The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has cautioned
\nthe leadership of the Christians Association of Nigeria, CAN, to stop
\ninciting Christians against Muslims in the wake of the ‘controversy’
\nsurrounding the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa
\nAli Pantami.<\/p>\n
The NSCIA under the leadership of His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto,
\nAlhaji Muhammad Saad Abubakar, says it has been following heedfully and
\nmeticulously how the country and indeed, the world at large, have been
\nso much inundated with barrages and deluge of lies, fabrications and
\nsmear campaigns being churned out against the person of Minister
\nPantami.<\/p>\n
The highest decision making body on Islamic affairs, in a statement
\nposited that the Minister is a man of impeccable character, a genuine
\nIslamic scholar, a responsible and right honourable public servant and a
\nperson globally recognized as a man of peace and integrity, saying he
\nwould survive these campaigns of calumny and would come out clean and
\nstronger when the storms of wicked lies wither away, as they definitely
\nwould.<\/p>\n
“It would not take more than a layman’s intelligence to discern the lies
\ncontained in those stories and press releases.\u00a0 Besides the fact that
\nthey are surely handiwork of premeditated and well calculated plots of
\nwitch-hunt , they are as well obviously an outburst of hate, mischief
\nand desperation all at the same time,” the NSCIA says.<\/p>\n
The statement reads further: “As it were, the NSCIA does not normally
\ninvolve itself in addressing issues that affect individual persons,
\nespecially those holding political offices whether Muslims or
\nChristians.<\/p>\n
“The NSCIA focusses on addressing issues rather than personalities. It
\nhas, however, been compelled to wade into this matter because of the
\ndangerous dimensions it has taken. First, those whose stock-in-trade is
\nhate and\u00a0 prejudice against Islam have found reasons albeit unfounded
\nones,\u00a0 to disparage him, pull him down\u00a0 and his religion as a Muslim
\nscholar with all sorts of awful and dreadful publications.<\/p>\n
“Similarly people that do not mean well for this country have also used
\nthe situation as a launch pad for fanning the embers of discord and
\ncausing disaffection to provoke nation-wide violence and hostilities. In
\nsituations like this it becomes imperatives to make rightful, just and
\nhonourable interventions.<\/p>\n
“The Hon. Minister has been leading Friday Prayers, conducting Tafsir,
\nstudy circles, preaching sessions, delivering lectures for more than 20
\nyears. He has also excelled in his field of computer science\/ICT. NITDA
\nwas recommended for scrapping. His coming as its DG made it a vibrant
\nagency the impact of which is felt all over the country.<\/p>\n
“His appointment as Minister of Communication has brought transformation
\nand vigorous and unprecedented pursuit of mandate of the Ministry. His
\neffort to put the telecom industry on the path of global best practices
\nis appreciated by all patriotic Nigerians.<\/p>\n
“His stance on deviant and violent groups are their stance on him are
\nwell-known. Then suddenly the mainstream and social media became loaded
\nwith all sorts of trash thrown at the Minister. Today they say he was a
\nsupporter of Taliban. Tomorrow they say he plotted the killing of
\nYakowa. Another day they say he is on watch-list.<\/p>\n
“The NSCIA as the apex body of Islamic affairs is in a good position to
\nknow Ulama and organizations that harbour deviant ideologies as well as
\nmoderate and nominal Muslims. The statements and actions of the Hon.
\nMinister speak for themselves.<\/p>\n
“The Honourable Minister Pantami remains one of the vital vocal forces
\nagainst terrorism and terrorists’ activities in the country. He was
\namong the pioneer Islamic Scholars who publicly and openly condemned the
\nactivities and antics of Boko Haram Groups. Pantami’s debates especially
\nwith the leader of Boko Haram, Muhammad Yusuf, despite possible
\nrepercussions, unequivocally, proved him to be a frontline and audacious
\nNigerian scholar against terrorism.<\/p>\n
“His recent interventions against terrorists especially the use of
\ninternet, digital technology tools and mobile communication apparatus
\nstirs him against the present leadership of Boko Haram. The terrorist
\nvideo clips against Dr. Pantami warning that they would eliminate him
\nare widely circulated by the Nigerian press. No doubt, the present
\ntravails of the Minister proved the fact that terrorism is fighting back
\nat those who fight it with Dr. Pantami as a clear example.<\/p>\n
“With all these very clear achievements on contributing to the
\ndevelopment of Nigeria and indeed to nation-building and peace-making,
\nit becomes really appalling that the National President of the Christian
\nAssociation of Nigeria would join the ignoble band-wagon of the
\narchitects of mischief who peddle lies and fabrications against the
\nHonourable Minister.<\/p>\n
“Forgetting the cordial relationship and mutual understanding and trust
\nthat exist between Christian and Muslim leaders in the Nigerian
\nInter-Religious Council (NIREC) and the painstaking efforts we are
\nmaking to engender peaceful and harmonious co-existence amongst our
\nfollowers, the President of CAN, obviously driven by prejudice, jumped
\ninto the frontline of the unreasonable ones, asking the DSS to go after
\nPantami.<\/p>\n
“The National President of CAN needs to be reminded that the NSCIA has
\nalways exercised restraints on issues involving individual political
\noffice holders except when it becomes ultimately necessary like in the
\npresent case.<\/p>\n
“If the NSCIA has been as prejudicious and as pathologically hateful, it
\nwould have asked Nigerian Government in 2008 and 2009 to arrest and
\ninvestigate a one time\u00a0 prominent , active and\u00a0 vocal Christian Minister
\nwho at three different instances bailed the late leader of Boko Haram
\nwhen the latter was arrested by the Nigerian Security agents.”<\/p>\n
The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has cautioned the leadership of the Christians Association of Nigeria, CAN, to stop inciting Christians against Muslims in the wake of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n