In the last few days the nation has been suffocating from the choking fumes of unsubstantiated allegations spiced with morbid fabrications against Isa Pantami, the minister of communication and digital economy.
Akin to the perfect picture of a well-oiled hatchet job nurtured with the avatar of blockbuster exploits, some shadowy media outfits circulated documents on the social media-claiming to have unearthed comments from his past utterances which suggest sympathy for terrorist groups.
From the very moment this became a matter of public knowledge – the nation became hostage to an unrelenting orgy of obsessional fury of raw prejudices and dirty politics in the guise of genuine concern for public good. In the context of the usual antics of desperate political actors and self-styled public intellectuals, national interest would be actively displaced to make room for exploiting the full benefits of bad politics.
Thereof, regional champions, ethno-religious warriors and shady groups jostling for attention under questionable advocacy would join the fray in further expanding the fissures of the nation’s fault lines. From this giddy spell of maddening desperation – a confederation of seasoned and mushrooming organizations, persons, online media warriors and ethno-religious groups with appetite for the gravy train evolved to prosecute the anti Pantami project albeit under a bevy of unproven allegations beyond what he has personally admitted.
Against the trend of the typical dodgy antics of Nigeria politicians who are never known to accept personal responsibility for gross blunders even when caught deep in the act, Pantami has owned up to the bit that he knows and offered courageous explanation about his changed perspective on a whole range of issues compared to when he expressed those views more than twenty years ago. Extreme views expressed twenty years ago which he said were out of bustling youthful exuberance, passionate zealotry, immaturity and incomplete picture of how things were then could easily be subjected to test of validity in the laboratory of intellectual curiosity.
But beclouded by raw prejudices, weak logic and morbid personal motive, the anti-Pantami forces lost the understanding of the irresistible dynamism of change in people’s lives. Isn’t there a popular axiom:” the only thing permanent in this world is change ‘‘ ? With increased exposure people’s ideas, views and principles change over time.
Observably in one of the video messages circulated on social media, Pantami who then fiercely condemned and ridiculed the idea of religious scholars taking up appointment with any government is now conspicuously deeply involved with the government of the day. Even The controversial public intellectual, Farook Kperogi –a known critic of the Buhari regime in his column in Tribune newspapers penultimate week advanced reasons to show that Pantami has changed his radical views of old, vide: “First, 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. 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 to THE point that he even claims on his Twitter page and elsewhere that he was “trained” at “Oxford; Harvard; Cambridge”
All these though wont diminish the morbid drive of the real puppeteers who are shrewd managers of public sentiments in advancing self-serving agenda. As such, it is not a coincidence that within a short time a rampaging phalanx of false alarmists posing as exceptional patriots had seized pubic space and displaced public conversation on more urgent matters of public concern afflicting the nation. The ultimate goal is to get hold of public conscience into believing their false narratives. In the end, neither the originators of the story nor the frontline crusaders who wear their public -good intent on the face are up to any good. However, the unrelenting fury of desperation activated to prosecute the anti- Pantami did unnerve the presidency. Farooq KPerogi was among the first to alert the nation that there was curious involvement of some big players in the Telecommunication sector who have been hit hard by Pantami’s aggressive reforms in the sector.
He said some editors of media houses confided in him that they were approached with some questionable documents on Pantami. Perhaps this revelation jolted and jarred the government into action as she eventually rose up to defend Pantami and called the bluff of the anti-Pantami crusaders.
Despite the whopping scale of vehement efforts being applied from various quarters to crucify Pantami, the masterminds considered them inadequate in delivering the good of getting rid of him. This led to the orchestration of crude additions of outright fabrications to enrich the tracks of war by other means.
Suddenly, items which by all sensible valuation are horribly unnewsworthy gained the traction of bold headlines in some print media, walls of some social media influencers and blogs. At a point even regarded mainstream newspapers could only barely resist the urge to partake in the bacchanalian overkill via questionable reports coordinated in a mindless binge of smear campaign.
Machineries were activated to dig out patently phony documents. In one of such effort Pantami was alleged to have chaired a meeting of JNI where the plan to kill the late governor of Kaduna state was hatched. Conscious of the dangerous ethno-religious conflagration this could ignite on the already fragile polity, the Kaduna branch of CAN had to issue a press statement where it condemned and questioned the drive behind this move. “Society’s discomforts and disagreements should, however, not be enough reasons for us to approve the circulation of phony and injurious statements against any perceived foe. However, we consider that the communiqué could be doctored. We are aware that in this age of technological advancements, we have to take any allegations with a pinch of salt until we are confident of the authenticity of the source’’
The buzzing fury of desperation extracted from various questionable sources-distant and remote to over blow- beyond remedial proportion, the demonic image forcefully created of Pantami in the public goes beyond the limit of reason and logic. It’s an agonizing reminder of the brutal extremes which dark forces operating in the shadow of personal interest can go to liquidate any visible remains of influence of their target.
For any neutral observer, the sweeping variety of scorched –earth antics invented by shadowy regional and ethno-religious warriors to prosecute the anti-Pantami drive distorts the true picture of Pantami’s alleged original sins – much as it also questions the true intent of the drivers.
The multiplicity and the monumental scale of utterly mindless fabrications infused in the original story are enough to raise suspicion on the intent, quality and rationality of the argument put forward in the guise of patriotic concern. In the logic of traditional wisdom and common sense the weight of truthfulness in a story is enough to catapult its merit in public conscience without the extra effort of malicious fabrications.
The extra effort being deployed to excavate forgotten and buried stores in the desperate bid to fuse an imaginary image of a demon in public conscience is telling of the dubious motives , failed strategy , dishonesty , appalling fig leaf of hypocrisy masqueraded as patriotism.
Added to all these is a greater pointer that a project so rich in selfish interest yet colossally weightless in credibility is being pursued with unrelenting drive of crude determination. Whilst the characters behind these continue to treat themselves to a ravishing feat of congratulatory messages for igniting confusion in the polity, the central structure of the political leadership and the larger public must be wary of the filthy desperate strategies of shady groups and dubious semi-emergent groups henceforth. Need one ask why no conspiracy theories were unearthed by this group in similar curious plane crashes of other persons of immense political, religious and ethnic weights; did they lose their spark then and what is the attraction this time for this gale of excitable albeit hypocritical anti-Panatami crusade?
Mohammed N Yakubu E-mail : [email protected] : 08173707028 (Text Only)