A Nigerian politician and ex-aviation minister, Fani-Kayode has called for the arrested and prosecution of Isa Pantami.
Femi Fani-Kayode
A former aviation minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has called for the arrest of President Muhammadu Buhari's Minister of Communication, Mr Isa Pantami.
The call came over Pantami's alleged links with terrorist groups like Al-Qeada, Taliban.
Pantami has however said he made comments linking him to terrorists at a time when he was younger.
But, Fani-Kayode noted that he had considered giving “Pantami a soft landing a few days ago and opted to forgive him for his offensive, dangerous and repugnant vituperations” but said it is no longer the case because his expression of remorse was clearly not genuine or heartfelt.
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I am glad that a young, brilliant and deeply courageous freelance journalist by the name of David Hundeyin thoroughly thrashed, disgraced and removed the pants of a shameless one called Kabir Bako on Channels Televisions’ ‘Politics Today’ last night.
The latter had attempted to defend the indefensible by seeking to justify and rationalise the despicable and totally unacceptable submissions and actions of the embattled Minister of Communications, Sheik Isa Pantami.
I considered giving Pantami a soft landing a few days ago and opted to forgive him for his offensive, dangerous and repugnant vituperations only because he had publicly expressed his regrets but this is no longer the case because his expression of remorse was clearly not genuine or heartfelt.
If it was he would not have sent Kabir to Channels Television to defend those vituperations. The matter was made worse by the fact that the man spoke utter rubbish and sounded little better than a village idiot.
Now that his friends and supporters are attempting to justify and rationalise what he has said and done, I am free to speak my mind about Pantami and this short contribution serves only as of the first shot. More will come later.
For him to publicly express the fact that he is “happy” when those he described as “unbelievers” are murdered reflects his homicidal, sociopathic and psychotic mindset and is not only indefensible but also unforgivable.
And there is so much more that he has said and done, including his alleged participation in a frightful event in Bauchi state a few years ago which allegedly resulted in the tragic death of a young Christian student and which I will write about at a later stage.
Simply put the Minister is a hater of Christians and non-Muslims. He is a religious bigot, an ethnic supremacist, an unrepentant jihadist, a lover of bloodshed, carnage and terror and a psychopathic and clearly insane individual who may well have been allegedly responsible for the slaughter of many innocent Christians over the years as a consequence of his inflammatory rhetoric and reckless actions.
His attempt to defend his evil ways and justify them by sending out the likes of Kabo to speak for him disgusts me. In any case, if he had the courage of his convictions why can’t he speak for himself?
Does he not owe himself that much? Is he a coward? Does he not have guts? Is he scared of a real fight?
It appears that behind all the bravado he is nothing but a chicken-hearted little quisling who is terrified of his own shadow and who cannot stand the heat of public discourse.
Whatever is behind his cowardly disposition and reluctance to stand up for himself like a man one thing is clear: not only should he resign or be dumped as a Minister but he also ought to be arrested and sent to Nigeria’s equivalent of Guantanamo Bay which is a special facility for terrorists, built by the British Government a few years ago, in Kuje Prison in Abuja.
This self-seeking and fanatic and heartless who regards himself as a high standing member of our community and who constantly and disrespectfully refers to Christians as “unbelievers” should be arrested by the authorities like a common criminal, stripped naked, put in chains, placed in a tiny monkey cage, paraded before the public, tried in a court of law and made to spend the rest of his sorry life in that facility for his undying and remorseless support and love for terrorist organisations like Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Worse of all is the very serious allegation that some of those that have called him out have had their lives threatened and that fatwas have been issued on them by both the Minister and his supporters.
Building bridges across religious, regional and ethnic lines and seeking to establish peace between hitherto hostile groups and warring factions in our country does not include tolerating the presence of or fellowship with those who seek to kill our people, wipe out our Christian faith, destroy our values and norms and change our way of life.
No single religion can lord it over another in our country because ours is a secular state with constitutional guarantees for members of all faiths.
I utterly despise those extremists that think and behave like Pantami and I have nothing but sheer contempt for all that they stand for and seek to achieve.
The days of butchering, threatening, talking down to and insulting Christians in our country are long over and those that habitually indulge in such things must have a rethink before it is too late.
I consider the millions that have been slaughtered in the East, West, Middle Belt and core North in the name of jihad and sectarian violence over the last 60 years and I shudder with anger and disbelief.
I remember Gideon Akaluka who was beheaded in Kano many years ago, the young female RCCG Pastor who was murdered in the streets of Abuja for preaching the gospel a few years back, the 800 innocent souls that were butchered in their homes in Southern Kaduna on Christmas day in 2016, the thousands that were slaughtered in Plateau, Kano, Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Gombe, Borno, Bauchi and so many other places over the years, the hundreds of thousands that were subjected to pogroms in the North in 1966 just before the civil war and the millions that were subjected to genocide and ethnic cleansing during that war. And there is so much more.
These ugly and sad events are indelibly entrenched in the minds, hearts, bodies, spirits and souls of millions of Christians in our country and the fact that, in accordance with the dictates of our faith, we are constrained to forgive and turn the other cheek must never be misconstrued for stupidity or weakness.
We remember every single one of those that achieved martyrdom and that was cut short for their faith and in our hearts we still mourn them. The fact that they died in Christ and are therefore with the Lord in paradise is our only consolation.
We also remember those that suffered and are still suffering untold hardship and persecution simply because they are followers of Christ and we do so with much pain and regret.
Yet let me say this loud and clear: enough is enough! The mass murder, religious cleansing and endless, godless blood-letting that we have witnessed over the years against Christians cannot and must not continue.
The Christians of Nigeria are no longer prepared to be anyone’s sacrificial lamb or whipping boy. The people of Nigeria are no longer prepared to accept religious extremism or intolerance.
Both the Muslims and Christians of Nigeria must all be protected and treated fairly and equally under the law and neither must be killed or persecuted for their faith. There is no room for fundamentalism on either side.
I have as much contempt and hatred for a Christian that kills Muslims simply because he does not share his faith as I do for a Muslim that kills Christians for the same reason.
Religious intolerance is primitive, barbaric, antediluvian and archaic Those that suffer from that affliction do not deserve to be called Nigerians and they should do us a favour by moving elsewhere.
The good news is that the Muslims in our country that think like Pantami are relatively few. They do not represent the mainstream Muslims of Nigeria and neither do they represent the North. They represent only the Islamist terrorists of Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, Al Shabab, ISIS and the Taliban.
They are also ideologically coupled and embedded with the foreign Fulani terrorists and bandits that have plagued our land, that is killing our people, that are tormenting our farmers, that are raping our women and that has a strange and inexplicable affection for cows.
Not only is the cold-blooded beast called Pantami not fit to be a Minister of the Federal Republic but he is also not fit to walk our streets freely because he presents a grave danger to our people and our society.
The sooner he is dropped from President Buhari’s cabinet like a hot potato and brought to justice the better. The world is watching.
(FFK)