Pantami, Worthy Ambassador of Nigeria – Prof Akintola

By Fatih Lawal-Garu

Prof Ishaq Lakin Akintola, the Executive Director of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has hailed Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami as a model of excellence for Nigerian youths. This was contained in a congratulatory message released by MURIC on the 28th of September, 2024 regarding the recent appointment of Prof Pantami as the Co-chairman of the African Scientific Research and Innovation Council (AU-ASRIC) under the African Union (AU).

Akintola while lamenting how Nigerians and Nigerian leaders do not appreciate “immensely talented people” told Nigerians to derive lessons from Pantami’s rise to “continental level”.

“We have always known that Pantami will go places. Whereas some doubting Thomases and agent provocateur saw nothing good in him when he was serving here as the Minister of Communications and Digital Planning.

“This is a very important appointment. Pantami will now be crafting the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) Policy and Strategy for the whole of Africa and the policy is expected to impact all the 54 countries on the African continent.

“We congratulate Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami and wish him success in his new portfolio.”

Prof Pantami who is a renowned Islamic scholar and Professor of Cyber security hails from Gombe state. He served as the former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy under former President Muhammadu Buhari. Under his watch, he facilitated the establishment of new agencies such as the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR); Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI); the Nigerian Data Protection Bureau (NDPB).

Before his appointment as a Minister, he was the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) between 2016 to 2019. He also had a brief stint at the Islamic University of Al Madinah, Saudi Arabia where he was the head of Technical Writing at the Faculty of Computing and Information Systems from 2014 to 2016.

He holds a B.Tech and MSc in Computer Science and an MBA in Technology Management all from the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; a PhD in Computing and Information Systems from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK.

He also holds certifications in various fields from different institutions of learning around the world such as Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Oxford University, among others.

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