Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, says the crime of alleged certificate forgery involving a former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, is different from the Pro-Taliban views of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami.
Shehu stated this while speaking on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme on Friday.
Nigerians have been piling pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack Pantami over his past controversial sermons, which recently resurfaced on social media.
The embattled minister in one of such sermons, praised notorious terrorist, Osama Bin Laden, and also commended Al Qeda. But recently, he apologised for his extremist views, claiming he made the statements as a teenager and had since recanted.
Presidency on Thursday also backed Pantami, accusing ICT companies opposed to the reforms in the sector being championed by Pantami of masterminding the ‘smear campaign’ against him.
But some Nigerians on social media said it was an irony that Adeosun, who was accused of forging her National Youth Service Corps certificate was never supported by the President during her ordeal and had resign finally.
Shehu argued that the Presidency’s response “would have been different” if Pantami had forged his certificate like Adeosun did.
He said, “In the second case which is that of Pantami, you are probing the thoughts, what is called ‘McCarthyism’; you search the inner recesses of the minds of individuals, bring out things they have said, or they are about to say, or you think they would say, and use that against them.
“If Pantami had forged a certificate before coming into office, the attitude (of the presidency) would have been different.”
Shehu also lambasted Nigerians who rejected Pantami’s apology, describing them as intolerant.
“Those people who stand in criticism of a man who has said he had wronged society, he has apologised and changed, and they are not willing to forgive him to move on, they are the ones who are the problem. They are the ones who are deeply intolerant,” he said.