Isa Ali Pantami Says He’s Changed, But Has He?
By Mike Odeh James
(Kaduna) — A former Nigerian cabinet minister whose recorded sermons exalted Osama bin Laden and prayed for al-Qaeda’s victory is fighting to get on Gombe State’s 2027 governorship ballot.
Isa Ali Pantami, who served as Minister of Communications and Digital Economy under President Muhammadu Buhari, left the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary in Gombe and was named the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in May 2026.
On Sept. 24, the Federal High Court in Gombe affirmed his PDP membership but ordered a fresh primary. Pantami won the rerun on Sept. 29, and his details were resubmitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
On Oct. 10, INEC published its final list of 16 governorship candidates for Gombe without Pantami or his running mate. The commission gave no public reason for the omission. In a pre-action letter dated Oct. 12, Pantami’s lawyers demanded that INEC publish his name by Oct. 14 or face further legal proceedings. The governorship election is scheduled for Feb. 6, 2027.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has explained its decision to exclude several governorship candidates from its final list for the 2027 elections.
INEC has stated that it has acted according to the Supreme Court’s September 24 judgment upholding provisions of the Electoral Act requiring political parties to submit membership lists ahead of conducting their primaries.
Parties that believe their candidates were wrongly excluded have until October 24 to formally challenge the omissions under Section 32(2) of the Electoral Act, according to INEC.
If Pantami is restored to the ballot and wins, a cleric with a documented history of extremist preaching would control the government of a Northeastern state that borders Borno, Bauchi, Adamawa and Taraba, the core of Nigeria’s insurgency belt.
Pantami’s past is not a rumor. It is on tape, compiled by researchers.
“Oh God, give victory to the Taliban and to al-Qaeda,” Pantami prayed in a 2004 sermon, in which he also declared jihad an obligation for every believer, especially in Nigeria. In 2006, he publicly mourned Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
The speeches were collected in “Debating Boko Haram,” a 2019 monograph published by the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Contemporary Islam.
Pantami has disavowed his sermons published years ago, saying he has moved on. The sermons resurfaced in April 2021 during the #PantamiResign campaign. He publicly walked back the statements, saying they reflected his religious understanding at the time and that his views had since changed.
“I still consider him as a better Muslim than myself,” Pantami said of bin Laden while taking audience questions at a lecture on the Taliban, according to a translation from Hausa by Prof. Andrea Brigaglia, a scholar who studied Pantami’s preaching.
In the same exchange, Brigaglia translated Pantami as saying Muslims are happy whenever unbelievers are killed, though Sharia forbids killing them without reason.
Audio published by Peoples Gazette indicates Pantami spoke sympathetically about Boko Haram members in sermons during the mid-to-late 2000s.
Sermons Linked to Incitement on College Campus
In 2004, Pantami was Chief Imam at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) in Bauchi State.
That December, student Sunday Nache Achi, president of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) campus fellowship, was killed and the fellowship’s offices were burned. The crisis began after some Muslim students accused Achi of circulating religious tracts that blasphemed Islam. Former students later alleged that Pantami’s sermons had inflamed tensions on campus.
The Recantation
He has argued that translations of his Hausa sermons may have been poor or biased, and has pointed out that as cabinet minister he had many Christians on his staff.
He has also pointed to threats from the other side. In February 2020, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau publicly threatened Pantami over his policy limiting each subscriber to three SIM cards, and urged militants to target him.
The Buhari presidency described the past views as unacceptable but kept him in the cabinet, arguing that people can change their opinions over time. Critics argued that a recantation made while fighting to keep a cabinet position was not sufficient proof of reform.
A Test for Washington and Abuja
Pantami’s candidacy comes as Washington officials are closely watching the Tinubu Administration for signs it is strengthening its formal support for religious freedom. If not, Nigeria’s designation as a “Country of Particular Concern” won’t be lifted.
In 2021, a coalition of Nigerians in the diaspora petitioned the U.S. Secretary of State to impose a visa ban and sanctions on Pantami over his past praise for al-Qaeda and the Taliban. No public U.S. action against him has been announced.
In Nigeria, his supporters have framed INEC’s omission as persecution. The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) accused INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan of religious bias and called on President Bola Tinubu to replace him.
Christians at risk in Gombe State
The stakes are highest in southern Gombe, home to large Christian communities among the Tangale, Tula, Waja and Cham peoples. These communities sit on the fault line between the Boko Haram-affected Northeast and the Middle Belt.
For many there, the issue is not whether Pantami says he has changed. It is whether a man who, on tape, prayed for al-Qaeda’s victory and praised its leaders should control a state government’s security budget, its relationship with vigilante groups and its education policy, in a region where jihadists continue to kill and abduct.
Nigeria’s electoral law may permit his candidacy. The record of his own words remains.
Three things are left for you to confirm. Keep the “GOMBE” dateline only if you reported from there. Use the comment line only if you actually contacted his campaign. And Pantami’s lawyers set a deadline of today, Oct. 14, so check whether INEC has acted before you file.
Mike Odeh James is a conflict reporter for TruthNigeria
