Nigerians drag Buhari’s aide, Bashir, over #PantamiWillStay tweet

The Personal Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, has come under severe attacks by Nigerians on social media following a tweet he put up tagged #PantamiWillStay, which seemed to lend support to the embattled Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami.

The minister had been under pressure to resign from his position following his alleged links to global Islamist terror groups, Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

While the social media has been agog with hashtags like #PantamiResign and #PantamiResignNow, Ahmad put up his own tweet insisting that the minister must stay, an action many believe is mirroring the mindset of Buhari.

Ahmad had also used his official handle @BashirAhmad, to tweet a photoset of quotes from Pantami in solidarity with the minister.

Though he later took down the offensive tweet due to the backlash from Nigerians, the reactions he got have been all round condemnation.

A cross section of angry Nigerians reacted angrily to the controversial tweet by the president’s aide, with some labelling him a terrorist apologist and a supporter of insurgents.

Read some of the comments here:

Read also: Buhari ordered Kaduna to offer Sanusi appointments, he should be praised —Bashir Ahmad

“You can never whitewash him! Our memories of him can’t be erased easily. Ten years to come, we will still remember him as an extremist and a terrorist sympathiser that was once in power,” Adamu Abubakar wrote.

“That’s who he is; that’s what he represents,” another commenter, Phillip David pointed out.

Jerry Abimbola also had this to say;

“Integrity or not, I don’t care! How many bandits/Boko Haram/kidnappers have they arrested with NIN link? Boko Haram has been operating for years, yet communication ministry cannot locate their source of video/voice note, their supplied chain of info, including weapons!”

Sam Smith tweeted: “It’s unfortunate that you’re shamelessly posting this.”

Loveday Ojinuka too did not find Ahmad’s tweet funny and wrote:

“Is he the one in the videos making rounds? If yes, he’s a terrorist apologist and is not fit to hold any public office. These are simple terms.”

Victor Ishe also found the tweet supporting Pantami in bad light and said:

“Defending him is tantamount to defending a terrorist apologist and whoever defends a terrorist apologist is himself a terrorist apologist.”

Another commenter, Henry Shield further queried:

“How did Pantami make it through DSS screening? Anyone bothered to find out?”

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