Presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) in 2019, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu has berated the presidency for backing Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami despite widespread calls for his sacking.
In a statement signed by presidential media aide, Garba Shehu on Thursday, the presidency had said that the minister would not be removed on account of previous comments backing terrorist groups – Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
The presidency said there was a “cancel campaign” against the minister for holding opinions in the past that he has since renounced and apologised for.
In a Twitter thread early Saturday, Moghalu mocked the presidency’s assertion that Pantami has renounced his extremist views.
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Moghalu’s assertion mirrors those of former Ministers Obiageli Ezekwesili and Femi Fani-Kayode, who accused the presidency of tacitly supporting terrorism by siding with the minister.
Moghalu, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said, “I have refrained so far from commenting on the #Pantami controversy.
“From information available: anyone can (make) a mistake, and has the right to recant from it. But when the evidence shows that a serving minister of Nigeria has expressed open support for global terrorist groups, he should never have scaled the vetting process and been approved for that office.
“The implication of the timing of Pantami’s recanting of his views now is that he has been serving as a minister while presumably still harboring those views.
“His disagreement with Boko Haram does not absolve him of, at the very least moral culpability for supporting Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
“For this reason, Pantami should not continue to serve as a Minister.
“For him to remain in his position, and for @NGRPresident to support this, is to tell Nigerians that we have two sets of standards from the very same government, one for the likes of former Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun who had to resign for a wrongdoing in her past, and another for Pantami.
“This position of @NGRPresident undermines public accountability, as well as Nigeria’s struggle against terrorism.”