Pantami: Government is biggest sponsor of Boko Haram — Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari, as a presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change in 2012, described the then Federal Government, under the leadership of former President Goodluck Jonathan, as the biggest sponsor of the Boko Haram insurgency.

While granting an interview in November 2012, Buhari wondered why the Federal Government, with all the military and resources, could not end the insurgency and was calling upon him (Buhari) to engage in talks with the sect.

“The biggest Boko Haram is the Federal Government itself. This is because it has all the powers to stop anarchy, political and otherwise, in the country. Now that substantial parts of the country are being paralysed, economic activities have ceased. People are no longer thinking of employment. They are thinking of what to eat.

“With all the military, resources to them available? To me, the Federal Government has lost absolute control,” Buhari had said.

Boko Haram sponsorship is coming to the fore in the country after old videos and materials indicted Buhari’s ministers, Dr Isa Pantami, as an extremist who held strong negative religious views.

Public outcry had greeted Pantami’s religious materials and extremist teachings, with several Nigerians and groups calling for his investigation and resignation from the Buhari government.

Earlier, some Nigerians under a group, Concerned Nigerians, had written to the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, asking that Pantami, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, be placed on the terrorists’ watchlist due to his extremist religious views.

The group stated that the US Secretary of State should order an investigation into the allegations and permanently place him on the terrorist watchlist.

The convener of the group, Deji Adeyanju, who signed the petition, had stated that those in power who “express extremist views remain a threat to world peace as they support the mass murder of both Christians and Muslims globally.”

The petition is dated April 11, through the Ambassador, US Embassy in Nigeria, is titled, “Terrorist Watchlist – Isa Pantami.”