, 2021
They asked Lai Mohammed if FG was comfortable with Pantami being a Minister and he answered "It was not discussed in the council meeting".
So the Executive Council are not aware of what's going on or are they are complicit???
— Morris Monye💙 (@Morris_Monye) April 22, 2021
Pantami crimes:
– instigating a mob to murder a student
– instigating a mob to prevent Christian staff from entering office
– declaring support for Osama and Al-Qaeda
– declaring support for cleansing of Christians
– chaired the plot to assassinate a sitting gov#PantamiResign
— Adetutu Balogun, MBA (@Tutsy22) April 22, 2021
The Buhari/APC regime is not silent on Pantami; by doing nothing they have spoken, and it is loud!
— Somto Onuchukwu (@chosensomto) April 22, 2021