2019 presidential candidate of the Young Progressive Party, Kingsley Moghalu, has said that the position of the presidency on the issue concerning the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami undermines public accountability.
Presidency, had on Thursday, stated that the views of Pantami relating to his teachings and stance with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban were views he had at a younger age which he has repented from it.
Through Garba Shehu, the President’s spokesman, it revealed that the unraveling of Pantami’s earlier teaching is politically motivated and an avenue to destroy his reputation.
Moghalu, the former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria revealed that the Nigerian government has double standards where one is for the former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, while the other is for Dr Isa Pantami.
He made it clear that Pantami should not continue as a Minister of the Nigerian government.
Read his full post below;
I have refrained so far from commenting on the #Pantami controversy. From the information available: anyone can 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 harbouring 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 Nigerian President 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 Nigerian President undermines public accountability, as well as Nigeria’s struggle against terrorism.
