Thursday 13 October 2011

Editorial: Beyond great balls of fire bringing aeroplanes down

The closeness of exploding balls

The totality of the male gender of mankind might well heave a great sigh of relief at the news that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the legendary “underwear bomber” or “pants bomber” had pleaded guilty.

When it was first announced that a terrorist with the intent of bombing a plane had all the components of the bomb in his underwear, I wrote that the sanctum of the crown jewels had been defiled.

I am sure many of us of the male gender who have once had feedback related to the tenderness of our testicles would have just found it impossible to appreciate the level of self-loathing and amazing masochism that Mr. Abdulmutallab exhibited in the wiliness to set his balls and in the process a whole plane on fire.

Given wholly to a strange cause

The powers of persuasion of his Yemeni handlers must be cause for serious study because he was by no means an idiot having studied abroad and with the means to traverse international borders with little hindrance.

A couple of times during his trial, his outbursts contradicting the fact that Osama bin Laden & Anwar al-Awlaki has been killed made some including myself wonder if he was onto pleading guilty by reason of some diminished responsibility like insanity.

More so, considering he had jettisoned his defence team and had apparently been abandoned, the seeming lack of support systems could have made for a mistrial in certain circumstances.

Spared the goriness of it all

Much as many would have wanted to be privy to all the details of how he gained the moniker of “pants bomber” being spared the details of a platform to express his pride at such foolishness was probably welcome in his pleading guilty.

He will in the next year be sentenced probably after psychiatric reports whilst the Nigerian Foreign Minister in his statement on this case bereft of diplomatic nuance risked giving tacit approval of terrorist activity, his words being misconstrued by reviewers on Twitter and in comments where he was attempting to show that Nigerian prisoners abroad will get adequate consular support.

One can only wonder what terrorist ploy others as gullible might have to mind as they attempt to evade all security measures to wreak havoc.

However, with Mr. Abdulmutallab slowing moving out of the news headlines it should also mean that the association of Nigerians with international terrorism is less so obvious.

Acknowledgements

The BBC News website carried the story 'Underwear bomber' Abdulmutallab pleads guilty, yesterday whilst the Vanguard Newspaper ran the story Nigeria will not abandon Farouk Abdulmutallab, says Minister.

3 comments:

Akin Akintayo said...

Those who are familiar with Nigeria, will know that there has been a long established scene of domestic terrorism, based in the north. They are called "al-majiri" and are used to murder non-Hausas & Fulanis to order (from some northern politicians).

Abdulmutallab was Nigerian terrorism gone international. People were shouting "Nigeria is not a terrorist country". With the activities of MEND (Movement for the emancipation of the Niger Delta) and Boko Haram both letting of bombs (explosives) in Abuja, we know Nigeria is not a hot spot of terrorism on the African continent.

I doubt if Abdulmutallab will be the last to emerge, as the government to date has proved to be totally incapable of handling the problem. Some people are (in Nigeria) determined to make problems elsewhere in the world their own, whilst there is no reciprocation from those they are fighting to represent.

What can one say about Abdulmutallab? His parents tried the best they knew, and he turned out the way he did. We can't blame them, he knew what he was doing and jumped in head first, he must now face the consequences. In fact he's being treated with more respect than he had for his potential victims, let him mull that over whilst he's behind bars in the US (United States).

Akin Akintayo said...

Hello CodLiverOil,

I suppose there isn't much argument against the views you expressed.

Thanks,

Akin

Akin Akintayo said...

Thanks for the reply Akin.
I made two errors, which I wish to correct for those who may read the article sometime in the future.

1) Al-majiri are used to murder non-Hausas and non-Fulanis
(not as I said  previously non-Hausas & Fulanis).

2) With the activities of MEND (Movement for the emancipation of the Niger Delta) and Boko Haram both letting off bombs (explosives) in Abuja, we know Nigeria is now a hot spot of terrorism on the African continent. (not we know Nigeria is not a hot spot of terrorism on the African continent.)

The problem of  corrupt & woeful political leaders and tradtional leaders, and their neglect of their subjects in the north, fuels distorted religious interpretation and increasingly desparate violent acts. The failure of these leaders or even successive federal governments to tackle the problem, has assured that this menace will grow, to the extent where it can threaten the unity of the country. In the meantime social disharmony will continue to spread and increase in the northern region.

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