Pantami is My Friend, But He Can’t Be Defended
Farooq A. Kperogi
Saturday, April 17, 2021
Pantami is My Friend, But He Can’t Be Defended
By Farooq A. Kperogi
Twitter: @farooqkperogi
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.
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.”
Kennesaw State University
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.com
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
akandeoj
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
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Femi Segun
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Cornelius Hamelberg
To other implications so self-righteously implicit in the thread starter, later, For now, re - “Perhaps, if one can talk to one or two friends of Osama Bin Laden, they may also say the same thing about his niceness and fake compassion” (Femi Segun)
True: these days, there are tensions between the religion of peace and Islamic terrorism
With a view to the current precarious, better said, disastrous security situation in Nigeria, not to mention the spectre of international terrorism which is likely to increase in the near future, Femi Segun’s questions about the screening of political appointees to certain sensitive positions are legitimate concerns on behalf of those who value peace and love.
From Israpundit and MEMRI one gets the impression that with Joe Biden determined to pull out of Afghanistan, so he says, latest by the 11th of September, this year, and with the Taliban already bragging that they won the war, it’s clear that even from his watery grave Bin laden is in the limelight again, and for all we know Mullah Omar might soon re-appear on the horizon for all to see and hear. I’m sure that these latest developments, Biden pulling US troops out of the Middle East, etc etc etc can only serve as an inspiration to armed Islamic resistance/ aspirations everywhere, including people like Boko Haram who are also determined to carve out their own Caliphate or Empire if need be and to bring all of Nigeria under Muslim rule, relegating Dhimmis ( non-Muslims ) to “Dhimmitude”. We must also take note that the gospel according to Islam does not preach” Love your enemies”
Since the days of Baby Bush who issued the stern ultimate, “you're either with the terrorists or you're with us”, the bone fide Muslims, especially those in the US who might have their private and public sympathies, are in something of a dilemma, a double bind; whereas there’s no way that I am for instance going to join Hamas or Islamic Jihad, I suppose that understandably, for his own sake and to make his e$$ more secure in the seat someone like Kperogi should probably like to make it widely known, loud and clear that he is not a terrorist sympathiser by sending out the sort of signals he is sending out here.
There’s no room for the Islamophobic prejudice that “All Muslims are terrorists”. Nor should the presumption that “once a terrorist, always a terrorist”, or “once a terrorist sympathiser, always a terrorist sympathiser.” Or assuming that “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, says Jesus Christ in the Bible “ that certain people who have never done any harm to any Muslim, are “vermin”
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
But...I did not state the Buhari govt might be in bed with terrorists.
I stated the BUHARI GOVERNMENT IS A TERRORIST GOVERNMENT.
toyin
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (But...I did not state the Buhari govt might be in bed with terrorists.
I stated the BUHARI GOVERNMENT IS A TERRORIST GOVERNMENT.
toyin
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adejoju,
This website tries to answer the question” What makes Islam so different? “
The thing about you is that you don’t mince your words. In this case there is no mysticism or cloud of nebulous or hijab and burqa or other chameleon camouflage wrapped around the Buhari Government. According to you, fair and square, plain and simple: “ the Buhari Government is a terrorist Government“
More easily said than done, should the state security rein you in for questioning they’ll be interested in your personal definition of “Terrorist Government “
Can a terrorist government be democratically elected?
What is the terrorist agenda of the Buhari Government?
Mind you, you are not the only one thinking along such lines. Just the other day I was not amused to read this headline perspective in the Zionist Press: “Terrorists all set to win the Palestinian Elections”
Nigeria is now regularly featured here: Jihad Watch
OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
This message
is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (But...I did not state the Buhari govt might be in bed with terrorists.
I stated the BUHARI GOVERNMENT IS A TERRORIST GOVERNMENT.
toyin
To other implications so self-righteously implicit in the thread starter, later, For now, re - “Perhaps, if one can talk to one or two friends of Osama Bin Laden, they may also say the same thing about his niceness and fake compassion” (Femi Segun)
True: these days, there are tensions between the religion of peace and Islamic terrorism
With a view to the current precarious, better said, disastrous security situation in Nigeria, not to mention the spectre of international terrorism which is likely to increase in the near future, Femi Segun’s questions about the screening of political appointees to certain sensitive positions are legitimate concerns on behalf of those who value peace and love.
From Israpundit and MEMRI one gets the impression that with Joe Biden determined to pull out of Afghanistan, so he says, latest by the 11th of September, this year, and with the Taliban already bragging that they won the war, it’s clear that even from his watery grave Bin laden is in the limelight again, and for all we know Mullah Omar might soon re-appear on the horizon for all to see and hear. I’m sure that these latest developments, Biden pulling US troops out of the Middle East, etc etc etc can only serve as an inspiration to armed Islamic resistance/ aspirations everywhere, including people like Boko Haram who are also determined to carve out their own Caliphate or Empire if need be and to bring all of Nigeria under Muslim rule, relegating Dhimmis ( non-Muslims ) to “Dhimmitude”. We must also take note that the gospel according to Islam does not preach” Love your enemies”
Since the days of Baby Bush who issued the stern ultimate, “you're either with the terrorists or you're with us”, the bone fide Muslims, especially those in the US who might have their private and public sympathies, are in something of a dilemma, a double bind; whereas there’s no way that I am for instance going to join Hamas or Islamic Jihad, I suppose that understandably, for his own sake and to make his e$$ more secure in the seat someone like Kperogi should probably like to make it widely known, loud and clear that he is not a terrorist sympathiser by sending out the sort of signals he is sending out here.
There’s no room for the Islamophobic prejudice that “All Muslims are terrorists”. Nor should the presumption that “once a terrorist, always a terrorist”, or “once a terrorist sympathiser, always a terrorist sympathiser.” Or assuming that “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, says Jesus Christ in the Bible “ that certain people who have never done any harm to any Muslim, are “vermin”
On Saturday, 17 April 2021 at 20:39:03 UTC+2 Samuel Oloruntoba wrote:
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
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Femi Segun
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Birds of the same feather.
Today, one bird says that the other bird can no longer be “defended” and then adds that he would be a “hypocrite “ (munafiq) - if he did. Fact is, a friend in need is a friend in deed, how long ago the friendship started, to what extent did the friend-ship thicken, when last did the friends see each other or discuss radical/ militant Islam is an other matter. Long ago, Peter denied that he knew the son of God three times before the rooster crowed at the break of dawn, but in this case Kperogi’s life not being at stake, it’s not as if he’s afraid of putting his ass on the line for his Militant Muslim brother/friend, on the contrary it’s consistent with his character to claim happily that an outgoing guy like Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami is a good friend of his even if he last met or saw him in Nigeria more than a dozen years ago and even if they were not that close and they remain ideologically and physically separated by the chasm known as the Atlantic Ocean. However, (a great hypothetical) if Boko Haram were to triumph and establish Islamic Government over the entire continent of Africa, would any fair-weather friends be ready to defend their communications minister in the Islamic Government? What would be the fate of the Vermin living under them?
The truth is that today, there are all kinds of Muslims, some are more militant than others. Today we mostly hear about “moderate“ Muslims and “radical” Muslims. There’s even the case of Mosab Hassan Yousef
Today, there are house Negroes who tell their employers that they are not at all sympathetic to any of the views held Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan, Even Barack Obama renounced Rev Jeremiah Wright...
Femi Kolapo
This is an intriguing piece indeed and it must be difficult to write about a friend and it and your response to it raise interesting questions. Can people’s passionate words express their sincere thoughts and motives and even define them – completely? Under what condition do people change very drastically in their personality and what aspects of their personality changes when do?
An extreme case would be how to square the public persona of Hitler with the report of his refined and hospitable demeanor to some guests who said they were once hosted by him. Closer home we may ask how can some of our great African statesmen and women who otherwise are very kind, helpful, compassionate individuals and great parents, many of who often are confirmed to be deeply religious, loot dry the government coffers that were entrusted to their charge without batting an eyelid at the suffering they cause to the ordinary people?
Thus, given the right context, the right mix of circumstances, can/can’t people who in their ordinary lives manifest compassion, kindness, and peacefulness perpetrate great evil? Hannah Arendt’s controversial concept of the banality of evil comes to mind here.
Femi J. Kolapo | Department of History | www.uoguelph.ca/history
College of Arts | University of Guelph | 50 Stone Rd E | Guelph ON | N1G 2W1
A thought for the month:
|
Compassion is more than passing feelings of sorrow and sympathy. It is costly identification with those who suffer in their suffering and oppression
[and a call to]. experience their brokenness. It requires a total conversion of heart and mind. - Paul G Hiebert,
Transforming
Worldviews. |
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2021 11:53 AM
Farooq A. Kperogi
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Cornelius Hamelberg
I hear about certain classmates and good friends (human rights icon, best lawyer in Sierra Leone, on the board of directors of every imaginable mineral that can be mined in that country) others, government ministers, professors of this and that, head of the Civil Service, Ambassadors to here and there, Mr. Money Bags, so many wives and concubines, Mr Corruption Himself in Person. What I do know is that some of us who in our teens had the highest ideals - and still have such ideals, are not corrupt and are incapable of being “corrupt”, have never been tested, have never aspired or attained to certain positions of power and authority, to be tested how we would act in certain situations, standing in their shoes.
Standing in their shoes, think, e.g. paedophile priests ...
“Power corrupts, absolute powers corrupts absolutely” and Arendt’s “The Banality of Evil” are issues many have been grappling with philosophically and psychologically, since they were teenagers. Now we're looking forward to the fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy; “And it shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy; your elders shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.”.
We skirted around that sort of question with Chief Commander Evangelist Ebenezer Obey, yesterday and we should expect Lord Agbetuyi doyen of the Yoruba Mother Tongue to give us a fuller accounting of exactly all of what Chief Commander said in response to the question of what Nigeria must do, since Elder Chief Commander spoke his mother tongue of which he had 1000 % command, 20% of the time last night. It was a brilliant, thrilling and fulfilling three and half hour session last night. I fell in love with his humility. Nothing supercilious about him, no Sir, no such thing since GOD made us all in His Own image and likeness, the last thing on the Evangelist's mind would be to call his fellow mortal “vermin”, even Burns does not do that writing about his Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie...unlike Browning getting rid of the town's vermin in his “Pied Piper of Hamelin” and in the same trajectory Mister Hitler’s and his fellow Nazis’ Final Solution for those they referred to as “vermin”.
We are all witness that that strain of evil persists and that it always starts in the heart for, just as the Christian Bible says, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”. That’s where the evil begins. We should now also pay close attention to the fulfilment of this one which is just round the corner: “Where arrogance appears disgrace soon follows.” - it’s a characteristic I have observed in some underlings who previously worked for the CIA and those who choose status - and assumed status over civility and utility
In my own limited experience, we ought not underestimate the power of ambition and the power of conviction whether atheistic or demonic. The demonic of course has arrogance as its chief characteristic - he kills his stupid wife and then starts crying that he is now a widower - the other one murders his parents and wants us to sympathise with him because he is now an orphan. Nor should we underestimate the power of religion when it comes to identity politics (there are of course Muslims who say, loud and clear “I am not religious”, don’t even pray twice a day and as the Quran which has its own definitions of evil, says, (al Baqarah 8 – 18
“And of mankind are some who say: We believe in Allah and the Last Day, when they believe not. They think to beguile Allah and those who believe, and they beguile none save themselves; but they perceive not. In their hearts is a disease, and Allah increaseth their disease. A painful doom is theirs because they lie. And when it is said unto them: Make not mischief in the earth, they say: We are peacemakers only.
Are not they indeed the mischief-makers? But they perceive not. And when it is said unto them: believe as the people believe, they say: shall we believe as the foolish believe ? are not they indeed the foolish ? But they know not. And when they fall in with those who believe, they say: We believe; but when they go apart to their devils they declare: Lo! we are with you; verily we did but mock. Allah (Himself) doth mock them, leaving them to wander blindly on in their contumacy. These are they who purchase error at the price of guidance, so their commerce doth not prosper, neither are they guided. Their likeness is as the likeness of one who kindleth fire, and when it sheddeth its light around him Allah taketh away their light and leaveth them in darkness, where they cannot see. Deaf, dumb and blind; and they return not.”
There’s the saying, “self-praise is no recommendation” which does not mean that if you want to understand someone better you should ask one of his enemies.
So, how do you judge someone like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab?
I understand Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami , perfectly , although I have never met him personally, but I have met and know a couple of people like him , understand how and why they reason the way that they do, especially when they believe themselves to be divinely guided and acting under Allah’s divine command. For instance I knew and understood Oussama Abdallah Kassir , and pray for him. I shared the Iftar Ramadan meal with him and a few others the year before he took off to the States. It was at a time when Iraq was overflowing with weapons and you could purchase a revolver for $5. That was part of our table talk. Well, they say that “a man of words and not of deeds. is like a garden full of weeds” - and in my opinion Oussama is not, was not dangerous, (he didn’t like the Shia for example, but he was not dangerous) it’s just that he got carried away by his own rhetoric, his own perhaps divinely inspired motivation to establish the kingdom of Islam on planet earth, by what he believed to be necessary means. I learn a little by listening much and talking less.
In his usual quaint overdrive style as the freshly appointed pompous professor of communications would say “held hostage by disablingly malefic inner demons.”
It could also be another simple case of
“Well
it's just that sometimes
By
midnight light
I'm
frightened by my fears
“(Susan’s
Song)
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Reminiscent of Dan Quayle and Robert Kennedy
On the one hand our Malcolm (Omowale
on the other, Kperogi. I really like this his self-presentation
Re - “according to his biographers”
Which biograp0hers do you have in mind?
Have you read Manning Marable’s Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention ?
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DR SIKIRU ENIOLA
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
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Femi Kolapo
yes, Farooq , the nature of being ever continues to display mysterious aspects. Personhood is made up of several layers and many contradictory, overlapping, and competing versions of the self. and this embodiment in a multiplicity of personas raises the level of complexity higher than in my earlier question of how, when, and whether people change. it requires that we include in our reckoning of the human a selfhood that is composite—sometimes evolving and unstable composites. I don't know that History and the Social Sciences have tools to properly analyze this aspect of human experience except as historians borrow insights, concepts and theories from psychology, theology, anthropology, and philosophy. Unfortunately, in trying to maintain its autonomy, History has been rather unenthusiastic to borrow from others.
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2021 10:26 AM
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Cornelius Hamelberg
From: Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2021 at 20:03
Subject: Re: Fw: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Pantami is My Friend, But He Can’t Be Defended
To: Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com>
Cc: Cornelius Hamelberg <hamelberg...@gmail.com>
Re- "..... 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." The image of self-importance in claiming that “scores of people” contacted him to intervene in Pantami's controversy is reminiscent of his claim sometime ago that many people contacted him in his grammar column to explain why a definite article, *the* is placed before Gambia. Is this not what clinical psychologists would call maladaptive self-love? Most probably, no one contacted Farooq to intervene in Pantami's controversy, he decided to do that on his own. However, whether “scores of people” asked Farooq to intervene or not is a worthless information for anyone to know except the impressionist himself. Noteworthy is that the intervention itself is chameleonic and I will explain why.
Farooq Kperogi's article is titled : Pantami is My Friend, But He Can't Be Defended. Contrary to the title, Farooq defended and excused Pantami's past romance with Al-Qaeda leaders. Farooq wrote, "The most prominent of the newspapers that gave wing to this story (that Pantami was a Boko Haram sympathizer and enabler who is now on the radar of America's intelligence community) 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 You Tube" on the basis of which he is now "on the watch list of the (sic) America's Intelligence Service." It is only in the imagination of Farooq Kperogi that the Daily Independent alleged that Pantami had ties with Al-Qaeda and others when actually there are YouTube Videos to confirm such ties.
Belittling Pantami's romance with Al-Qaeda, Farooq wrote, "The backstory to this story is that it was planted by executives of telecommunications companies in Nigeria." How could the story of Pantami's romance with Al-Qaeda, according to Farooq, be planted when the romance pictures have been on YouTube Videos' circulations for some years?
Rising from defence to plea of leniency for Pantami, Farooq wrote, "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."
The question that comes to mind is, why is it just now that professor Farooq Kperogi is denouncing his friend's, Pantami's, past embrace of extremism in his public preaching when all over the years, he, Kperogi, knew about it? Now that it is being claimed that the US has placed Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami on watch list because of his past preaching and support for Boko Haram, will Farooq Kperogi not be deemed guilty by association with the extremist?
Residing in the US, the ground would appear to be hot under Farooq's feet because of his friendship with Pantami, the extremist, and in order to save himself, he has to denounce Pantami and at the same time plead not to take him, Pantami, serious.
Severally on this forum, Farooq Kperogi had boasted of his informants within Buhari's Presidency, and with his just disclosed friendship with Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami one must believe that Farooq actually has many Pantami in Buhari's government feeding him with all the extreme stuffs he has been writing about Buhari. Even if Buhari can ignore past romance of his Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, with extremists, he should still sack him for being a friend of and a suspected informant for Farooq Kperogi in his government.
After narrating various extremist views which Pantami had expressed in the past, Farooq Kperogi wrote, "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."
Since if a Christian minister cannot become, they, the last clause should correctly read, "it would be valid for Muslims to be outraged if a Christian minister has been shown to have espoused extremist views BEFORE BECOMING MINISTER." Aside from that, I don't see any clear connection between Pantami's Muslim extremism and the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo. Farooq Kperogi wrote, "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 (sic) him advocating views as extreme as Pantami's when he was a pastor." If Farooq Kperogi considers the Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo, as a Christian extremist because he employs only Yoruba people that belong to his Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), he should in the name of fairness and justice publish the names of the Yoruba RCCG employed by Yemi Osinbajo. Until that is done, how welese should we know that Faroq Kperogi is telling us the truth?
S. Kadiri
Unpublished by the almighty moderator.
From: Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com>
Sent: 19 April 2021 22:31
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Pantami is My Friend, But He Can’t Be DefendedHere, the narcissist professor with exaggerated self-worth is out again to preen like a peacock in a mating season. To him every Saturday is first of April on which he ascribes to himself the right to fool everybody. Thus, the narcissism in him made him to claim that, "..... 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." The image of self-importance in claiming that scores of people contacted him to intervene in Pantami's controversy is reminiscent of his claim sometimes ago that many people contacted him in his grammar column to explain why a definite article, *the* is placed before Gambia. That is what clinical psychologists would call maladaptive self-love. No one has contacted Farooq to intervene in Pantami's controversy, he decided to do that on his own. However, whether scores of people asked Farooq to intervene or not is a worthless information for anyone to know except the impressionist himself. Noteworthy is that the intervention itself is chameleonic and I will explain why.
Farooq Kperogi's article is titled : Pantami is My Friend, But He Can't Be Defended. Contrary to the title, Farooq defended and excused Pantami's past romance with Al-Qaeda leaders. Farooq wrote, "The most prominent of the newspapers that gave wing to this story (that Pantami was a Boko Haram sympathizer and enabler who is now on the radar of America's intelligence community) 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 You Tube" on the basis of which he is now "on the watch list of the (sic) America's Intelligence Service." It is only in the imagination of Farooq Kperogi that the Daily Independent alleged that Pantami had ties with Al-Qaeda and others when actually there are You Tube Videos to confirm such ties. Belittling Pantami's romance with Al-Qaeda, Farooq wrote, "The backstory to this story is that it was planted by executives of telecommunications companies in Nigeria." How could the story of Pantami's romance with Al-Qaeda, according to Farooq, be planted when the romance pictures have been on You Tube Videos' circulations for some years? Rising from defence to plea of leniency for Pantami, Farooq wrote, "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." The question that comes to mind is, why is it just now that professor Farooq Kperogi is denouncing his friend's, Pantami's, past embracement of extremism in his public preaching when all over the years, he, Kperogi, knew about it? Now that it is being claimed that the US has placed Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami on watch list because of his past preaching and support for Boko Haram, will Farooq Kperogi not be deemed guilty by association with the extremist? Residing in the US, the ground would appear to be hot under Farooq's feet because of his friendship with Pantami, the extremist, and in order to save himself, he has to denounce Pantami and at the same time plead not to take him, Pantami, serious. Severally on this forum, Farooq Kperogi had boasted of his informants within Buhari's Presidency, and with his just disclosed friendship with Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami one must believe that Farooq actually has many Pantami in Buhari's government feeding him with all the extreme stuffs he has been writing about Buhari. Even if Buhari can ignore past romance of his Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, with extremists, he should still sack him for being a friend of and a suspected informant for Farooq Kperogi in his government.
After narrating various extremist views which Pantami had expressed in the past, Farooq Kperogi wrote, "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." Since if a Christian minister cannot become, they, the last clause should correctly read, "it would be valid for Muslims to be outraged if a Christian minister has been shown to have espoused extremist views BEFORE BECOMING MINISTER." Aside from that, I don't see any clear connection between Pantami's Muslim extremism and the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo. Farooq Kperogi wrote, "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 (sic) him advocating views as extreme as Pantami's when he was a pastor." If Farooq Kperogi considers the Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo, as a Christian extremist because he employs only Yoruba people that belong to his Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), he should in the name of fairness and justice publish the names of the Yoruba RCCG employed by Yemi Osinbajo. Until that is done, Faroq Kperogi remains a liar.S. Kadiri
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Farooq A. Kperogi <farooq...@gmail.com>
Sent: 17 April 2021 06:31
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Pantami is My Friend, But He Can’t Be Defended
--
Cornelius Hamelberg
Pages 90 – 108 (Chapter V) of Norman O Brown’s “Love’s Body” is devoted to the idea of “Person” -
“It is all psychodrama. The symptom is a dramatised wish; neurosis endows reality with a special meaning and a secret significance. “I have a little dog and they want to take it away from me.” “The dog was his disease, his personality, and his penis.” Sickness is all shamming, role-playing, acting-out. And so is therapy; in the transference, the patient is acting out, re-enacting, new editions of old conflicts, Social groups are theatrical groups, for group therapy.”
That’s one way of looking at it; masks and persona - Wole Soyinka knows all about it, I suppose our former Prime Minister too, his name was Göran Persson, and either you regard him as Mr. Person or Per’s son
Thanks to Dr. Sikiru Eniola’s timely intervention on this issue we have a more nuanced view of the multi-faceted person known as Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami who is the subject being discussed, stabbed in the back, in absentia, so to speak.
Sometimes, it takes a real friend to come to your defence when you are being maliciously maligned. So, it’s a great relief that Dr. Pantami’s various competencies are highlighted by Dr. Eniola, and thank goodness, Fredrick Nwabufo’s article Pantami And The Hypocrisy Of His Detractors sets the record straight as to where some of the detractors are coming from.
BTW,” religious” or “spiritual” or not, by the same yardstick Alhaji Pantami’s judgemental detractors about whatever he is supposed to have said way back in 2004, as if times and persons haven’t changed (but they have) the detractors should probably have even harsher words of condemnation for the Prophet Moses, who killed an Egyptian even if the murder was committed before Moses became a Prophet at eighty years of age and before he received the sixth commandment at Mt. Sinai – the sixth commandment: Do Not Murder.
And what about the sympathisers to Joshua wiping out the inhabitants of the Promised Land – should the cabinet members of the current and recent Israel governments be subject to similar queries – as supports of “terrorism” allegedly committed as part of a Divine Service for the land to which they now lay some holy claim? If required, this Holy Month of Ramadan we could examine even more recent examples of supporters of terrorism - but please lets not go down that path, it should be much better if the discussion continues with highlighting the contributions that the holder of the office of Nigeria’s Federal Minister of Communication is supposed to make in the interests of Nigeria.
Fact is, no one is perfect, we all have our many faults, and if you’ve only got one, then you’ve got them all, yes, even you who wants to cast the first stone, to some extent.
For the judges, here’s some food for thought from St. Peter of Damskos; after reading the section on thoughts and provocations you should gladly forgive anyone who has offended you, completely….
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Femi Kolapo
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2021 4:36 PM
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
''Dr. Sikiru Eniola’s ....Sometimes, it takes a real friend to come to your defence when you are being maliciously maligned. So, it’s a great relief that Dr. Pantami’s various competencies are highlighted by Dr. Eniola,
and thank goodness, Fredrick Nwabufo’s article Pantami And The Hypocrisy Of His Detractors sets the record straight as to where some of the detractors are coming from.''
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Psalm 8 !
King David speaking: “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings
Long live Nigeria and many thanks for your absolutely sound and reasonable response. I’m in 10,000% agreement. with all that you said just now.
BTW, Norman O Brown ‘s compendiums are stimulating, provocative, do not pretend to be scientific...
Normally (smile), one should wish that membership of the august Council of Elders would be based on age commensurate with the kind of wisdom that is said to begin to be confirmed around the time that Wole Soyinka composed his “To My First White Hairs” - the appearance of his first white hairs; - on his head; as you know, that first appearance of early wisdom may appear earlier or later in others such as yours truly, in some others - other cases, the hairs may appear sans the wisdom or with a delay in the wisdom which is forever trying to catch up with the white hairs. In your case, since the wisdom is already there, the white hairs may tarry a while if they like and don’t even have to appear – so you can already be admitted into the Council of the Elders, but only as an observer or a consultant/ counsellor although I’m sure that Wofa Akwasi will agree with me about that, especially since we’re talking about “white hairs” and not “white heirs “ - because just the other day in discussing a similar issue ( I think it was about homosexuality) there was some talk about “the Americanisation” of some people’s consciousness or was it conscience? The Americanisation in lieu of THE AFRI-CAN-I-SAY-TION
Forgive me. One of the elders’ privileges is that he talk as much nonsense as he likes and not be interrupted until he comes to a full stop (the full stop not being the day he as we say in Nigeria, “quenches”
When it comes to some of the ethics and politics, with the US Constitution and Parliamentary Democracy as role model for ex-British colonies and with you professing in Canada which is in North America, I’d say that to some extent the Americanisation is already a fait accompli, perhaps, on the way to it becoming universal?
Why shouldn’t we go for the China-i-zation or that of the Revolutionary Republic of Iran, seriously, with a Supreme Leader based on Wilayat e faqih? I’m not a political scientist or psychiatrist, I’m only asking. And what was wrong with the Old Oduduwa system? Is that why in the name of modernisation some people would like to do the new?
I don’t get it. Various sections of the Nigerian media orchestrate a hue and cry about Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami as Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy. ( You know that “Isa” is the Islamic name for Jesus - so you must also know, that living up to his name, what a peaceful and peaceable guy he would like to be) and local megaphone Kperogi crying wolf again ( May Allah have mercy on him) adds some characteristic loquacity to the melee (as usual, he himself wanting to take centre stage, when once again it’s not about him, diminishes the “vehemence” - another storm in his little teacup – like a drop in the Atlantic ocean
In “One Love” the Rev Bob Marley asked, “Is there a place for the repentant sinner?”
As Chidi Opara asked the other day, “Don't they submit the names of ministerial nominees to security for clearance in Nigeria any longer? “Of course, this would be the normal and normative praxis in the UK, USA and Canada. That’s where to begin - a security clearance, and in the Nigeria that Chidi and Adepoju would love to see, such clearance should be sine qua non even if you were or are the great great great grandsons of Shehu Usman Dan Fodio ( the greatest Nigerian that ever lived) or descendants of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I have followed many a Senate Hearing on C Span , the latest was the Lloyd Austin Senate Confirmation Hearing – in Dr. Pantami’s case I suppose the answer to this leading question would, put their concerns to rest : Today, what are your relations with Radical Islam ? Or some other inanity such, what do you think of Biafra? Oduduwa?Niger Delta? Boko Haram? Fulani Herdsmen? Miyetti Allah?
In his shoes we would answer those questions in the same way.
Re - “ traits in people that remain rather constant “suggests that there are some for whom there will be no salvation - “once a terrorist, always a terrorist”. Welcome the age of Lombroso, welcome a more developed and more reliable lie-detector test that could be used for the vetting at Senate hearings!
With regard to “the era of global terror” - with the instability that’s about to ensue in the Lake Chad region, the Boko Haram insurgency is all set to be intensified as the terror hub in Africa South of the Sahara, and will probably gain in intensity leading to the 2023 Nigerian elections at which the candidates will be promising the Nigerian electorate that insecurity and banditry will soon be a thing of the past.
Long way to go: St. Peter of Damaskos’ section titled Humility should show how humble those who think that they are humble, really are...
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
That was but a polite ditty to you, from Lord Agbetuyi:
“Indeed, God let us use our intellect in the service of humanity
And not unnecessarily fuel the embers of discord in the society!”
Adepoju, I’d put it to you more tersely, straight and direct: CUT THE CRAP!
Cut the swine shit. I know that you’re about to lose your equanimity, bristling with indignation, foaming at the mouth and about to react, “ What the ef - I love my fkking country and I can say whatever I like !”. Well, lend me your ear: It’s My Africa and My Nigeria too, Sir !
I wouldn’t say that I’m disappointed, I’m dismayed by your response to Garba Shehu’s
conscientiously crafted press statement on behalf of the Presidency. Now, stop being absurd and take some good advice: Before you continue your vicious campaign of calumny against Dr. Pantami, pipe down, take a deep breath and read and understand this very carefully before you respond:
Be happy! You’ve got a good , competent guy in the right place and doing great work on behalf of all Nigerians and by extension all Africans! When you blessed to have as a Minister of State for Power, someone who manufactures light out of darkness to produce the electric current that you need in order to be able to read and write 24 hours a day, you start braying that he should stop doing the job - that he should be sacked, because twenty something years ago , like Chairman Arafat and a host of intellectuals like Jan Myrdal he entertained some sympathies for “ radical Islam “ or that he made some fundamental errors but not as bad as Chamberlain's, then you are being perfectly absurd - remember:
“Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:
God said, Let Newton be! and all was light.”
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Dear Oluwatoyin Vincent Adedpoju,
I’m sorry. I was exasperated and got carried away because I thought that without any pretence (about being exasperated) I was talking to a familiar friend. Of course, that itself is not a good enough excuse for vulgarity or lashon hara this Holy Moth of Ramadan. I beseech thee, please accept my humble and sincere apologies. And also, please, please, please, no more barbaric or bogus arguments and Islamophobic mantras from you about “ Northern hegemony” etc. even if your poisonous disquiet is dressed up or decorated in what you believe to be “in a civilised manner”. Murder is murder and that includes the murder and character assassination committed by the malicious, sometimes “ holier-than-thou”, wagging tongue.
Honesty is the best policy. You don’t have to respond to me , the one you have to respond to – in an equally civilised manner is Garba Shehu’s eloquent press release. Please feel free to engage his cogent explanations and clearly laid out arguments - what you deem to be his “ defence” of Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami Nigeria's very capable and competent Minister of Communications and Digital Economy that he has forwarded to all of us, for our serious consideration.
Here’s an illustration of honesty is the best policy :
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (yes, Farooq , the nature of being ever continues to display mysterious aspects. Personhood is made up of several layers and many contradictory, overlapping, and competing versions of the self. and this embodiment in a multiplicity of personas raises the level of complexity higher than in my earlier question of how, when, and whether people change. it requires that we include in our reckoning of the human a selfhood that is composite—sometimes evolving and unstable composites. I don't know that History and the Social Sciences have tools to properly analyze this aspect of human experience except as historians borrow insights, concepts and theories from psychology, theology, anthropology, and philosophy. Unfortunately, in trying to maintain its autonomy, History has been rather unenthusiastic to borrow from others.
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2021 10:26 AM
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Cornelius Hamelberg
If all their wishes would come true, what would liars wish? Perhaps that they would or should stop telling lies, should stop bearing false witness against their neighbours.
Of course, Lord Agbetuyi should speak and wish for himself and not for Dr. Pantami.
Dr. Pantami has recanted some of his earlier views. He has repented , he has done tauba - to Allah ( God). What more does man want him to do?
Lord Agbetuyi’s last sentence is an insult and a little besserwisser. Lord Agbetuyi with his long background in epistemology should be the first to humbly confess that he does not know and cannot know for a fact that the Hon. Minister “would have failed the test!” All that Lord Agbetuyi can be certain of is that retrospectively speaking, he himself “would have failed the test! “, perhaps, just as he knows that the sun will rise tomorrow.
With Nigeria in particular, in mind, the vetting process that he recommends should start with a verifiable declaration of assets. - to obviate the phenomenon known as from-rags-to-riches-through-politics...
In addition to the psychiatry and psychometric tests you could program Artificial Intelligence to design the 419 Lie Detector Test and somewhere down the line the prospective holders of lucrative executive posts should be asked to answer truthfully whether from-rags-to-riches-through-politics is a motive….
Who would survive all these tests? Think: e.g. Trump vs the lie-detector test before he was elected president.
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
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If all their wishes would come true, what would liars wish? Perhaps that they would or should stop telling lies, should stop bearing false witness against their neighbours.
Of course, Lord Agbetuyi should speak and wish for himself and not for Dr. Pantami.
Dr. Pantami has recanted some of his earlier views. He has repented , he has done tauba - to Allah ( God). What more does man want him to do?
Lord Agbetuyi’s last sentence is an insult and a little besserwisser. Lord Agbetuyi with his long background in epistemology should be the first to humbly confess that he does not know and cannot know for a fact that the Hon. Minister “would have failed the test!” All that Lord Agbetuyi can be certain of is that retrospectively speaking, he himself “would have failed the test! “, perhaps, just as he knows that the sun will rise tomorrow.
With Nigeria in particular, in mind, the vetting process that he recommends should start with a verifiable declaration of assets. - to obviate the phenomenon known as from-rags-to-riches-through-politics...
In addition to the psychiatry and psychometric tests you could program Artificial Intelligence to design the 419 Lie Detector Test and somewhere down the line the prospective holders of lucrative executive posts should be asked to answer truthfully whether from-rags-to-riches-through-politics is a motive….
Who would survive all these tests? Think: e.g. Trump vs the lie-detector test before he was elected president.
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DR SIKIRU ENIOLA
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
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Cornelius Hamelberg
It’s a relief that you are not arguing on behalf of illusions of grandeur attempting to elevate himself to the same nice guy level as our Omowale, Brother Malcolm who is beyond comparison.
But to the meat of the matter: This Holy Month of Ramadan is not the best time for all and sundry to so wrongfully vilify Dr. Pantami. Ramadan is known as “The Month of Mercy”
To begin with, we have to understand where Chief Femi Fani-Kayode himself usually mired ion controversy, is coming from and why he says of Dr. Pantami, “his expression of remorse was clearly not genuine or heart-felt.”
Really? How does he know that with any degree or certainty? A man does tawba, first and foremost to the Almighty - and if it is man that he has offended he apologises to man - but Chief Fani-Kayode playing Ogun, insists that Dr. Pantami’s apologies are unacceptable, that “ his expression of remorse was clearly not genuine or heart-felt.” Perhaps, like Disbelieving Thomas who had to insert his fingers into the resurrected Jesus’ wounds to confirm that it was indeed the same Jesus that had resurrected so too Big Chief Fani-Kayode would like to do some heart surgery on Dr. Pantami – to examine his heart and if possible research the innermost recesses of Dr. Pantami’s conscience in order to issue and sign the verification certificate which proclaims, “Verily, Dr. Pantami’s expression of remorse is genuine and heartfelt!”
As we all know, Fani-Kayode has his perpetual axe to grind, first and foremost, daggers drawn as soon as his nostrils catch the faintest whiff of militant Islam in Nigeria (even when for his own good Islam seeks to liberate him from worldly mental shackles and from fears of an eternal abode in the hell-fire).
Understandably too, of late as a charlatan prophet Chief Fani-Kayode’s frustration has been increasing steadily, especially after his prophesy that his dearest Trump was going to sweep the US Presidential Elections by a landslide came to zilch. Fake Prophet Femi-Fani-Kayode. If Trump had won, right now the Chief would have been beating his chest “vindicated”, prophecy happily fulfilled would have raised his status ( “real prophet”) and thereby raised his game, as Trump’s Number One Supporter in Trump’s “ shit-hole” country and that could have got him trotting off to ask Massa for special favours such as please help him and his party win in our Nigeria and that he would promise to remain faithful to Uncle Sam and certainly never to China.
Right now, perennial opportunist that he is said to be (by some cynical Naija media analysts) he is trying to position himself for a possible ministerial appointment in the next government, the post-Buhari era which he prays will inaugurate the party that he would like to latch on to, in search of a brighter future and of course the best way he thinks that he can do that is by grabbing some attention with this brief moment in the limelight with this stinking, venomous & noxious lambasting of Federal Nigeria's current Honourable And Very Able Minister of Communications and the Digital Economy.
Because of the forum etiquette that’s being maintained by our chief language sanitary inspector, I for one would not stoop as low as to employ the same kind of derogatory drivel that in this instance is Chief Fani-Katode’s forte: So, we leave it to the verbal pugilists outside of this forum to give the Chief a good drubbing, sometime after the Holy Month of Ramadan.
The sad news for the big chief is that Dr Pantami is not on any U.S. watch list for terrorism
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Lord Agbetuyi,
I’m sure that you are also looking forward to Professor Toyin Falola’s forthcoming Conversation with Sheikh AbdulRahman Ahmad? Maybe there’s a question or two that you would like to take up, with him?
If I understand you rightly, your bottom line is that criminals (crime) should face the full wrath of the law.
Is it true that President Buhari told USA*s Foreign Minister that the USA should move their Military headquarters from Germany to Nigeria? It looks like Mr. President means business
Re- The commonplace assertion that “Nigeria is not a theocracy”, and, strictly speaking, all the implications thereof, as if that solves all questions arising from re-legion. (I’ve heard the same chest-beating about Israel too, that “Israel is not a theocracy” - usually in contrast with e.g. the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is a theocracy. True – Israel - the Holy Land “is not a theocracy” – but...
In Nigeria, to begin with we are talking about a plurality as defined by Professor Afis Oladosu with Islam as one of the trinity, the other two being Christianity and Traditional worship -
concretely when you add the 12 Sharia states in Northern Nigeria to the congregations of the mega-churches, the cardinals, the archbishops, the bishops, the various pastors and their dominions in the South, religion is very much a part of the pure political air, identity politics, the political atmosphere, very much part of the warp and woof that constitutes and complicates relations among the people of Nigeria’s Federal Republic and there is no escape from that reality.
From the spurious, the speculative and the hypothetical to the real. How do you and other interlocutors respond to this question:
“In fact, it is pertinent here to ask the CAN National President that between Honourable Minister Pantami who engaged the leader of Boko Haram in debates against his wrong and misguided ideologies and that Christian Minister who bailed Muhammad Yusuf three times who is it the country should rightly accuse of being a friend, supporter or member of the extremist group -Boko Haram?” (Source)
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