A former Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has disclosed that some cabinet members of former President Muhammadu Buhari administration were unhappy with the immediate past minister of communication and digital economy, Isa Ali Pantami.
According to him, one of the reasons was Mr Pantami’s dedication to getting things right at all times.
Mr Fashola disclosed this on Wednesday during the public presentation of a 341-page book titled ‘A Scholar’s Journey: Navigating Academia’, written by Prof. Pantami.
He, however, noted that Mr Pantami’s contribution made the cabinet memoranda and records better off.
“I got to know Prof. Pantami as my colleague in the Federal Executive Council ,FEC, where he served as Minister for Communication and Digital Economy during 2019 to 2023.
“His passion and attention to detail are very well known. His desire to have every ‘T’ and ‘I’ crossed and dotted in every document was almost annoying for some people.
“But our memoranda and our cabinet records are undoubtedly better off in terms of accuracy, having been impacted by what I call the Pantami effect. He was essentially our ‘Mr. Compliance’.
“Either your memo, if it was a tech memo that did not have a NITDA certificate, he would be the first one to see it, and he won’t keep quiet.
“And if your vision and missions did not align, he would let you know very clearly. But he was Mr. Compliance to a good cause. As I said, our records are better off for the ‘Pantami effect’.
“At a time when truth is the endangered by fake news, when history is threatened by revisionists, books that profess a factual basis, which report history and events accurately, become all the more important to preserve the foundations of our civilization,” Mr Fashola said.
The former Lagos State governor said the launch is auspicious that such a book dwells on scholarship and academia, which are qualities urgently needed to drive national development.
Dignitaries at the event include governors of Borno, Gombe, and Nasarawa States.
Others are the former Gombe State Governor, Danjuma Goje; former Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi; former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani Kyode; and former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission,NUC, Abubakar Adamu Rasheed among others
In his remarks, Mr Fayemi commended the author for achieving many developmental strides for Nigerians, including broadband penetration, which was about 23 percent as at 2019 and which rose to about 50 per cent currently and also internet penetration to about 87 per cent.
While appreciating the guests and contributors that made the event successful, Mr Pantami promised to continue to contribute to the body of knowledge for national development.
