Does Campaign to Remove Pantami Implying a Hidden Agenda? – By Hauwa’u Idris

INFOMEDIA – The kerfuffle that greeted Nigeria’s digital spaces recently with citizens demanding removal or voluntarily resignation of the minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Ali Isa Pantami over some controversial comments he made in the past which was viewed as a support of global terrorist groups, Al-Qaeda and Taliban even after the minister’s withdrawal of the statement in question, is one that lent no further credence to the fact that the campaign has a hidden agenda.

The issue started when the local newspaper Newswireng reported that Dr Isa Pantami had been placed on a US watch list for his alleged link to terrorism, which the minister denied having any connection with Boko Haram terrorist sect.

The said newspaper had already withdraw the purported report and apologized for defaming the minister’s hard earned reputation among others for lacking in merit and tentative evidence to back their claim. But sadly, some Nigerians surprisingly continue pointing an accusing finger over how, what and who ordered the newspaper to withdraw it’s initial claim on the person of the minister.

Though it’s crystal clear that on many occasions the minister suffered a life threat from the terrorists camp and still it’s not evidence enough for Nigerians to surface and weigh the situation in order to make informed decision and arrest the situation before it escalate to ethno-religious violence in the already wounded state.

The well coordinated campaign has indeed succeded in persuading the mindsets of some gullible Nigerians to have agreed that some of the doctored videos were exactly originated from the minister while some drew their inferences and subsequent conclusion based on ethnic and regional line of thought.

For lacking evidence and subsequent apology offered to the minister by the newspaper, it has proved that it was a campaign of calumny and Nigerians should not take the issue serious because it’s planned and organized by public relations strategist intentionally in order to damage the minister’s reputation and remove him from his office.

The minister should also not be distracted though he may not escaped emotional anxiety but it should be seen as a trial from Allah, urging the good people of Nigeria to include him in prayers.

Hauwa’u Idris is a Reporter with INFOMEDIA, writes from Bayero University, Kano.

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