By Eyo Nsima
The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has called for the immediate removal of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Patami, over his alleged linkage with Taliban and Al-Qaeda terrorism groups.
In his Twitter handle message obtained by The Daily, www.thedaily-ng.com, April 22, 2021, he stated: “Ordinarily the Minister should leave immediately but this Government doesn’t care This should not be allowed, saying it was done in the past or he has repented is not the issue.
“It is inexcusable, at best we can say the seeds he sowed have germinated and led to the killing and destruction of people. If I was in such a situation I would have tendered my resignation.”
Previously, the former Assistant Director with the Department of State Services, Dennis Amachree, said the secret police had informed the Federal Government and the National Assembly of the past radical pro-Taliban views of the Minister before his confirmation as a minister in 2019.
Information obtained from a political association online has it that, “Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) was born on 20 October 1972 in Gombe State, Nigeria. His mother was Hajiya Amina Umar Aliyu and his father was Alhaji Ali Ibrahim Pantami. He started his education by attending traditional School for memorizing the Holy Qur’an, called “Tsangaya School. He spent more than four years in the school. He later joined the primary school in Pantami. He attended Government Science Secondary School in Gombe. After his secondary education, he spent additional two years seeking more religious knowledge before moving to university.
“He studied Computer Science at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in Bauchi, Nigeria, gaining a BTech in 2003 Session and an MSc in 2008, before obtaining a Ph.D. from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland. He spent his life pursuing both formal and informal education, by switching from one form to another.
“He is also trained on Digital transformation in Harvard University, USA then Management Strategy in both, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Institute of Management Development in Loussaune, Switzerland. He was also in Cambridge University for Management Programme, among others. Pantami lectured at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in Information Technology before joining the Islamic University of Madinah as Head of Technical Writing in 2014. In 2016, he was appointed as the Director General/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).”
It added: “He was confirmed by President Muhammadu Buhari as part of 13 newly appointed chief executives for 13 government agencies. His directive for NITDA upon employment was to develop the ICT infrastructure in the North East in the aftermath of the destruction caused by the Boko Haram insurgency. Shortly after the WannaCry ransomware attack, he organized the second annual conference on “Financial Fraud and Cyber Crime” in Abuja with the Federal Ministry of Justice and private sector partners. He also initiated the Nigerian national public key infrastructure (PKI) programme, and went into a security partnership with ESET, an IT security company that offers anti-virus and firewall products.”
