The first involvement of a
> Nigerian in terrorism has reduced the nation to the status
> of a child. Immediately the chap was identified as a
> Nigerian, we were all on our knees begging America, doing
> our best to convince it that we are not terrorists:
> "Wallahi, this boy is a black sheep. We are law
> abiding citizens wherever we go overseas. Yes. At home, we
> are known for fraud, election rigging, corruption, armed
> robbery, bank robbery, cultism, human trafficking, religious
> intolerance, concealment of truth to our citizens, we tell
> them lies and even engage in forgery at high places.
> Eh. We have also been pushing cocaine for over two
> decades now. But Wallahi – America – we are not
> terrorists. It is not in our character… Do anything with
> Umar Mutallab. The boy deserves it. We completely
> dissociate ourselves from him…. Chinekeeeee!!!
> This boy has shamed us. He wants to put us in
> trouble."
>
> It is true. We are not
> lying. We are not terrorists. If we were, we would have
> blown off our leaders first before any other person and
> effectively rid the country of corruption. However, courtesy
> of our inherent African docility, the people whose actions
> have caused so much misery on our land are walking about
> Scot-free. They would not do so if we had sufficient
> thymotic potential to blow their planes or shoot them down
> at gatherings. They would not have had the temerity to rig
> our elections or the guts to steal our wealth.
>
> Yet, it appears that America
> is not convinced by the confession chorus voice of Nigerian
> officials, non-governmental organizations, religious and
> secular, at home and overseas. Nigeria produced
> maitatsine and, recently, boko haram in
> addition to a whole catalogue of transnational criminal
> activities. By now, the world has concluded that every
> Nigerian is either a fanatic or a fraudster, unless he is
> proved innocent. This is a golden opportunity to impose some
> severe security measures against these fraudulent people,
> America insists.
>
> The first step has been
> announced within a week of the event: body scanners will be
> installed in all our four international airports such that a
> record of the anatomy of every Nigerian traveler will be
> documented. Fingerprints are not sufficient. "Would
> these scanners show the naked bodies of people?" a
> foreign journalist asked a Nigerian official, three times.
> And three times he evaded the question: "It is just
> in case the passenger is carrying something on his body, the
> machine will detect it." I laughed. The truth
> is that the scanners would show your naked natural
> body, including everything. I had that experience
> with a similar equipment at Heathrow Airport in December
> 2004 when I was singled out, for no stated reason, and
> scanned before I boarded a British Airways flight
> back to Nigeria. To assuage my feelings, the official
> showed me the picture and said they were just testing
> the equipment. Behold, there was Tilde, ad
> naturalis. I did not protest, lest some cocaine is
> planted in my luggage. My destination, I reminded
> myself, was Abuja, not prison in the distant land of
> h*** leucodermaticus. Scanning our bodies may not
> be the only measure, I suspect. Nigerians must be prepared
> for more.
>
> But why are we jittery about
> this singular act, heinous as it is? Are we the first
> terrorist country in the world? Did we produce Carlos –
> The Jackal, Al-Nagrahi, IRA, Timothy McVeigh, or the 911
> bombers? Are we worse terrorists than Kenya, Tanzania,
> Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, or Libya, countries
> where many terrorists lived and carried out their threats?
> Are we worse than Saudi Arabia, the country that produced
> Osama Bin Laden and 18 out of the 19 terrorists that bombed
> the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001? Why have we
> not heard the officials and citizens of these countries
> pleading against any possible collective victimization by
> America? Why are scanners not installed at Jeddah and Riyadh
> International Airports? Instead, we saw Obama paying a visit
> to King Abdullah and bowing his head
> to the King in respect, as he bowed before Queen Elizabeth
> III during the G20 meeting last year. I doubt very much
> if the Arabs will allow their privacy be so encroached
> on - down to the anatomical level - on their
> own land.
>
> I think something is wrong
> with us and our leadership. Would this be how we will
> respond when one day we find ourselves in conflict with
> America? I believe General Victor Malu will not be
> surprised, having lost his job simply by refusing to
> "co-operate" with the military experts who America
> sent during his tenure as Chief of Army Staff. Malu did not
> know that our Nigerianness exists only at the mercy of the
> only superpower in the world today. Obasanjo proved him
> wrong. "Hey boy," Obasanjo told Malu, "When
> America says 'jump', simply ask: 'how
> high?" Commot jare. The munci man has
> since been enjoying his pounded yam in his native Benue.
> Literally speaking, the Defence Towers in Abuja are not for
> his kind.
>
> On contemplation, I think
> the real reason why we elite are afraid of our
> newly acquired feather is because of the inconvenience
> that we will suffer from whenever we visit overseas or the
> opportunities we will miss in our hideout countries where we
> send our children to study after celebrating the collapse of
> our public schools at home; where we take our wives for
> delivery after we have allowed our hospitals to deteriorate;
> where we hide the billions we steal daily
> from public coffers; where some of us think is the Promised
> Land. Think about it: what restrictive
> measure would the average Nigerian, who will never have the
> opportunity to board even a domestic flight be afraid of?
> Will the airport scanners scan him on his farm? Indeed, we
> are crying for ourselves, for
> our interests, not for Nigeria.
>
> Here, I have much to doubt
> about the sincerity of Umar's father, Alhaji Mutallab. I
> initially thought that he has been very heroic in alerting
> the Nigerian and American security officials about the
> indoctrination of his son. He must be one of the most
> patriotic citizens of the world, I thought. But in fairness
> to the son, I now think differently. I was only naïve. The
> father must own up and accept that he exposed the son to the
> risk of indoctrination. He knows his son better than anyone.
> He should. At what point did he start to notice the defiance
> of his son and what did he do about it?
>
> This chap has been
> complaining of loneliness since when the father isolated him
> from this country and sent him to a British elite secondary
> school in Togo. Doesn't his life in that school initiate
> his anti-white racist doctrines before he even met with
> terrorist groups later in the United Kingdom? Why did not
> the father return him to Nigeria and enroll him in one of
> our best secondary schools or private universities. Why was
> Umar ignored by his father until he became a prey of the
> vicious elements that exploited his racist
> sentiments?
>
> Also, would the poor and
> lonely Umar have been conscripted into international
> terrorism if his father were poor? Would he have been to
> Togo or Britain? International terrorism, as I said in an
> interview with Radio Deutche Welle, is a product of
> affluence, not religion. The overwhelming majority of
> terrorists – from Bin Laden down to their latest flag
> bearer, Umar Mutallab – are people from affluent
> backgrounds, homes that have links with the West and have
> firm roots in its economic order.
>
> Umar's father did not
> get this calculation wrong. By alerting the police, he has
> secured his wealth but not his son. He has conveniently
> surrendered the son, against the biological instinct of
> protection, to the FBI, in protection of his economic
> interests, most likely, instead of taking all necessary
> measures to restrict him to this country, getting the
> authorities to seize his passport and sponsor a program of
> his de-indoctrination. After all, the father is well aware
> of the Hausa adage that says ba gagararre sai bararre
> – there is no outlaw except the condoned. The father
> cannot, therefore, claim that he was taken by surprise
> because he was rich enough, pretty rich, to buy multimillion
> pound mansion for the family in London where the son lived.
> He was not living on campus. Someone here – the
> father – does not do his duty well. He should own
> up.
>
> The second blame should be
> dumped at the doorstep of American counter-terrorism
> officials. Obama has every right to look at them straight in
> the eye and tell them that they have not done their job
> well. There was a report indicating that al-Qaida is
> training a Nigerian for a terror attack on an American
> Airline. Then there is a Nigerian father who complained of
> the indoctrination of his son and the son has already been
> placed on America's Terrorist Watch list. Would it be
> clear even to the most incompetent agent that Umar was the
> most likely person? How many Nigerians are there on the list
> after all?
>
> Umar's ordeal should
> serve as a wakeup call to all Nigerian parents who send
> their children overseas for studies. I know it is inevitable
> in many cases given the failure of our educational system
> here at home. But each of them can, and should, do something
> to salvage it, in his own way. I believe Alhaji Mutallab
> must be regretting this way: "Had I known, I would have
> built a model secondary school and a even a private
> university in my hometown Funtua where Umar and other
> Nigerian children would study without being exposed to
> indoctrination by people alien to our culture… A good
> secondary school would not cost half the price of one of my
> houses in London… Had I known…"
>
> The whole idea of sending
> children to study abroad must be done only out of necessity,
> as Dr. Yusuf Qardawi once said. Where necessary, they must
> not be sent until, among other conditions, they have
> acquired the cognitive maturity that will protect them from
> indoctrination.
>
> Please let those of us who
> have children studying overseas keep an eye over them.
> Terrorism is not the only thing we need to guard them
> against. There are just plenty other negative tendencies
> that they must not be allowed to indulge in. We must ensure
> we engage them constantly such that we can understand the
> cognitive developments they are going through. We must not,
> even for a day, fail to listen to them or attend to their
> needs especially for company. And we can do this today so
> easily through modern communications facilities. It is our
> duty. We must not delegate it to school authorities.
>
> Umar had access to wealth
> but it did not buy him the protection he needed as a
> teenager. Poor Umar! Surely, he has been a victim of three
> people: an incapable father, a vicious group of terrorists,
> and incompetent and negligent American security agencies. He
> could have been saved the doom of becoming a criminal of
> this order. This beautiful looking son of Africa was,
> therefore, a prey. His story is a tragedy. He set out
> looking for knowledge but would end up serving a twenty year
> prison term. I pray that by the time he comes out – for he
> will still come out pretty young, 43 – he would have
> contemplated enough to purge himself of the indoctrination
> he went though. He would then return to African and reside
> among us quietly, enjoying the docility that is typical of
> our passive continent, or suffering the
> consequences of its lack of thymos.
>
>