To Umaru Abdulmutallab

In the last few days, you have faced the worst of such exposures locally and internationally. Locally in varied form while the international public opinion was mainly positive on your reputation and personality. This is the first lesson for today. Even those sensational newspapers and their reports at home who chose to make mischief out […]

In the last few days, you have faced the worst of such exposures locally and internationally. Locally in varied form while the international public opinion was mainly positive on your reputation and personality. This is the first lesson for today. Even those sensational newspapers and their reports at home who chose to make mischief out of the very unfortunate development have only succeeded in exposing their ignorance and weaknesses as professionals in the news industry.

Though a great chunk of Nigerian commentators including the Minister of Information whose antecedence has since been overzealousness and reckless exhibition of what a minister of information should be have already defined Faruk guilty of the offence he is accused of, which naturally is completely the reverse even in the USA where the allegations are leveled.

I am not worried about that and I don’t think if you too need to worry about that because regardless of the magnitude of the allegation before Faruk today, his case is a microcosm of the huge scandals and shame that Nigerians involved in fraud, scams and other anti social activities are bringing to Nigeria.

Before the event of December 25th, Nigeria’s record across the world was very dirty and in fact horrible. For any Nigerian at home or abroad to contemplate that it was this case that is currently being celebrated that is responsible for whatever travelers from the country are facing I think to say the least is a cheap lie and unfortunate. It is either such Nigerians are only playing the traditional politics of hate and irresponsibility or have not travelled to Europe and the United   States in the   last several years.

Even in South Africa here and other next door neighbors, Nigerians are treated with contempt because of the very unfortunate manner they conduct themselves in these countries. In South Africa specifically, apart from the notorious crimes of getting rich quick through drug dealing, dubious transactions and others, a very worrisome dimension of kidnapping was recently added to the nefarious vocation of my countrymen and women.

In the heat of all these, the minister of information has erred and behaved in a manner typical of her by publicly coming out to beg the West not to stigmatize Nigeria because of an act she calls isolated. I can’t understand the jittering. I can’t understand all these celebrations by the information minister.

Muhammed Al Ghazalli opined that perhaps she is worried because she thought she was making any en-route in her deceit game called rebranding. When Brigadier Buba Marwa started a more practical innovation of recognizing hard working Nigerians in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland, I thought Professor Akunyilli would pick a lesson in that and build more such programs as a deliberate strategy of bringing forth the good ones so that those who are bad may learn some lesson and so that the citizens of those countries where our citizens have become epidemics would realize that on the other side of the divide, there are several Nigerian citizens who are contributing daily in the development of these countries and communities.

I am worried about the official approach to the issue of terrorism by governments across the world. The consequence is what we have in Nigeria today, crying more than the bereaved and on the other hand acting more catholic than the Pope. When the authorities in USA have told the world that the events in Detroit on Christmas day was an allegation, Nigerian officials have since reached the conclusion that young man Faruk Mutallab is already guilty as charged.

That must be the reason which ignites that overzealousness on the part of our information minister to begin to go down on her knees asking Europe and America not to subject Nigerians to thorough checks or be discriminated upon at airports. Who said that is just beginning now! Why is somebody trying to sensationalize an isolated issue when the dominant crisis that we face in the international arena is borne out of our very weak morals?

The time has come when the attention of governments and the communities especially in the advanced capitalist social formation led by the imperial America to begin to understand the roots of this descent which makes an individual take his own life just because he or she desires to make a point to those who are living.

If Faruk Mutallab is accused of attempting to blow an aircraft carrying almost three hundred passengers, what is the allegation against leaders like George Bush who have broken the chains of peace in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan among many others?

My take on the Faruk Mutaalb issue is that the young man is not a villain. Let us here from him first. What we are hearing now and since the incidence are views from his captors. I learnt to be skeptical about American imperialism since I was younger. Faruk to me epitomizes courage in young people. Whatever may be the case, I see conviction in this young Nigerian who all those that knew him confirmed is an excellently brilliant person. Disciplined, composed and different in many ways from the bulk of his contemporaries.

I am not worried because Faruk did not follow the path of his contemporaries. He wasn’t a drug addict, a rascal or lousy young man. The debate as to whether he really attempted to bomb that aircraft is left till the courts in Detroit is done with the matter. I am convinced that the future of Nigeria is safe and secured because there are still young people who out of conviction can go the extremes in order to realize stated objectives of which nation building is a part.

I refuse to join the chorus. I am not shouting that Faruk must be crucified. I am saying he should be given fair hearing and steps must be taken to address the issues that are responsible for the emergence of deviation in the human family.

While sympathizing with the family, I am optimistic that the course which the young man stands for is genuine and must be addressed in the interest of global peace and security.