Dr. Isa Pantami And The Burden Of A Misfired Crowdfunding For Ransom Payment To Terrorists

DR ISA PANTAMI AND THE BURDEN OF A MISFIRED CROWDFUNDING FOR RANSOM PAYMENT TO TERRORISTS

By Dr. Abubakar Alkali

The abduction of the 6 al-kadriyar sisters by daredevil kidnappers and their father in Zuma 1 Dutse Bwari area council Abuja and the tragic killing of one of them has sent shock waves not only in the federal capital territory Abuja but Nigeria as a whole.

One of the six sisters, Nabeeha, a promising 400 level student of Biological sciences at ABU Zaria was killed alongside Miss Folorinsho Ariyo, another equally promising 13- year old student.

The terrorists dumped their bodies by the roadside after the kidnappers felt angry that the families are delaying the payment of N60 million ransom. This was even when the Al-kadriyar family had managed to raise N30 million which they took to the terrorists but was turned down as the kidnappers claimed it was ‘not good enough’ and way below the N60 million they demand. What an outrage.

In response to the call for donations to pay the N60 million ransom, Dr Isa Pantami, Nigeria’s immediate past minister of communications and an Abuja Islamic scholar, went crowdfunding and reportedly, was able to get his friend pay the N50 million ransom to the father of the victims to take to the kidnappers.

Dr Pantami immediately went on his verified X hand to announce that he paid the ransom through his ‘friend. Although there are feelings that Dr Pantami may have used his influence in government to get one of the government agencies to pay the money and later claimed that his ‘friend’ paid the money to avoid being linked to corruption.

That’s not really the issue anyway. The issue is why should Dr Pantami announce his efforts even when the negotiations were not concluded? Even when the girls have not been released? Was Dr Pantami trying to use the social media to make a political capital out of the unfortunate situation? Why the rush by Dr Pantami to tell the world that he engineered the release of the girls?

Now Dr Pantami’s efforts backfired when on hearing that a former minister is involved and more cash is on offer, the terrorists rejected the initial sum (N60 million) and hiked their price from N60 million (N10 million per head) to N700 million (N100 for each of the sisters) with a deadline of tomorrow Wednesday that if N700 million is not paid to the terrorists, more blood will flow. This is an outrage.
Dr Pantami’s seeming genuine efforts have now resulted in a 1,040% increase in the ransom tag.
No sane person will not go close to a breakdown to imagine the trauma these young ladies are going through in the hands of the callous terrorists just as we all hope and pray for their release to unite with their families. You will easily breakdown in tears at the thoughts of these girls surrounded by gun-wielding and callous terrorists.
With hindsight, one could say that Dr Pantami did well and presumably has good intentions to secure the release of the young Al-Kadiriyar girls. May Allah (SWT) reward him for the good intentions. The holy prophet (SAW) said ‘ The rewards of deeds depend upon the intentions.

‘Umar Bin Al- Khattab (may Allah swt be pleased with him) narrates that the prophet Muhammad SAW said ‘the reward of deeds depends upon the intentions’. When one’s emigration is to Allah (SWT) and His Apostle, his emigration is to Allaah and His Apostle but his emigration is to a worldly end at which he aims or to a woman whom he marries , his emigration is to that for which he emigrated.

Indeed, the N50 million Dr Pantami claimed to have sourced through his ‘friend’ had not solved the problem but rather computer it because of the wrong handling of the situation by Dr Pantami but he (Dr Pantami) stands to gain the reward from Allah (SWT) if his intentions are not for any other purpose but to secure the release of the girls.

Clearly, so far the N50 million had worsened the problem instead of solving it because the the cash seem to have motivated the terrorists to ask for more since they heard that a former minister is involved which they may understand to mean that the federal government itself is now involved in ransom payment so there is plenty money to be made.
They will actually think Dr Pantami is a representative of the federal government trying to secure the release of the girls on behalf of the federal government. Remember, Dr Pantami’s tweet has gone viral and these terrorists also use the social media. They are connected to the social media more than some of us.

Again, onevis actually tempted to ask Dr Pantami as to why he should even make his efforts public? Why should Dr Pantami go on his twitter handle to announce to the whole world that he is the one who sourced for the cash to get the girls released? Is it because he (Dr Pantami) wants to make a political capital from this unfortunate kidnap incident? Why didn’t Dr Pantami wait at least for the girls to be released before going ‘on air’ to claim credit? Why the clear rush nay frenzy by Dr Pantami to announce to the whole world about his efforts to get the girls released by the terrorists? If he were smart or wanted to make a political capital out of the sympathetic situation, he should have waited, bid his time and go on channels, Arise and AIT when the girls are released.

Clearly, Dr Pantami wasn’t smart -or so he thought. He should have waited until the girls are out and any announcement of his efforts should not come from him but from the family of the victims. That would have been more matured and clean. One could think that Dr Pantami actually became interested when he saw the social media blitz that trailed the abduction of the sisters and of course he knows the power of the social media in promoting one’s political CV. If Dr Pantami is not pursuing popularity in this unfortunate incident, why hasn’t he crowdfunded and rescued thousands of people currently in the forests with kidnappers even in his native Gombe state. Is it because those ones are not on social media? What about thousands of victims in the forests hands of kidnappers in Zamfara, Katsina, Osun, Enugu, Oyo, Niger, Kogi etc?

If you help someone, don’t bear the drums to rake any credit.
Giving out charity is one of the most favourable acts in Islam but it is encouraged to be silent and discreet it.
The holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW) encouraged all Muslim to give charity in a discreet manner such that the left hand should not know what the right hand is doing.
Rasullulahi (SAW) said:

‘There are seven whom Allah (SAW) will share on the day of judgement ….
‘First is a man who gives in charity and hides it, such that his left hand doesn’t know what his right hand gives in charity; and a man who remembered Allah in private and so his eyes shed tears’ Saheeh Al-Bukhari

Dr Pantami, an Islamic scholar cannot claim ignorance of this Hadith unless he is overwhelmed by materialism and benefits in this Duniya.

NEVER NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS
Never negotiate with terrorists. Amnesty and negotiations with terrorists will only embolden them to do more.

As the criminals get more money from ransom, so they will buy more weapons to gain more strength and continue from where they stopped. If Dr Pantami continued to crowdfund to facilitate ‘negotiation’ and payment to bandits, the question to ask is ‘how many victims is he going to negotiate and pay on behalf of? Where was Dr Pantami
on April 4th 2021 when 3 students of Greenfield university, Kaduna state were killed by bandits out if your 20 abducted students? That was when he was a minister and he didn’t brother to make any comment about it.

This question is pertinent moreso when juxtaposed with the fact that there are currently more than 20,000 victims held by bandits scattered around several forests and camps in Nigeria. As the bandits receive ransom payment, so they will buy more weapons and abduct more innocent people. The multiplier effect is better imagined.

As a matter of fact, Dr Pantami’s efforts have in a way, emboldened the terrorists and attracted them more closer to Abuja, thinking that the federal government is now deeply into ransom payments (since a ‘minister’ is involved). They may not understand that the minister is ‘former’ and no longer uses the red biro. This makes Abuja ever more vulnerable as the terrorists inch ever closer to the pinpoint central area of the FCT, Abuja.

Don’t read me wrong, i think every effort should be made to free the Kadriyar girls and all kidnapped victims in Nigeria but we should learn from Dr Pantami’s mishandling of the crowdfunding and preemptive announcement of his efforts to the world. It was clearly wrong for him to go public to announce his efforts just to gain public approval and sympathy for himself. Dr Pantami’s handling of the issue clearly made the situation worse.

Quite honestly, it would have been commendable if Dr Pantami had used his influence as a so-called opt-repeated ‘ICT expert in cybersecurity’ and liaised with the relevant security agencies to deploy IC technology and rescue our Al-Kadriyar girls and other victims instead of partaking in negotiations with terrorists and making the situation unintentionally worse.

WHY DIDN’T DR PANTAMI DEPLOY TECHNOLOGY TO STOP THE USE OF MOBILE PHONES FOR RANSOM NEGOTIATION BY BANDITS AND TERRORISTS WHEN HE WAS MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS?
The problem was created through the government’s -federal, state and local governments- rather cavalier attitude to security.

Clearly, Abuja is now effectively under siege and surrounded from 4 corners by bandits and terrorists in Kaduna, Niger, Kogi and Nassarawa states. The FCT minister Nyesom Wike who triples as the FCT minister, emperor of Rivers and the only PDP member qualified to be appointed minister in an APC government and still go unpunished by his own party for anti-party activities, is busy playing politics in Rivers state.

Indeed, our soldiers, police and other security agencies are doing something about insecurity else the situation would have been much worse but the government-the executive, the legislature and judiciary – are not giving the issue of kidnapping the seriousness it deserves may be until the leaders are kidnapped themselves before they wake up.

The Presidency has now resorted to sending condolences and apologies to victims families and ‘calling on security agents to do their work. Who is going to solve the problem of the President and C-in-C doesn’t put his feet down and inspire the troops and other stakeholders in the fight against insecurity? Assurances, word of mouth and press release will never solve the problem.

Dr Pantami never for once condemned the Buhari government on insecurity throughout the 8 year insecurity-ravaged tenure of Buhari as President during which kidnapping got rooted in our country. Even as minister of communications for 4 years and DG NITDA for 3 and half years, Dr Pantami couldn’t use his offices to see to the deployment of a software that could track and digitally demobilise phone calls by kidnappers for ransom payment.

He couldn’t mobilise the creation of an app that could digitally corrupt any ransom calls by kidnappers and make it impossible for kidnappers to make a call for ransom payment. The NIN which Dr Pantami was talking about wasn’t thorough and it yielded no effect in the fight against bandits and terrorists. Dr Pantami told Nigerians in 2019 when he was minister of communications that NIN will stop insecurity in Nigeria.

The current high level insecurity in FCT Abuja, Zamfara, Imo, Ondo, Katsina, Niger, Rivers, Kogi, Sokoto and literally all parts of Nigeria has proven beyond any iota of doubt that Dr Pantami’s fairy tale in 2019 about ‘NIN to stop insecurity’ is s huge joke and deceitful. Dr Pantami’s NIN was a monumental failure indeed. Another insulting statement by Dr Pantami is when he said yesterday that he is frustrated that the security agencies have not used NIN to stop insecurity.

The question to ask here is ‘why didn’t Dr Pantami worked with the security agencies when he was minister of communications 2019-2023 to ensure that the NIN is effectively built into the nation’s security architecture and the fight against insecurity? Why didn’t Dr Pantami go into inter-agency collabo with defence ministry, DSS, NPF, NCSDC and other relevant agencies to use technology to stop phone calls for ransom payment?

We all look up to the current minister of communications Bosun Tijjani to do the needful and facilitate the development of a software that will stop phone calls by bandits and terrorists for ransom payment.

Once you stop the use of mobile phones by kidnappers to negotiate for ransom, you have solved 90% of the problem of kidnapping in Nigeria.

To make matters worse, the National Assembly couldn’t enact a law to apply capital punishment on convicted kidnappers. There is no clear and specific law against kidnapping in Nigeria today and there is even confusion as to whether kidnapping should fall under federal or state laws. This is a critical area for law reform.

Our legislators simply restrict themselves to ‘condemnation’ of any kidnap incident and not taking any action by way of enacting the appropriate laws -capital punishment-to stop the menace.

Kidnappers are running riot in Abuja and other parts of Nigeria. Indeed, Abuja seem to be open to kidnappers. These kidnappers could make Abuja completely inhabitable in a few years time if not checked.

The key lesson to learn from Dr Pantami’s seeming backfired philanthropy is that negotiations with terrorists should be discouraged as much as possible as these negotiations are counter-productive and will only boost the scourge of kidnapping and terrorism in Nigeria.

As solutions to the menace of kidnapping in the FCT and Nigeria as a whole, the following measures should be taken:

1. The FCTA should conduct a thorough audit of all shanty makeshift settlements around the FCT because these are areas where weapons are allegedly hiding by bandits and terrorists.

2. Full force: Air and ground assaults. The security operatives need to take the fight to the bandits and terrorists rather than wait until the terrorists strike before they go on ‘damage control.

3. Technology: Make it impossible for kidnappers to use mobile phones for ransom calls. Drones. Satellites should be encouraged. Situation rooms for surveillance using technology should be created in all flashpoints in Nigeria.

4. Justice reforms: Prompt prosecution for convicted kidnappers to serve as deterrent to other kidnappers and wannabes. It is preposterous that no bandit or terrorist has ever been prosecuted or convicted by Nigeria’s extremely weak judiciary.

5. Funding of local vigilante: Equip, fund and pay salary to local vigilante and allow them the use of weapons under the supervision of security agencies.