Every day, events happening in the country ideally should remind the president, Muhammadu Buhari and other All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwarts, of the campaign slogan, “change” that brought this administration to power in 2015. When the wind of “change” blew across the country, the society became frenzied and everyone became change agents because, President Muhammadu Buhari had promised that his administration, when Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan must have been kicked out of office, would make everything new in Nigeria, where every corrupt leader, past and present would be brought to account for the image of Nigeria hitherto dragged to the mud, to be revived again, among the comity of nations. Meanwhile, six years in the life of this administration, Nigerians are still watching and waiting for some of the campaign promises to come to fruition.
Critics of this administration hold the view that, the country has not recorded any meaningful change while the diehard supporters of the administration believe that, the president is doing well, and with two full years remaining, that he would take the country to Eldorado. However, the fingering of Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami as one of those in the past that supported extremist groups by the United States government, that now placed him on its terror watch list leaves much to be desired and indeed a clog in the wheel of this administration in the fight against terrorism as the government may not be taken very seriously given the studied silence it has maintained over this revelation against one of its ministers.
The Big Brother role of Nigeria on the African sub-region, and her stance against terrorism within and outside the country implicitly demands that allegation of this magnitude against a serving minister should not be politicized at all but instead given the urgent attention it requires because of the grave danger it has on the image of this government especially when a country like the United States of America is the one talking. Already, there is a brewing tension between the federal government and the United Kingdom (UK), who the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed accused of sabotaging the efforts of the Nigerian government in fighting terrorism by granting asylum to members of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB).
What this means is that a country like the United Kingdom does not take the Nigerian government very seriously on matters of fighting terrorism having not said anything, one week after it was made public that one of the serving ministers, Isa Pantami is on the watch list of America over his link on terrorism activities. This however means that the government should place its stand immediately on this matter in order to be taken very seriously by other countries of the world that are at present watching the unfolding events in Nigeria. We demand that the federal government, considering the legion of problems that border on security facing Nigeria at the moment, almost in all parts of the country without further delay, investigate the veracity of the US claim on Isa Pantami and whereby the minister of Communications and Digital Economy is found to have soiled his hands should do the honourable thing by resigning his appointment as minister of the Federal Republic as many Nigerians have advocated.
