The Presidency has thrown its sturdy support behind the Minister for Communications & Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami in his current travails.

In a statement released by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, Garba Shehu, it said that the plot to have him removed is coming from powerful interests within the telecommunications sector who were negatively affected by the NIN revolutionary reforms.

 According to the Presidency, the academic turned Minister made foes as a result of putting Nigeria first at the expense of selfish private interests. It accepted his repentance of his views as errors made in his youth due to exuberance.

Shehu said: “Today, there is an unfortunate fashion in public discourse that makes leaders in politics, religion, and civil society liable in the present for every statement they have ever made in the past – no matter how long ago, and even after they have later rejected them.

“This insidious phenomenon seeks to cancel the careers of others on the basis of a thing they have said, regardless of when they said it.

“The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy is, currently, subject to a “cancel campaign” instigated by those who seek his removal. They do not really care what he may or may not have said some 20 years ago: that is merely the instrument they are using to attempt to “cancel” him. But they will profit should he be stopped from making decisions that improve the lives of everyday Nigerians.

“The Minister has, rightly, apologized for what he said in the early 2000s. The views were absolutely unacceptable then, and would be equally unacceptable today, were he to repeat them. But he will not repeat them – for he has publicly and permanently condemned his earlier utterances as wrong.

 “In the 2000s, the minister was a man in his twenties; next year he will be 50. Time has passed, and people and their opinions – often rightly – change.”