Loading ...BAMAINA, NIGERIA — The internal political atmosphere in Northern Nigeria took an aggressive turn when elder statesman and former Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido, launched a sharp rhetorical offensive against the former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Pantami.
Lamido used a high-profile political gathering at his country home in Bamaina, Jigawa State, to revisit long-standing ideological grievances, calling out the prominent Islamic cleric and politician over past statements that labeled the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) a “party of infidels.”
The confrontation took place while Lamido was playing host to a powerful delegation of PDP stakeholders, including the party’s governorship candidates and regional leaders drawing from Gombe, Bauchi, Kano, Yobe, and Jigawa states. The meeting, intended to solidify the party’s regional rebuilding strategy, quickly shifted into a referendum on the historical and religious framing used by opposition actors to displace the PDP from power.
Resurfacing the ‘Infidel’ Label
Addressing the gathered political elite, Lamido took a retrospective look at the intense political warfare that characterized the buildup to the 2015 transition, during which the PDP was systematically voted out of the center.
The former governor lamented that the party faced an asymmetric, highly damaging wave of criticism while running the government. He emphasized that the attacks were not confined to standard policy disagreements but were aggressively weaponized by top opposition figures and certain influential Islamic preachers—explicitly naming Pantami—who utilized the pulpit and public lectures to de-legitimize the party on moral and religious grounds.
According to Lamido, these figures went beyond accusations of standard administrative corruption, systematically branding the PDP as an entity populated by “infidels.” The elder statesman argued that this religious weaponization created a toxic political environment that unfairly demonized loyal party members and altered the democratic choices of millions of northern voters.
The Ideological Backlash
The tension between mainstream PDP loyalists and Isa Ali Pantami dates back more than a decade, rooted in archival audio recordings and public lectures Pantami delivered prior to his appointment into the federal cabinet under the Muhammadu Buhari administration. In those historical recordings, which frequently resurface during election cycles, the cleric was captured expressing highly controversial views on governance, political alignment, and international religious conflicts.
By raising the issue directly in front of the party’s frontline gubernatorial flags from the Northwest and Northeast, Lamido sought to remind the new generation of PDP leaders of the psychological and rhetorical hurdles the party had to overcome.
“We were not just fighting a political opposition; we were fighting an orchestrated campaign that sought to cast our political identity as an affront to faith,” an associate of the former governor noted following the meeting. “Lamido’s statement is a reminder that those who used religion to divide Nigeria are now facing the harsh realities of their own administrative records.”
A Strategy for Territorial Reclamation
Beyond the ideological confrontation, the Bamaina meeting serves as a tactical launchpad for the PDP’s efforts to reclaim its dominant position across the strategic border states of the North. With governorship representatives from Gombe, Yobe, Kano, and Bauchi present, the discussions centered on building a unified front against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
As the regional alignment develops, Lamido’s public rebuke of Pantami signals that the PDP is no longer willing to play a defensive game regarding its historical legacy. Political analysts suggest that by directly tackling the religious narratives of the past, the opposition is attempting to neutralize the emotional weapons often deployed by conservative political networks in the North ahead of future electoral battles.
