Sheikh Isah Pantami is one of the holier than thou political appointees of President Muhammadu Buhari who hides under the umbrella of religious titles to commit atrocious acts such as diversion of public funds, and nepotism.
Those who know him well will readily tell you that Sheikh Pantami is an eye-servant, holier-than-thou heck of a political appointee who thrives on rubbishing the hard earned reputation of others. From National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA to the current Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy, the story has been that of one-sidedness in appointment, highhandedness, corruption, and self-praises without any glaring achievements.
At NITDA, Pantami created every opportunity to steal from the coffers of the agency. That includes collecting a sum of N20m with which he claimed to have used to bring in personal car from Saudi Arabia where he lived prior to his appointment, to Nigeria.
The said car was the car he used in Saudi Arabia before coming to Nigeria. Insider information revealed that the N20million was never used to bring in any car from Saudi Arabia. Rather than returning the money, he began to victimize workers who he believed were responsible for the public knowledge of that atrocious act.
Our investigation further revealed that Pantami, before being appointed Minister of Communication and Digital Economy leveraged on his position as the then DG of NITDA and struck a deal with telecommunication companies, especially the GSM operators to shortchange the government by giving them waiver from the statutory remittances they should make to the Federal Government. These companies have consistently posted profits and have not at any point posted loss that should suggest availing them waiver.
Another blunder by Pantami is his inability to get ICT incubating centers across all the states functional despite, funds voted for the project, including those from donor agencies. Sheikh Pantama thrives in stirring noises about what he can do and not what he has done. The digital economy is still a long dream that has not contributed anything to the coffers despite plunging hundreds of millions of Naira of tax payers’ money into the project. Recall that under Pantami, the ministry of Communication was changed to Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy after convincing the Federal Government that he was going to use the ministry and ICT to drive economic growth just like India and USA. A check on the economy will reveal that under Pantami, revenue from the ministry and its agencies have rather plunged.
The Technology Village in Abuja which Pantami taunted so much about is still one of his white elephant projects with which he deceives Federal Government into believing that he has the capacity to create a huge economy from ICT.
Furthermore, it was revealed that Pantami is using his offices as a conduit to amass as much money as much as he can to prosecute his political ambition. An insider informant said that Pantami is gunning for governorship election come 2023 in Gombe State. To keep the money coming from NITDA, Pantami convinced the late Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint his former Personal Assistant Mr Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi as the current DG/CEO of NITDA.
Our investigation further revealed that Pantami has usurped the powers of all the DGs in all the agencies under Ministry of Communication and digital economy by centralizing all contract awards on his desk. This is to enable him choose who to award contract to and who not to award contract to. Pantami is currently the one awarding contracts in all the agencies his ministry is supervising.
In our next publication, we will reveal to you how Pantami employed about 90 staff in NITDA, with over 50% coming from his home State and religion and another 25% from from Northern Region without approval from Federal Character Commission. Recall that Pantami dismissed staffs that were employed by his predecessor, describing the processes as lacking in merit, only for him to do worse that the evil he accused his predecessor of. The dismissed workers dragged Pantami to court and the case is currently in Appeal Court now. Stay tuned