•Crying Isa Pantami and smiling Mike Arnold
A former Republican Mayor of Blanco, Texas, Mike Arnold, has mocked former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, over the death of Iran’s former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei was killed in airstrikes coordinated against Iran by the United States and Israel during an ongoing war in the Middle East, reports The Guardian.
Meanwhile, a video has appeared on social media showing Pantami crying, allegedly due to Khamenei’s death.
Reacting, Arnold comforted him with words often used by terror sympathisers when discussing terrorists’ atrocities.
According to him, Trump dropping bombs on Iran is no different from farmer-herder conflict, a phrase often used to dismiss terrorism in Nigeria.
Arnold wrote, “He should know that Trump bombing Iran is not really Trump’s fault. He couldn’t help himself; it was just global warming. A simple farmer-herder conflict. Maybe he should dialogue with Trump, understand his position, offer him government money and jobs. They are brothers, after all. Maybe then Trump will stop bombing Iran, and we could all be happy together.”
This comes months after Arnold stated that the strikes by the United States in Sokoto State were a signal and a geopolitical opening shot aimed at the rise of global jihad in West Africa.
It was earlier reported that the U.S carried out strikes against ISIS in Sokoto on Christmas Day, an action described by President Donald Trump as a Christmas Day gift to terrorists.
Following the strikes, many in Northern Nigeria have wondered why the action by the U.S, authorised by the Nigerian government, kicked off in Sokoto in the Northwest, when the epicentre of violence by terror groups is in the Northeast.
In a blog post, Arnold said the choice of Sokoto for the first U.S strikes in Nigeria “was a signal. A geopolitical opening shot aimed at something bigger: the rise of global jihad in West Africa.”
He recalled that earlier this year, U.S. AFRICOM Commander General Michael Langley told Congress that this region — specifically northern Nigeria — is now the epicentre of global terrorism. “That’s not theory. That’s official U.S. military doctrine,” Arnold said.
“So maybe this was the first domino. A symbolic entry point. A way to plant the flag and begin the unmasking of what some in Washington now suspect: that Nigeria is not just plagued by terror — many of its elite may be in league with it.”
