Muttallab: How Obama Insulted Over 150 Million of his Nigerian Kinsmen
Author: Emeka Esogbue
Author: Emeka Esogbue
With the hasty inclusion of Nigeria in the terrorist list, President Barack Obama of the USA has insulted over 150 million of his Nigerian kinsmen and even those in Diaspora. Obama might have just utilized the opportunity of the fragile socio-economic and political situation prevailing in the Nigerian nation to label it a terrorist nation because of the actions of a 23-year old Nigerian boy, Farouk Abdulmuttallab who by personal motivation decided to bomb a Detroit bound Airliner on December 25, 2009. But by far, Barack Obama and John McCain are morally mistaken in the their insolent to the millions of Nigerians for it is quite misguided and misdirected to tag a peace-loving nation terrorists because of one small boy. It was surprising to the entire world that the USA failed to list a country like Britain which in recent times is gaining fast reputation as an Al-Qaeda breeding haven for terrorists. More surprising is it because though Muttallab is a Nigerian by birth, which no one doubts, he was trained in the UK. He resided no where other than the USA and UK, came in from Ghana via Lagos en-route to the USA. Muttallab was in fact, reportedly sponsored by the Yemeni Government so that one is left with no reason but wonder how all these involve Nigeria. Millions of Nigerians by birth have turned in glories to the USA, Britain and other countries of the world in politics, science and technology and sports, among numerous others and these so-called big countries of the world have accepted them as their own patriotic citizens but the case of Muttallab is contrariwise because he was found with a bomb which never originated from Nigeria. The USA and Britain should make appearances in that meaningless list as well. Thousands of Americans worldwide have been involved and captured in terrorist attempts and Shoe Bomber Reid is a Briton, surprisingly Britain has not been listed in the unnecessary list of terrorist nations and even America has been involved in arm twisting diplomacy to release their own. We are aware of several Nigerian born citizens who fought and died for the USA in the Gulf War battle but there were no compensations for the Nigeria nation, not even glories because they were considered Americans. For the reiteration of facts about Nigeria, the Nigerian nation is a peace-loving one, and a clear understanding of the country shows that its citizens do not have the ambit time and technical know-how to journey to any over sea country much less the dreaded USA to engage in terrorist acts so the case of Muttallab is that of isolation having acquired his training in the UK and Yemen which is to the knowledge of the USA Government. Shifting the blame to the entire Nigerians will therefore not solve the issue but only help worsen the nations situation. Nigerians are already having it egregiously bad enough with the problems many of which appear insolvent, and so some which are caused by foreign big powers including America. There is high level of poverty, no light, no bread to eat. No good roads, no water. It is in fact today an auto-piloted nation with the future of its teeming youths looming with seeming disasters. It is the only nation in the world now without a leader and the USA wants to add more to its present circumstantial disaster. There is no doubt that the American Government understands all these and tries to exploit it to their favour with the clear understanding that the people of the nation have no established authority whether at the federal, state or local government levels to defend them. Already, the Senate has made a dramatic turn round in its expected duty to defend the nation by least questioning the USA and possibly severing relationship with it for slapping the faces of millions of Nigeria. The dead 7-day ultimatum issued the power-state became fizzled-out after the American nation threatened to revoke the visas of some targeted Senators, many of who are corrupt. The story now is that the USA will by allowed to toy with the defenseless destinies of the Nigerian citizens which goes as usual. Obama may have only vented his hatred for the Nigerian nation which he first began by choosing to visit the neighbouring Ghana rather than the populous Nigerian nation. If however, his action was as a result of leadership failure enthroned in the country by the PDP led government, a sane person would have expected the worlds self-acclaimed biggest leader to come to the country and blatantly speak some political home truth to the Nigerian leaders but this was not so. It is therefore not surprising that within some few minutes of the action of a boy, the nation has found itself in the list of state sponsored terrorist countries. However, the USA must understand that as a sovereign nation, Nigeria has every right to defend itself whether the Senate is moved to action or not. About the Author:
Emeka Esogbue writes from Nigeria.
emekaesogbue@yahoo.com