The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday held its meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari with the embattled Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, in attendance.
This is the first FEC meeting presided over by Buhari since his return from medical trip to London, United Kingdom.
The Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy disclosed on its official handle that the Minister was virtually present at the FEC meeting.
The ministry tweeted, “The Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, @DrIsaPantami participates in the 42nd virtual Federal Executive Council(FEC), meeting presided over by his Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari.”
The New Diplomat had reported that some comments by the minister endorsing the activities of Boko Haram and terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda have since been unearthed, generating barrage of reactions from Nigerians.
Many Nigerians have been calling for Pantami to resign or be sacked. The Nigeria Twitter Community has also created the hashtag #PantamiResignNow. Several Nigerians have said Pantami could not be trusted with the data of Nigerians.
However, the Minister would later claim he has renounced his previous controversial comments, stating that he made those comments when he was young and immature.
Pantami, who was delivering his daily Ramadan lecture at Annor Mosque in Abuja on Saturday said he now knows better about some of the comments he made in the past. But among a preponderance of Nigerians, none of the Minister’s explanations has been able to stop the call for his resignation or the termination of his appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari as many had asked the incumbent government to not throw caution to the wind in its anti-terrorism campaign, now described as a conundrum by security experts.
Meanwhile, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, during a press briefing at the end of the FEC meeting, disclosed that Pantami’s issue wasn’t discussed at the meeting.
The minister refused to comment further on the issue:”I’m not going to go into the issue of whether government is comfortable or not. I will answer your question directly. It (Pantami’s issue) was not discussed at the council meeting,” he said.
