• Latest
  • Trending
  • All
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Security
  • Education
  • Sports
  • Health
  • Entertainment
  • Legal
  • Technology and Science
  • Opinion
  • Columns
  • Exposé
  • World
  • Lifestyle
Pantami is My Friend, But He Can’t Be Defended

Pantami is My Friend, But He Can’t Be Defended

4 years ago
ITUC-Africa Urges People-Centred Approach To AfCFTA Implementation

ITUC-Africa Urges People-Centred Approach To AfCFTA Implementation

6 hours ago
Chinese President Receives World Leaders At SCO Summit

Chinese President Receives World Leaders At SCO Summit

8 hours ago
Algeria, TotalEnergies Sign New Contracts To Boost Gas Output

Somalia Embarks On Renewed Drive To Attract Oil & Gas Investment

1 day ago
MWC Kigali
Nigeria, Africa Ranked Low In SDGs Progress

Nigeria, Africa Ranked Low In SDGs Progress

1 day ago
Rwanda: Dog Owners Ordered To Register Pets With Local Authorities

Rwanda: Dog Owners Ordered To Register Pets With Local Authorities

1 day ago
Monday, September 1, 2025
  • About
  • HT Management
  • Privacy Policy
Heritage Times
No Result
View All Result
Translate |
  • Login
  • Politics
    Chinese President Receives World Leaders At SCO Summit

    Chinese President Receives World Leaders At SCO Summit

    Guinea Revokes Mining Concession Over Firm’s Inability To Build Alumina Refinery

    Guinea: Campaigns To Vote In Constitutional Amendment Commences As Junta Intruduces Media Guideline

    HT Exclusive: Africa Under One Presidency: X-Raying Implications Of Julius Malema’s Call

    HT Exclusive: Africa Under One Presidency: X-Raying Implications Of Julius Malema’s Call

    Israel Not Needed At London Arms Fair — UK

    Israel Not Needed At London Arms Fair — UK

    Tanzania: Campaigns Flag Off Ahead Of October Polls Amid Opposition Clampdown

    Tanzania: Campaigns Flag Off Ahead Of October Polls Amid Opposition Clampdown

    Algeria: President Tebboune Sacks Prime Minister

    Algeria: President Tebboune Sacks Prime Minister

    Kenya: Activist Mwangi To Join 2027 Presidential Race

    Kenya: Activist Mwangi To Join 2027 Presidential Race

    Senegal’s Faye, Macron Meet In Paris To Reset Ties After French Troop Exit

    Senegal’s Faye, Macron Meet In Paris To Reset Ties After French Troop Exit

    Guinea Revokes Mining Concession Over Firm’s Inability To Build Alumina Refinery

    Guinea: Military Government Suspends Ex-President Conde’s Political Party

  • Economy
    17.97% Increase In Air Fares Recorded In February- NBS

    African Airlines Record 9.4% Growth In Air Cargo Demand In July 2025 – IATA

    US Limits Visa Validity For Majority Of Nigerian Applicants

    Nigeria Hikes Passport Fees To N100,000, N200,000

    Nigeria: Govt Inaugurates Committees For Civil Service Personnel Audit

    Nigeria: Govt Inaugurates Committees For Civil Service Personnel Audit

    Abuja And The Reign Of Kidnappers

    Nigeria: Kidnappers Make $1.66m From Ransom In One Year – Report

    Solar Panel Imports Into Africa Surge 60% In One Year

    Solar Panel Imports Into Africa Surge 60% In One Year

    S/Africa’s Opposition MP, Julius Malema Barred From Entering UK

    Julius Malema Warns African Leaders Against IMF’s “Debt Trap”

    Canada To Remove Retaliatory Tariffs On Many US Imports — Prime Minister

    Canada To Remove Retaliatory Tariffs On Many US Imports — Prime Minister

    TICAD9: Kenya Secures $169m To Boost Local Vehicle Parts Manufacturing

    TICAD9: Kenya Secures $169m To Boost Local Vehicle Parts Manufacturing

    TICAD9: Africa-Japan Trade, Health, Climate Change Dominate Discussion

    TICAD9: Africa-Japan Trade, Health, Climate Change Dominate Discussion

  • Security
  • Education
  • Sports
  • Health
  • Metro
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Legal
  • Tech & Science
  • Opinion
  • Exposé
  • Exclusive Videos
  • Niger Delta
  • World
  • Politics
    Chinese President Receives World Leaders At SCO Summit

    Chinese President Receives World Leaders At SCO Summit

    Guinea Revokes Mining Concession Over Firm’s Inability To Build Alumina Refinery

    Guinea: Campaigns To Vote In Constitutional Amendment Commences As Junta Intruduces Media Guideline

    HT Exclusive: Africa Under One Presidency: X-Raying Implications Of Julius Malema’s Call

    HT Exclusive: Africa Under One Presidency: X-Raying Implications Of Julius Malema’s Call

    Israel Not Needed At London Arms Fair — UK

    Israel Not Needed At London Arms Fair — UK

    Tanzania: Campaigns Flag Off Ahead Of October Polls Amid Opposition Clampdown

    Tanzania: Campaigns Flag Off Ahead Of October Polls Amid Opposition Clampdown

    Algeria: President Tebboune Sacks Prime Minister

    Algeria: President Tebboune Sacks Prime Minister

    Kenya: Activist Mwangi To Join 2027 Presidential Race

    Kenya: Activist Mwangi To Join 2027 Presidential Race

    Senegal’s Faye, Macron Meet In Paris To Reset Ties After French Troop Exit

    Senegal’s Faye, Macron Meet In Paris To Reset Ties After French Troop Exit

    Guinea Revokes Mining Concession Over Firm’s Inability To Build Alumina Refinery

    Guinea: Military Government Suspends Ex-President Conde’s Political Party

  • Economy
    17.97% Increase In Air Fares Recorded In February- NBS

    African Airlines Record 9.4% Growth In Air Cargo Demand In July 2025 – IATA

    US Limits Visa Validity For Majority Of Nigerian Applicants

    Nigeria Hikes Passport Fees To N100,000, N200,000

    Nigeria: Govt Inaugurates Committees For Civil Service Personnel Audit

    Nigeria: Govt Inaugurates Committees For Civil Service Personnel Audit

    Abuja And The Reign Of Kidnappers

    Nigeria: Kidnappers Make $1.66m From Ransom In One Year – Report

    Solar Panel Imports Into Africa Surge 60% In One Year

    Solar Panel Imports Into Africa Surge 60% In One Year

    S/Africa’s Opposition MP, Julius Malema Barred From Entering UK

    Julius Malema Warns African Leaders Against IMF’s “Debt Trap”

    Canada To Remove Retaliatory Tariffs On Many US Imports — Prime Minister

    Canada To Remove Retaliatory Tariffs On Many US Imports — Prime Minister

    TICAD9: Kenya Secures $169m To Boost Local Vehicle Parts Manufacturing

    TICAD9: Kenya Secures $169m To Boost Local Vehicle Parts Manufacturing

    TICAD9: Africa-Japan Trade, Health, Climate Change Dominate Discussion

    TICAD9: Africa-Japan Trade, Health, Climate Change Dominate Discussion

  • Security
  • Education
  • Sports
  • Health
  • Metro
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Legal
  • Tech & Science
  • Opinion
  • Exposé
  • Exclusive Videos
  • Niger Delta
  • World
No Result
View All Result
First with the News

Pantami is My Friend, But He Can’t Be Defended

"..It’s impossible to deploy the resources of logic, reason, basic decency, and even religious morality to defend some of the sermons Pantami gave in the early to late 2000s.."

April 17, 2021
in Opinion, Top Stories
0
Pantami is My Friend, But He Can’t Be Defended

Minister of Communication and Digital Economy Dr Isa Pantami.

0
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Whatsapp

By Farooq A. Kperogi

Twitter: @farooqkperogi

Relatedreading

ITUC-Africa Urges People-Centred Approach To AfCFTA Implementation

Chinese President Receives World Leaders At SCO Summit

This is a difficult column to write because although scores of people have importuned me to intervene in the controversy regarding Communication and Digital Economy Minister Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami’s utterances before he came into government, my wife, who knows Pantami is my friend, pleaded with me to stay out of it.

MWC Kigali MWC Kigali MWC Kigali
ADVERTISEMENT

But I would be a hypocrite and betray the meaning of my name (and also my late father who taught me the meaning of my name when I was too young to fully grasp it and who never failed to remind me to live up to it) if I sidestep this consuming national controversy because it puts my friend in a bad light.

The truth is that it’s impossible to deploy the resources of logic, reason, basic decency, and even religious morality to defend some of the sermons Pantami gave in the early to late 2000s, especially in light of his current position as a federal minister in charge of a vast treasure trove of citizens’ sensitive information. I’ll come to this shortly.

But, first, how did the controversy about Pantami’s past preachments come to the forefront of national conversation? A story appeared in a few Nigerian news sites on April 12 alleging that Pantami was a Boko Haram sympathizer and enabler who is now on the radar of America’s intelligence community.

The most prominent of the newspapers that gave wing to this story was James Ibori’s Daily Independent, which alleged that Pantami had “ties with Abu Quata¬da al Falasimi and other Al-Qaeda leaders that he revered and spoke glowingly of in several of his videos on YouTube” on the basis of which he is now “on the watch list of the [sic] America’s Intelligence Service.”

The backstory to this story is that it was planted by executives of telecommunications companies in Nigeria whose companies are hemorrhaging financially because of Pantami’s December 9, 2020 directive that halted the sale, activation, and registration of new SIM cards until an “audit of the Subscriber Registration Database” is completed.

I know this because at least two editor friends confided in me that they had received the story of Pantami’s alleged links to terrorism and his surveillance by US intelligence authorities from people connected to Nigeria’s telecommunications industry, but that they declined to publish it because it was legally problematic.

I suspect that Pantami himself has identified the source of his troubles because, on April 15, he ordered a conditional resumption of new SIM card sale, activation and registration from April 19 “as long as mandatory National Identification Number (NIN) verification is done and the guidelines of the Revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration are fully adhered to.”

Nonetheless, in spite of efforts by paid and unpaid media and social media “influencers” to defend him—and the retraction of the story that alleged his sympathies for domestic and international terrorists—the truth is that his rhetorical entanglements with extremist Salafist ideologies, which I wasn’t familiar with until fairly recently, justify the critical scrutiny he is receiving now.

In a series of reports, complete with audiographic accompaniments, the Peoples Gazette has unearthed sermons by Pantami that amounted to unvarnished homiletic endorsements of terrorism and intolerance of non-Muslims.

For instance, in response to a question about Osama bin Laden’s “killing of innocent unbelievers,” Pantami said although he conceded that Bin Laden was liable to err because he was human, “I still consider him as a better Muslim than myself” and pointed out that “We are all happy whenever unbelievers are being killed, but the Sharia does not allow us to kill them without a reason.” You can’t defend that.

People’s Gazette also unearthed an audiotape in which he engaged in a weepy defense of Boko Haram terrorists against extra-judicial killings and asked for an amnesty for them just like Niger Delta militants. “See what our fellow Muslim brothers’ blood has turned to? Even pig blood has more value than that of a fellow Muslim brother,” he said.

In the aftermath of the religious crisis in Shendam in Plateau State in 2004 in which Christian militiamen murdered scores of Hausa Muslims, Pantami was livid and tearful. In an audio of his preaching, he said the “Ahlus Sunna,” that is, people who are now called Salafists, should strike back and shun politicians and religious clerics who preached peace and restraint.

“This jihad is an obligation for every single believer, especially in Nigeria (hādhā jihād farḍ ‘ayn ‘ala kull muslim wa-khuṣūṣan fī Nījīriyā),” he said.

In his March 2019 paper titled “The ‘Popular Discourses of Salafi Counter-Radicalism in Nigeria’ Revisited: A Response to Abdullahi Lamido’s Review of Alexander Thurston, Boko Haram,” Professor Andrea Brigaglia of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, writes:

“Subsequently, Pantami offers himself as a volunteer to mobilise the Hisba police of the Muslim-majority states and to be appointed as the ‘commander’ (Hausa: kwamanda) of a militia ready to travel to Yelwa Shendam to join the fight in defence of the Muslims. The speech, which is about twenty minutes long, concludes with the prayer: ‘Oh God, give victory to the Taliban and to al-Qaeda’ (Allahumma ’nṣur Ṭālibān wa-tanẓīm al-Qā‘ida).”

There are many more indefensible rhetorical endorsements of extremism that can be found in Pantami’s past preaching. In my opinion, it is legitimate for non-Muslims to be concerned that someone with that sort of baggage is a federal minister—just like it would be valid for Muslims to be outraged if a Christian minister has been shown to have espoused extremist views before they became minister.

Yemi Osinbajo, for instance, has been accused of being an intolerant, narrow-minded Christian extremist who wallows in his Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) bubble, who employs only Yoruba people who belong to the RCCG, but while that is condemnable, no one has yet accused of him advocating views as extreme as Pantami’s when he was a pastor.

Nevertheless, while I denounce Pantami’s past embrace of extremism in his public preaching, I want to point out that there is a vast disjunction between his rhetoric and his person. People who know him outside the pulpit attest to his compassion, kindness, and peacefulness.

Although an April 15, 2009 U.S. diplomatic cable (exposed by WikiLeaks in 2011) about the religious crisis in Bauchi during that year said “Imam Fantami Isa, who preached at the mosque, had been previously thrown out of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University and of a Gombe mosque for preaching inflammatory rhetoric,” he is not known to have instigated any religious upheavals since then.

I also think he has evolved from the days of his fiery homiletic entanglements with stochastic terrorism. I can point to a few evidentiary proofs. First, although he said in one audio that he wanted to push Nigeria to the point where there would be no iconography in our national currency and even political campaign posters, he now obviously loves photography.

Second, although previous sermons expressed contempt for working for the government and even derided Islamic clerics who do, this is Pantami’s second political appointment. Before he was appointed minister, he was DG of NITDA.

Third, he earned a doctorate from the UK’s Robert Gordon University in 2014 and is now so enamored of the West that he even claims on his Twitter page and elsewhere that he was “trained” at “Oxford; Harvard; Cambridge; MIT/IMD” although he only attended a few weeks’ courses there after being in government.

But the notion that these facts show evidence that he has changed is just my extrapolation. If he indeed has evolved like I think he has, he should address a world press conference and say so. At the very least, he should give the context for his previous incendiary preachments.

No one can do this for him. Paying media houses to “fact-check” un-fact-checkable claims (such as whether he is on a watchlist) and to cleverly twist facts to deceive a gullible reading public— and social media “influencers” to muddy the discursive waters— won’t help him.

After all, in December 2020, Sheikh Aminu Daurawa who, like Pantami, countenanced Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the early to mid-2000s, released an audiotape renouncing his past. And he isn’t a government appointee.

As Desmond Ford reminds us, “A wise man changes his mind sometimes, but a fool never. To change your mind is the best evidence you have one.”

ShareTweetSend
Previous Post

Nigerian Navy’s Newest Offshore Survey Vessel Begins Homeward Voyage From France

Next Post

We’ll Make ESN Work With Ebube Agu – Iwuanyanwu

Related Posts

ITUC-Africa Urges People-Centred Approach To AfCFTA Implementation

ITUC-Africa Urges People-Centred Approach To AfCFTA Implementation

August 31, 2025
Chinese President Receives World Leaders At SCO Summit

Chinese President Receives World Leaders At SCO Summit

August 31, 2025

Nigeria, Africa Ranked Low In SDGs Progress

Rwanda: Dog Owners Ordered To Register Pets With Local Authorities

Guinea: Campaigns To Vote In Constitutional Amendment Commences As Junta Intruduces Media Guideline

Nigeria, Singapore Strengthen Bilateral Ties

Next Post
We’ll Make ESN Work With Ebube Agu – Iwuanyanwu

We’ll Make ESN Work With Ebube Agu – Iwuanyanwu

Please login to join discussion
MWC Kigali MWC Kigali MWC Kigali
AfriHeritage Magazine Issue 2 AfriHeritage Magazine Issue 2 AfriHeritage Magazine Issue 2

Updates

Plugin Install : Widget Tab Post needs JNews - View Counter to be installed
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
ITUC-Africa Urges People-Centred Approach To AfCFTA Implementation

ITUC-Africa Urges People-Centred Approach To AfCFTA Implementation

August 31, 2025
Chinese President Receives World Leaders At SCO Summit

Chinese President Receives World Leaders At SCO Summit

August 31, 2025
Algeria, TotalEnergies Sign New Contracts To Boost Gas Output

Somalia Embarks On Renewed Drive To Attract Oil & Gas Investment

August 30, 2025
Nigeria, Africa Ranked Low In SDGs Progress

Nigeria, Africa Ranked Low In SDGs Progress

August 30, 2025
JESIN GAMES - AfriTrivia JESIN GAMES - AfriTrivia JESIN GAMES - AfriTrivia
ADVERTISEMENT

Most Recent

ITUC-Africa Urges People-Centred Approach To AfCFTA Implementation

August 31, 2025

Chinese President Receives World Leaders At SCO Summit

August 31, 2025

Somalia Embarks On Renewed Drive To Attract Oil & Gas Investment

August 30, 2025

Nigeria, Africa Ranked Low In SDGs Progress

August 30, 2025

Rwanda: Dog Owners Ordered To Register Pets With Local Authorities

August 30, 2025

Guinea: Campaigns To Vote In Constitutional Amendment Commences As Junta Intruduces Media Guideline

August 30, 2025

Nigeria, Singapore Strengthen Bilateral Ties

August 30, 2025

4 Importance Of Quality Family Time To Children

August 30, 2025

About

Heritage Times HT stands as a beacon of pan-African journalism, dedicated to amplyfing the rich tapestry of voices and narratives across the continent. With unwavering commitment, we illuminate the evocative essence of Africa, offering a fresh perspective that captivates our global audience.

Featured

One Year of Transformative Stewardship: Walson-Jack’s Innovative Impact on Nigeria’s Civil Service

Africa’s Largest Tech Event, MWC25 Kigali, Returns With Focus On Innovation, Policy

Nadine Djuiko: Meet The Cameroonian Woman Behind Maryland’s Million-Dollar Braiding Empire

Connect

Connect with us on social media and receive timely updates on the go.

Get Updates

  • About
  • HT Management
  • Privacy Policy

© 2025 Heritage Times (HT) Media.

No Result
View All Result
  • Welcome
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Security
  • Exposé
  • Education
  • Sports
  • Health
  • Entertainment
  • Legal
  • Technology and Science
  • Columns
    • Opinion
  • World
  • __________________
  • Make a Donation
  • Photo Speaks
  • Videos
  • You-Report
  • Whistleblower
  • Advertise
  • HT Events
  • HT Management
  • About HT
  • Contact us

© 2025 Heritage Times (HT) Media.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In