Personal Assistant to the President on Digital and New Media, Bashir Ahmad, on Sunday, shared a solidarity photo with embattled Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, on social media.
Ahmad took to his verified Facebook page on Sunday evening to share a photo showing himself with Pantami at a function in Abuja.
Though the presidential aide did not caption the photo but many of his followers have since flooded the comment section of the post with “Thank you for the solidarity” and “#PantamiWillStay”.
Ahmad’s Facebook post came amid days of social media outrage against the communications minister over his past controversial comments on terrorist groups including Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Pantami subsequently renounced his radical pro-terrorists comments, saying he now knows better but Nigerians have been unsparing and relentless in the call for the sacking of the minister. Opposition Peoples Democratic Party has also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to fire Pantami if he fails to voluntarily resign like ex-finance minister, Kemi Adeosun. The PDP also wants the Department of State Services to probe the communications minister.
The Nigerian Twitter community also said Pantami could not be trusted with the data of Nigerians, especially with the ongoing National Identification Number and Subscriber Identity Module integration exercise under his watch. The hashtag, #PantamiResignNow, has since been trending online with over 40,000 tweets as of the time of filing this report.
Ahmad has not made any categorical comment on the Pantami saga but he has retweeted a number of pro-Pantami tweets including one by a tweep, @IAmSoosy, who wrote on Sunday, “This whole Pantami resigning issue is questionable. It starts with false allegations, it didn’t work then you start digging his past. Seems like someone/some people are desperate to find him at fault. Why now? What happened? Why him all of a sudden? Is it because of NIN?
