Before Pantami Embarks on Self-adulation

Notes for File

In his bid to defend the poor conduct of the recent presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Ibrahim Pantami, last week revealed that the commission’s server recorded more than 12 million attacks both within and outside the Nigeria Cyber space on February 25.

Pantami said the Ministerial Standing Committee on Advisory Role for the Protection of Nigerian Cyberspace and ICT Infrastructure space inaugurated by the federal government in a build up towards the elections, successfully blocked the attacks.

He admitted that the parastatals, under the supervision of his ministry, also played a crucial role in providing the enabling environment for the successful conduct of what he described as a credible, free, fair, and transparent election. 

Prior to the presidential election, Pantami had, on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, inaugurated a committee on an advisory role for the protection of Nigerian cyberspace and ICT Infrastructure.

Before the minister took credit for a job ‘well done,’ many Nigerians were wondering if he did not know that INEC had denied any cyber attack on its portal? Did he not also know that the commission admitted that technical challenges with its system were responsible for the delay in uploading the presidential election results to its Results Viewing Portal (IReV).

Is Pantami not aware that some of the results were not uploaded more than 10 days after the election? Is he not also aware that the commission admitted that, unlike off-season elections where the portal was used, it was relatively slow and unsteady during the presidential and National Assembly elections?

It maintained that the problem was totally due to technical hitches related to scaling up the IReV from a platform for managing off-season state elections, to one for managing nationwide general election.

It is shocking that while INEC had admitted its poor job, Pantami has embarked on self-adulation for the same poor job.

No matter how Pantami tries to take the glory for a job that was done well by only his imagination, majority of those who voted on February 25 have since concluded that the IReV deliberately failed to work on election day because of a well-scripted plot to manipulate results in favour of the All Progressives Congress   (APC).