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.

Nigeria: Dr Abdulmutallab deserves no honour, tell our Senate

The irony is lost

Irony is a concept it seems our lawmakers in Nigeria have lost, their propensity to align with the herd in stampede mode just beggars belief, I am left gobsmacked in incredulity.

I have just read that the Nigerian Senate Deputy President, one Ike Ekweremadu moved to have the father of the knicker bomber given a National honour. [1]

It is like feeding malevolent code to a computer, I should expect it to crash irretrievably at the illogicality of the command issued, but maybe one should try to understand the madness of this idea.

Honoured for fatherhood

Now, Dr Umar Abdulmutallab is the father or Mr. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab [2], it is unlikely that the erudite personality with all his achievements would want to be honoured for being the father of a misguided son who was about to blow off his genitals and bring down a full laden aircraft of innocent people over a heavily populated American city.

Maybe, for instance, Dr Abdulmutallab might deign to consider it for having offered his son such privileged education in prestige institutions around the world and suddenly realising he had lost paternal contact posted a missing persons call like any concerned parent would.

Honoured for being an informant

That sounds implausible, but probably, he might be persuaded to accept such an honour for not finding ways to ground his son, but reporting his possible extremist views to the US Embassy in Nigeria but not the security agencies in Nigeria. An almost civic duty carried out with unpatriotic flair, the amazing bravery of a father telling on his son, though none of it really prevented what could have happened.

Then one could receive such a national honour for protecting ones global interests from the taint of terrorism but realising the possibility of absolution if ones son is sacrificed to the security agencies in the United States rather than trying to protect him and end up being labelled someone who aids and abets terrorism.

Honoured for celebrity

Perhaps an honour is well deserved for being the instigator by fatherhood of the man who put Nigeria on the global map of terrorism, who became the most talked about person in the world at Christmas 2009, a Nigerian par excellence, both notable and notorious.

If that all does not make sense, presumably some other countries want to honour Dr Abdulmutallab for being a rotten parent, who deigns to perform his civic duty in an unpatriotic fashion, reporting his son for extremist leanings and thereby protecting his global business interests, and so Nigeria should stupidity jump the gun and get in there first by honouring this selfless, courageous, brave and commendable heroism.

He deserves ignominy

Dr Abdulmutallab deserves no honour and really is would be atrociously contemptible for him to even consider showing up for anything talk less of an honour with regards to how his own son turned out.

At best, Dr Abdulmutallab is an almost hero but nothing he did prevented the act of terror his son almost succeeded in completing but for luck the he either fumbled his assignment or the quick acting of his fellow passengers on that almost fateful flight.

Ignominy and disgrace are the least that could be conferred on the Abdulmutallab family, at worst; they should be ignored, though I would like them all to be interrogated by the US Security services with the permission of Nigerian authorities.

The apology of our Senate leadership

There is no doubt that our senators know no irony, this act belongs to my Apes Obey Series [3] where Lord Lugard in his astute observation in the Dual Mandate confirms these traits in the leadership of the Nigerian Senate.

“an excitable person; lacking in self control, discipline, and foresight ... full of personal vanity, with little sense of veracity ... his thoughts are concentrated on the events and feelings of the moment, and he suffers little from the apprehension for the future or grief for the past ... and is conspicuously deficient in the management and control alike of men or business; he loves the display of power, but fails to realize its responsibility; ... he has ... an instinct rather than a moral virtue.”

It goes on and on but we are the poorer for it that a person of the stature of the Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate did not think through this despicable idea before submitting his motion, it is just incredible that he could not anticipate the irony of it all.

The stupidity of such a motion and the crass idiocy it confers on him was exemplified in the fact that he could only find the Senate Leader and nine other senators to support the motion, it was negatively received on the whole; but what a laughing stock it would make of Nigerians – there is no way Nigeria can be taken seriously with such people in leadership.

In my humble opinion, they do as much damage to our image as the pants bomber has done and arguably worse, they are a disgrace.

Sources

[1] Senate opposes national award to Abdulmuttalab | NIGERIAN TRIBUNE - News

[2] Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] Introducing the Apes Obey! Series [akin.blog-city.com]

Nigeria: Umar Farouk alone in court

Charged with news

There was some catching up to do on the news front, going through my staple of UK based news websites represented by broadsheets, CNN, BBC, Reuters and a smattering of international news aggregators.

I did not expect any particularly new information regarding the arraignment of Mr. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab [1] since the newswires had reported that he had plead “Not Guilty” to the 6 charges of indictment, none of which contained any derivation of the word terror.

I fail to see why US courts put those on federal charges in leg irons apart from a sanctimonious moralising stance of humiliating the accused – it is unlikely the person would bolt having been handcuffed surrounded by armed security personnel.

It is not like the prisoners have feet like lethal weapons of some obscure martial art manoeuvre ready to decapitate or defenestrate the deputy, the overkill exaggerates beyond the laughable.

Un-present representatives

The BBC sketch [2] of the young man’s day in court suggests he had a hobbling gait possibly due to the lap burns he suffered when his underwear lit up but did not blow up – God have mercy, incredible.

It was interesting to note that there was a delegation from the Nigerian embassy in Washington taking front row seats having flown to Detroit – I cannot say if they were there to protect his interests, ensure Nigeria’s name was not further besmirched or seeking some international publicity riding in the misfortune of another countryman.

One of the diplomats confirmed to the correspondent that none of the family members had come [to court or to the United States of America? One cannot say.]; This is a man with at least 10 siblings with whom he could claim paternal affinity, a mother, an absolutely rich father [whose global business interests have been inadvertently saved the taint of terrorism by conveniently snitching on his son], a possible troop of extended relations and not one of them could deign to make an appearance at court.

Image versus fraternity

The child has seemingly been disowned for the “shame” he must have brought on the family that they would rather never be found anywhere near him – I would not read too much into this but I am sure, if any of his family had requested a visa to be present with him it would have been granted on compassionate grounds – in times of trouble, one would think families would pull together and pull all stops to offer the moral support of physical presence.

I would suppose like it has been all his life, the big-wig daddy has probably thrown filthy lucre at the problem and the wads of cash would now stand as support, succour, shoulder and shield. It is a sad commentary but one has to wait and see.

To suggest the public image and status of this influential and respected banker’s family is paramount and more significance to them than fraternal loyalty to their misguided son would be a cruel damnation.

Brief or briefed?

What I found rather surprising was that Umar Farouk might not have heard the judge correctly about what level of school he had reached because generally speaking college in English usually refers to secondary school education whereas Americans read that as university education.

The judge then asked if he had attended secondary school which really comes across as daft because it is clear from the basic information we all have about Umar Farouk that he attended UCL in London and read mechanical engineering – whilst that is University College London, the emphasis in English would have been on the university rather than the college element of that name.

Hopefully, the judge is in the element of his brief and has been properly briefed about the cases he is presiding on and this, for instance, requires the judge be quite smart and sharp by which I mean should take time to read up and be informed on the cases in his docket, particularly from other information gleaned about Umar Farouk who has a Bachelors degree and was undergoing a Masters degree programmed he should not have been slighted with the question about whether he had attended secondary school.

Make yourself clear

An affront of prejudicial and denigrating belittlement totally uncalled for, one would say; you would think the judge just arrived from Mars and was swept into court completely oblivious of the news or what he was doing in court; I am not impressed at all and it will not augur well if it is put down to a procedural question or plain absentmindedness.

It would appear the judge has to put in the effort to make himself understood because Umar Farouk again stumbled at the next question about whether he had taken medication in the last 24 hours, the detail sunk in later on and Umar Farouk corrected himself.

If he did suffer burns injuries, it is likely he would be on strong painkillers which can have the effect of causing drowsiness or tardiness and that has to be taken into consideration but one would think the judge would have been briefed about all this considering this is a high profile suspect in a case that attracts global interest.

In any case the whole procedure appeared to take just about three minutes and the correspondent could read no emotion from Umar Farouk’s face but once again as he looked around courtroom, his life’s story was read back to him in slow motion, my parents are once again AWOL – he is again, alone and lonely.

Poor child!

Sources

[1] Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[2] BBC News - Abdulmutallab impassive in court

Nigeria: Identifying with Nigerian good

A typical Nigerian

Let me start by saying without equivocation that Mr. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab [1], with whatever appellation or nickname the media might want to give him is Nigerian.

That is a fact, a truth, a reality and a detail we have to live with, his heritage is Nigerian, his father is a well-known Nigerian and until 2 weeks ago, he was a Nigerian like many of us who have sought educational opportunities abroad and made a good job of it.

In some ways, he was a Nigerian with an international outlook having studied in Togo, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

An unfortunate Nigerian

In other circumstances, this young man would have been a prospective employee to some organisation armed with qualifications to make a living and make a difference to his community and possibly have some influence in a wider spectrum of society.

Unfortunately, just because he failed to take that trajectory of being a nice Nigerian abroad does not automatically disqualify him from having come from where he came from, nor does it stop him from holding the passport he had every right to claim to hold.

Identifying as Nigerian

Maybe indeed Nigerians are not necessarily terrorists that go out to blow up international flights, but we would have been quick to identify with a Nigerian who discovers a new type of jet propulsion fuel that takes full consideration of global warming.

Whilst is it unsavoury to identify with this young man, the clamour to disown him for the line of study and expression he took does not change the fact that he would be identified as Nigerian by others and it becomes us to appreciate that fact and work on dealing better with the consequences of that situation.

Nigerians are not or Nigerians are?

We cannot define ourselves by what we are not and many have said we are not fraudsters, we are not drug-couriers, we are not fanatics, we are not extremists, we are not terrorists, we are not everything you can think we are.

Maybe, we are not those things, the questions then becomes, if we are not this or that, what are are?

We are Nigerians, first and foremost, we engage in legal, legitimate, worthwhile and profitable activities in our communities, societies and environment for the good of the many. Many of us are successfully in positions of responsibility doing our best in whatever calling we find ourselves.

Those of us in training, school or university, take our vocations seriously and strive to excel bring honour to all that associate with us.

We are generally congenial, friendly, likeable, humorous and enjoy the pleasures of life, we are positive leaning people, quite optimistic in our outlook and portend to have a spiritual grounding in life.

Nigerian pride in good ownership

I think those declarations speak more for who we are rather than what we are not. Whilst I can see the mass hysteria of signing up to protest and disownership pages we should acclaim our Nigerianness more positively than that by heralding the good Nigerian and good Nigerian endeavours.

If all it takes to be a fervent and passionate Nigerian is to band together against a terrorist, our understanding of our identity is in need of a clearer vision.

In closing, I declare again that Mr. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab remains a Nigerian through and through, our disowning him does not make him irrelevant, but our identifying with people, symbols and purposes of good Nigeria would make a better statement to the world at large.

Sources

[1] Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nigeria: Privileges Umar Farouk Never Had

Childhood building blocks

Readers of my blog would have read a number of childhood themed blogs I have written in the last few years tinged with nostalgia and mostly revolving around my schooldays.

In conversation with a friend yesterday the topic of the underwear bomber came up and I found myself saying that the young man had not affinity with Nigeria and hence there could be no expectation for him to exhibit any form of patriotism regarding Nigeria.

What is developing out of the whole story is the ownership dilemma of how to identify with the young man or completely disown him.

Schooled away from home

An ex-teacher of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab [1], identified with him by remembering a schoolboy who was caring, talented and articulate, in fact, Chris Edmunds [2], had this much to say, “You are my former student. I taught you. I played football with you. I visited you in your boarding house. I shared school lunch with you.”

This was when he was at the British School in Lome, Togo, a child of great privilege and opportunity but definitely far from home.

Not supported whatsoever

With the inclusion of Nigeria in the US screening list, it is cant to portend that internally with the religious unrests, kidnappings, assassinations and Niger Delta, Nigeria does not represent some terror risk internally already but there is a desperate attempt to disown the young man in order to absolve ourselves.

So the Honourable Minister of Information has been particular about the fact that he was educated outside Nigeria and that he spent less than half an hour in Nigeria. In her words [1], “He was not influenced in Nigeria, he was not recruited or trained in Nigeria, he was not supported whatsoever in Nigeria.”

Therein is the issue; this person from youth had been far away from home, strange places became home, he found succour amongst strangers, other narratives indicate he was lonely and alone, in all, he was in as vulnerable a position to be influenced by anyone or anything that offered care, assurance, comfort and love – a warped kind of gratitude to that love birthed the scenario of being convinced to carry a bomb in his pants – God have mercy.

Always around my parents

However, this is what I am getting at, whilst I was born in England, I returned to Nigeria with my parents and only started schooling in Nigeria, they sent me to very good primary schools where we were taught, inspired, encouraged, challenged and given the opportunity to explore.

Whilst we had house helps, my parents also had time for us, we went on outings and picnics which diminished in frequency as we grew older, we played ball, my father installed a swing [lilo we called it in Hausa] in the garden, my mother got me a bicycle with her salary raise – I was at home, loved, provided for and protected.

When I went to secondary school, I was in a boarding house but close to extended relations who were always on hand and every holiday season, I was jetted back up North to see my parents, when we moved to Lagos, on the last day of school, there was always someone to pick me up and take me back home.

Creating my affinities

The points I am trying to make are, I was always close to home, my parents never delegated their parenting to the ability to throw money at the issue, I had lunch at home and dinner with my parents when they returned home, I was never put in a situation where I felt alone or lonely.

What that did was it gave me an affinity for all the environments I have been in to conserve, to remember, to cherish, to uphold and to promote all the good regardless of how much contrary things have happened or have been experienced.

Missed out, lost out

Unfortunately, the reason why Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab never had the kind of privilege I had was because by the time he reached the age where I enjoyed all this parent guidance and support, his parents did not think schools in Nigeria were good enough to give him the standard of education worthy of status of his family and the consequences are there to see.

This might well be a simplistic analysis but for me, it is very relevant, the minister’s assertion, “He was not influenced in Nigeria, he was not recruited or trained in Nigeria, he was not supported whatsoever in Nigeria.” is a ringing indictment of how our educational systems have failed us that we end up sending our kids to faraway lands and unfortunately far from parental support and control that creates the affinity and compelling desire to preserve rather than destroy.

Sources

[1] Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[2] The Punch: AbdulMutallab: Caring, talented student — Ex-teacher

[3] Nigeria says inclusion on US screening list unfair | Top News | Reuters

Nigeria: Can we engage politely?

Nigeria: Can we engage politely? Was first published at NigeriansTalk.Org you can follow the link to comment or review comments there.

Sahara Reporters on the global stage

The issue of the Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab [1] put me in the middle of an unintended experiment with interesting consequences.

On the 28th of December 2009, I posted a blog on my site with the title Nigeria: Sahara Reporters comes of age [2], this came about because CNN especially used a photograph from the Sahara Reporters website with the copyright of Sahara Reporters clearly emblazoned on the picture, I really thought it was a coming of age, Sahara Reporters introduced to a global audience.

Points of view

So, there were a few points I raised in my blog in the light of this global recognition which was the earning respectability by appearing more professional; so I asked that the adverts to removed and be replaced with a new funding structure, I have been blogging for 6 years and paid a subscription to keep it free from adverts and intrusions I have no control over, I could not see why a site like Sahara Reporters could not do that.

Then I asked for the content to be better vetted by some editorial board, not to censor content but to introduce a clear standard, which for any publication is a standard procedure, finally, I talked about the comments asking for comment moderation, refinement and some sort of policy.

In fact, I suggested two comment areas a reflection of life where you have marketplace conversation resplendent with its colour, noise and raucous language then a place where the conversation was like you will have in an office where decorum, respect and comportment help the way of business.

My blog on Sahara Reporters

Some operative at Sahara Reporters noticed my blog on the 31st of December copied and pasted my blog posting on their web site [3] without first seeking my consent or fully following the proper attribution guidelines; a clear case of copyright infringement, I made quite a fuss about the whole thing in a blog that I later withdrew because I really do like the work Sahara Reporters is doing as a guerilla news agency.

There was no point embroiling them in some battle to assuage my pride from being subjected to the savagery of the injurious commentary of Nigerians – I have a clear comment policy on my blog, very few of the comments on Sahara Reporters will pass the muster on my blog.

Reviewing the comments

By this morning 33 comments [4] had been made with reference to my blog and that forms the basis of this NigeriansTalk posting which wonders if Nigerians can engage in polite conversation and discourse on any matter whilst fully comprehending the matter at hand. The comments are a microcosm of a broad spectrum of Nigerians talking in a globally accessible forum.

Considering the points clearly raised in my blog, I can only say only one comment seemed to indicate it had any comprehension of what I wrote, all the other comments deigned to understand and in the end just missed the point.

The core point being, the blog was written to praise Sahara Reporters, not effusively, but guardedly and to encourage improvement. A majority of the comments were abusive, derogatory and unnecessary.

Did I say that?

Some thought I was attacking Sahara Reporters whilst others thought the call to professionalism was a veiled threat to the freedom of expression and the ability to maintain independence – I fail to see how my blog could have in anyway advocated that.

In some comments, I was asked to become helpful by becoming a roving reporter for Sahara Reporters, others went off topic plugging their own personal agendas for Sahara Reporters to champion.

In all the people preferred the marketplace exchange of insults and more than a better coordinated exchange of ideas, interestingly, this is the case where an open forum exists for Nigerians to fulminate and write before comprehending what they are writing about – and now I can say that for sure because the guinea pig in this exercise was something I wrote and has been totally misunderstood, misconstrued and vilified.

The question remains, whether Nigerians can engage in polite conversation and discourse on any matter whilst fully comprehending the matter at hand; whilst I have met many who can, you have to read the blog [2] and the comments [3] to decide if we really can.

Sources

[1] Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[2] Nigeria: Sahara Reporters comes of age [akin.blog-city.com]

[3] Nigeria: Sahara Reporters comes of age – Hosted at Sahara Reporters

[4] Nigeria: Sahara Reporters comes of age – The comments