The Bombing of Nigeria

Comfort Obi

For a couple of reasons, the year 2009 ended on a sad note for Nigeria. And 2010 began on an even sober note. Among other reasons, which include the anxiety over President Umaru Yar'Adua's health status and the death of our favourite former First Lady, Mrs. Maryam Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, the situation was compounded on December 25, 2009. On this day, one irresponsible son from hell, Umar Farouk Abdul- Mutallab, threw Nigeria into the books of infamy. For that disgraceful incident, America has confined us to the list of "countries of interest" in the sponsorship and/or grooming of terrorists. How did Nigeria get to this gutter? Many reasons. But the immediate cause lies with a rudderless leadership, and an AbdulMutallab who behaved unNigerian.
A first look at this 23-year-old screams innocence. But looks can be deceptive. He is the perfect example of a green snake in a green grass. A son from the pit of hell, he shocked Nigerians and his family by attempting to blow off the skies, North West, an American Airliner, on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, USA. He detonated, unsuccessfully, 15 minutes to the landing of the aircraft, explosives which he strapped to his underpants. As the smell of smoke filled the aircraft, and angry tongues of fire began to consume him, he sat still like the criminal that he is, unmoved, showing neither pains nor fear. It must now be a surprise to him that he is in chains in an American maximum custody, facing prosecution, and a possible life in jail, instead of paradise, making it out with seven beautiful virgins. And drinking the best quality of wine! What was his problem?
Here is a boy who had everything at his feet. He went to the best schools abroad. His father, former Chairman of First Bank Plc., Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, spared no expenses. His lot was to read, make merry, and pick any job he wanted after graduating as a mechanical engineer. But he derailed. He was brainwashed by Islamic fundementalists in Britain. Nigerian parents should note that Britain has become a graveyard for youths. They are being recruited in droves and brainwashed by Islamic fanatics. The impression which has been proved wrong now, is that only children of the poor fall into the hands of fanatics who manipulate and use them as bombs while their own children make merry.
Since AbdulMutallab’s infamy, nothing has remained the same for his family or Nigeria. His father who had been quietly agonising over having a scoundrel as son, has suddenly been thrown at the centre of a storm. Everyday, his face is prostituted before us on Cable Networks. Yet, he did what most fathers will find difficult to do. On noticing that his son was behaving strangely, he quickly did what a good citizen of the world would do. He contacted the American Embassy in Nigeria, explaining his fears. But the Americans ignored the lead. Now, instead of proclaiming him a hero, and praising the country which produced such a responsible citizen, Nigeria is being blacklisted. Look at the countries which company Nigeria is supposed to be keeping! Saudi Arabia (which son, Osama Bin Laden, and its other sons are wreaking havoc on America and the civilised world), Somali (which killed Americans in tens and dragged its dead soldier round the streets for a public show), Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan (three of America’s greatest headaches), Cuba (with its Fidel Castro), and a few more. What did Nigeria do to deserve this categorisation? Nothing.
Both British and American citizens have severally been involved in terrorism. The “shoe-bomber” was British. It was an American citizen who bombed, and razed down a federal building in Oklahoma a couple of years back. In Pakistan, American citizens were recently held for allegedly planning terrorism. Britain has never been classified as a country of interest, either for the shoe bomber or for its fertility in the recruitment, brainwashing, and training of world-class terrorists. Neither the Oklahoma bomber, nor the number of Americans involved in terrorism has earned America the tag of a terrorist state. And that, inspite of its many Al Qaeda cells.
Truth is: Nigeria and Nigerians abhor terrorism. Suicide bombing is alien to Nigeria. We love life. Nigeria neither imports, nor exports terrorists. Nigeria has no training ground for terrorists, or has America identified any Al Qaeda cell in Nigeria? Nor is Nigeria a Muslim state. It is a secular country. Each time terrorists strike in America, or anywhere, Nigerians of all religions have always been the most vociferous in condemning the act. AbdulMutallab lived most of his life outside Nigeria.
If AbdulMuttalab was brought up in Nigeria, he wouldn’t have thought of doing what he did. If he hadn’t gone to Britain, there was no way anybody could have brainwashed him in Nigeria. He imbibed an alien culture, a culture where parents insist that at 16 years of age, their children are grown up, and could jolly well go and rent a house, and live on their own. Anything negative, Nigerian youths have learnt – be it 419, gun trotting, gun-running, sophisticated armed robbery, assassination, kidnapping, bomb making, flaunting of breasts, sagging of trousers – they learnt from Western culture. But back to AbdulMutallab.
One of the reasons America treated us like nobodies is because we have a leadership vacuum. Over 50 days after President Yar’Adua went on AWOL on health grounds, his party, the PDP and the President’s kitchen cabinet, led by the First Lady, Turai Yar’Adua, have treated the country with contempt – to the extent that our President used a foreign medium to tell us that he is alive. So, we live on speculations and rumours. Since AbdulMutallab, there has been no serious, co-ordinated response from Nigeria. Everybody is playing safe to avoid being tagged “too forward” and/or “too assuming.” But for how long?
Somebody, the equivalent of Barack Obama, ought to be talking to him. But who? It is a shame that 150 million people are suffering over one son from hell, and a rudderless leadership.