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Are We Exporting Terrorists/Religious Extremists?

This article is a response to an email a friend sent me. In the email, my friend pointed out that “Mr Soyinka does not have the right to call UK a cesspit and a breeding ground for terrorist when his home country is battling with religious conflict, exported a terrorist that nearly blew up a plane with 279 passengers and is on US Terror Watchlist”. While her irk, I believe, was not directed at me but at the audacity of Mr Soyinka, I could not help but wonder if terrorism should be, in addition to all other crimes we’ve been known to commit outside the shores of our country, included to the list? In my opinion, I don’t think so. Allow me to explain.

1. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was radicalized in Yemen and possibly, the UK.

Reports that emerged immediately after his attempt to bring down the Northwest Airlines flight, his subsequent arrest and the weeks of investigation that followed showed that growing up, the suspect was a devout Muslim but he was not in the least militant. During his high school years in Togo, he was fondly called ‘Pope’ and ‘Alfa’ because of his pious attitude, “very decent and gentle, in fact a pacifist. His views on religion were very mainstream,” thus indicating that at this stage, he was just a young boy trying to be morally upright as preached in the holy book, Quran. While undertaking his undergraduate studies at the prestigious University College London, Abdulmutallab became the head of a British University Islamic Society (ISOC). It could have been here as the head of ISOC that he became radicalized as he was in the most conducive environment where he can meet and interact with Islamist extremists. The guys over at Christian Science Monitor asks whether the fact that “his four formative years in London coincided with public anger over the Iraq war and the London subway and bus bombing by Islamists in July 2005″ played a role in his terrorist aspirations but one cannot be certain for sure. After graduating from UCL and in between moving first to Egypt, and then Dubai in the United Arab Emirates where he studied for an MBA before dropping out, Abdulmutallab made two trips to Yemen for short Arabic and Islamic courses. It was the trips to Yemen that many believed left a deeper mark on the young man and where he became radicalized. In interviews with FBI agents, Abdulmutallab said he made contact via the Internet with a radical imam in Yemen who then connected him with al Qaeda leaders in a village north of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a. Additionally, he said he lived with the al Qaeda leader in Yemen for about a month and was not allowed to leave as he was trained in what to do and how to explode the bomb device.

From the above brief investigation reports, one needn’t be a rocket scientist to realize that the only link between the suspect and Nigeria stems from his nationality- a Nigerian, though he is of a different pedigree than most Nigerians of his age. Does being Nigerian automatically makes him or other Nigerians a terrorist? No. One thing to remember about Abdulmuttalab, in addition to the fact that he was not radicalized in Nigeria, is this: his formative years- a period of psychological, ideological and identity development- was spent outside the shores of Nigeria, in Togo and UK respectively. This fact says more about where the real terror threat is (and is not) coming from. Also, his elite upbringing and background puts in a different class from most Nigerians and into that of known international terrorists. Dayo Olopade in her article points out that “like Bin Laden, [Abdulmutallab] is an affluent cosmopolite whose wealth allowed him to move with ease from Lagos to London to Dubai, as a result, joins a group of attackers, from Zazi to “dirty bomber” Jose Padilla to “shoe-bomber” Richard Reid, who have spent significant amounts of time in Europe or the United States.” Also, let’s not forget that Abdulmutallab’s father,  was so disturbed by his son’s radicalization that he reported him to the American authorities.  Surely, this is not a sign of a country filled with homegrown terrorists out to destroy America and her interests, no?

2.  Religious conflict does not prove that Nigerian Muslims are nut jobs out to harm America and rid the world of western influences.

I’d have to go into far more detail than a blog post allows to fully analyze the cause of the religio-tribal conflict in Northern Nigeria, but I think one can safely assume that the vast majority of these conflicts stems from misunderstanding between local tribes, struggle for resources, poverty or political struggle manipulated by the ruling elite, and confused or potrtrayed as religious conflict by the media. Again, my point is not to prove that some of the conflicts aren’t strictly religious in its context. In fact, the Boko Haram incident of July last year is a recent example of religious/terror inclined clash but the fact that it was quickly quelled by the Nigerian police and armed forces, and condemned by the national body of Muslims shows that Nigeria is highly unlikely to become the next Afghanistan or even Yemen, or even a supporter of those who do.  Which bring me to my main point: religious clashes and by extension extremism in the Northen Nigeria have been less about ‘religion’ itself and more about general dissatisfaction among many due to lack of rule of law and functioning institutions. I know we have a lot of things wrong at home but active exportation of jihad and jihadists abroad is NOT one of them.

Should we be worried at all?

Of course not but as a country, we should be watchful lest we fall and become that we thought we would never be.  The above analysis points to the fact the majority of clashes stems from general dissatisfaction, poverty and misunderstanding. The policy and political implications are clear. In fact, Nneoma’s write-up on the importance of education of boys, which presented the World Bank findings that countries with a low rate of secondary school attainment amongst young males are more likely to be conflict-prone attests to this. It goes without saying that conflict-ridden countries serve as a breeding and recruitment ground for would-be terrorist (see Afghanistan, Iraq).  To prevent the constant occurrence of clashes of various kinds, thus a de-facto breeding ground for both local and international terrorists, our government must, in addition to fulfilling its other legitimate duties, actively seek ways to use education as a strategy to reduce the risk of political violence, particularly among the Nigerian youth.

Which brings me back to Mr. Soyinka, I understand his frustration and why he’s not happy about Nigeria being on the terror watch list. If anything, Abdulmuttalab’s case tells us less about radicalization in Nigeria and more about radicalization in the UK or elsewhere.  Also, attributing the various religio-tribal conflicts in Northern Nigeria as signs that the country is on its way to becoming the next terrorist hotspot shows deep lack of understanding of political realities on the ground, as they may having nothing to do with international terrorism but more about local radicals motivated by local grievances and politics.

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By Amaka – February 8, 2010

Uganda’s Anti-Gay Law in Western Media

Below is an article of mine previously posted at  allAfrica.com.  The previous post on this subject and Nigeria can be found here.

Update: I suggest reading the allAfrica.com copy with the link provided above. There, you will see all the links referred to in this article.

Ugandan MPs probably didn’t know what a firestorm David Bahati of the ruling National Resistance Movement would raise when he first presented his proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill in October 14, 2009.

After all, homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda – in most of Africa for that matter – and the new law would merely be an extension of an existing law. Still, raise a firestorm it did. The bill has started a conversation on human rights, HIV prevention, and sexuality on newspaper pages across the continent and discussion threads all over the African blogsphere.

It can be argued that this bill has never wholly been a Ugandan issue: Section 140 of the existing Ugandan penal code penalizes “carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature” and was initially meant to restrict comingling between “against the order of nature” blacks with the colonizing white population.

Still, an interesting meme coming out of this controversy is how the legislation speaks to the competing liberal-conservative instincts on issues of social policy in the West. The U.S. evangelical movement has been at the heart of this culture war, and has proved essential to the shaping of this bill.

American political commentator Rachel Maddow found links between some Ugandan ministers, including MP Bahati himself, and the influential C-Street lobby, a society of U.S politicians with an evangelical bent. A video Maddow features shows a conference where the organizers behind the bill talk about being influenced by a small group of psychotherapists – who practice not just in the U.S., but in England and perhaps elsewhere – that claim to have the cure for homosexuality.

In an interview with the BBC, MP David Bahati adopted the stance of these evangelicals, saying “We recognize [homosexuality] as a learned behavior which can be unlearned.”

Perhaps it is the information on possible U.S. involvement in Bahati’s initiative that triggered the spate of articles and interviews across the Western media, everywhere from the BBC to Time Magazine and the New York Times.

Some members of the more socially conservative Republican Party began distancing themselves from the Ugandan bill as the news of its drastic provisions – life imprisonment and even the death penalty in some circumstances – spread.

So have prominent pastors in the U.S. who have worked in Uganda. One such pastor is Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church in California, who delivered the invocation at U.S. President Barack Obama’s inauguration and has distanced himself from a Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa with whom he has worked on many initiatives.

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill has also proved radioactive in Ugandan foreign relations. The European Parliament has adopted resolution condemning the bill, while countries like Sweden are contemplating withdrawing funding and trade deals with Uganda should the bill pass. Even the U.S. – whose gay rights laws are more lax than those in Europe – will soon hold hearings as to whether or not this bill violates a statute that requires that no country infringes its citizens’ human rights.

International organizations have also expressed their condemnation of the bill, as United Nations officials consider reversing a decision to establish a major AIDS research institute in Kampala.

It is no surprise, then, that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has recently showed some wariness towards the bill. MP David Bahati, however, still stands by his proposal, although he is now showing a bit more flexibility.

The Ugandan Parliament will put the anti-homosexuality legislation to a vote as soon as late February and only one thing is for sure: the world will be watching.

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By Saratu – February 6, 2010

Weekly Blog Round-Up

29/01/10 – 05/02/10

Yes, we get it. Apple’s soon-to-be-released tablet, iPad, sounds uncomfortably similar to a popular female sanitary product. Jokes over.  Though, Kola Tubosun points out the less obvious difficulty with the iPawd brand.

Shortly after the foiled terrorist plot to blow-up a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day, blogger and regular NigeriansTalk Contributor, Seye Abimbola, described several instances of religious fundamentalism he witnessed while schooling.  Emeka Okafor, in his blog, Africa Unchained, shares a series of links (here and here) on the increasing trend of “religious zealotry” amongst Nigerian university students.

Bloggers Loomnie and Chxta share their arguments for a unified Nigeria.

oreoluwa: I was wondering when the ‘old’ Dora Akunyili would return: http://bit.ly/bZTymB <— Minister of Information, Dora Akunyili joins Nigerian public in urging President Yar’adua to step down and cede power to vice president.

Have an interesting post from a Nigerian blog or memorable Nigeriocentric tweet to share with our readers? Please email us at mail@nigerianstalk.org with the subject line: “Weekly Blog Round-Up.”

Posted in Culture and Society, General, Politics, Technology.

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By nigerianstalk – February 5, 2010

Joint Statement by U.S, U.K and E.U on Nigeria

Via Jide Salu.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, EU High Representative Catherine Ashton

London, United Kingdom

January 28, 2010

We express our deep regret at the recent violence and tragic loss of lives in Jos, and extend our sympathies to the bereaved and injured. We urge all parties to exercise restraint and seek peaceful means to resolve differences between religious and ethnic groups in Nigeria. We call on the Federal Government to ensure that the perpetrators of acts of violence are brought to justice and to support interethnic and interfaith dialogue.

Nigeria is one of the most important countries in sub-Saharan Africa, a member of the UN Security Council, a global oil producer, a leader in ECOWAS, a major peacekeeping contributing country, and a stabilizing force in West Africa. Nigeria’s stability and democracy carry great significance beyond its immediate borders.

We therefore extend our support to the people of Nigeria during the current period of uncertainty, caused by President Yar’Adua’s illness. We extend our best wishes to the President and his family, and join the Nigerian people in wishing him a full recovery.

Nigeria has expressed its resolve to adhere to constitutional processes during this difficult time. We commend that determination to address the current situation through appropriate democratic institutions. Nigeria’s continued commitment and adherence to its democratic norms and values are key to addressing the many challenges it faces, including electoral reform, post-amnesty programs in the Niger Delta, economic development, inter-faith discord and transparency. The gubernatorial elections in Anambra on 6 February will be a milestone in the journey towards electoral reform and a signal of Nigeria’s commitment to the principles of democracy.

We are committed to continue working with Nigeria on the internal issues it faces while working together as partners on the global stage.

See discussions here, here and here.

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By loomnie – January 29, 2010

Weekly Blog Round-Up

22/01/10 – 28/01/10

Considering the immense responsibility of presiding over a nation of 140million+ and the frailty of his health, the case of President Yar’adua (MIA) should garner some sympathy.  Solomonsydelle of NigerianCuriosity, thinks not.

Blogger and NigeriansTalk regular contributor, Kola Tubosun, raises money for Haiti and Jos through photography. Bidding information on his personal photos can be found here.

This week has been a bit busy for Nigerian romance author and blogger, Myne Whitman (Nkem Akinsoto) whose interviews can be found at The Activist and The Bookaholic Blog.

Can’t get enough of Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe? Check out Max Siollun’s blog for video of a more confident Maduekwe, post-BBC Hardtalk interview, addressing the topic of Vice Presidential power.  Practice makes perfect.

Have an interesting post from a Nigerian blog to share with our readers? Please email us at mail@nigerianstalk.org.

Posted in Culture and Society, General, Politics, World Affairs.

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By nigerianstalk – January 29, 2010

Homophobia – past successes and future struggles

I’m writing this post in response to number of articles on the prevalence of homophobia in Africa and to try and give some perspective and historical context.     In the last six months we have seen the expression of homophobia with the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill; the arrest of gay Malawian couple, Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, for getting married;  most recently the appointment of homophobic journalist,  Jon Qwelane as South Africa’s ambassador to Uganda.   All of these are well documented so I’m not going to go into detail.   What I think is important, particularly with regards to the Ugandan Bill and the homophobic campaign that preceded it, is that it has been successfully internationalised by LGBTI activists on the continent, many who have put their lives at risk in letting us know what is happening.  [For the best in depth and regularly updated commentary and analysis on Uganda, see Gay Ugandan].  The international response has been impressive,  though as this report shows not wholly reliable. Religious leaders, government ministers, international human rights organisations and bloggers condemning the Bill.  The disgust around the Bill, has to some extent forced Ugandan President Museveni to retract the worst aspects of the Bill – the death penalty.  However I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw a piece of paper and the pressure to drop the Bill completely will need to be maintained.   Fro example the  “million person Anti-Gay march” is  still planning to go ahead in Kampala next month.

Uganda’s National Pastors Task Force Against Homosexuality*, chaired by Ssempa has resolved to support the Bill with amendments that include reduction of the sentence from death penalty to 20 years for aggravated homosexuality and the inclusion of a provision of “counseling and rehabilitation  [by the church] to persons experiencing homosexual temptations.”

Ssempa maintains that homosexuality is illegal, breaks the laws of God and that it breaks the laws of nature which stipulate that a male goes with a female. According to him it is a Taboo for same-sex people to be in relationship and he basis his assertion on African culture, tradition and Religion.

The Ugandan Bill has also exposed the working relationship between some Christian fundamentalist churches in the US, in particular the organisation known as “The Family,” and religious leaders in Uganda.   The ideology behind the  “The Family” appears to be about power and influence as well as religion – and the poor will not be the ones to  inherit the earth if they have anything to do with it.

The case of the gay Malawian couple  gives us an idea of what will happen if the  Ugandan Bill is passed only it would be worse, much worse.  They have been denied bail and if found guilty could  face up to 14 years in prison.    On Friday I spoke with Cameroonian LGBTI activit, Joel Gana of “African Men for Sexual Health & Rights,  who along with Victor Mukasa of SMUG and  IGLHRC are in Malawi to give personal and strategic support to Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza.   In addition there are a number of other human rights defenders who have been arrested or whom are wanted by the police.

Although there is no doubt a long struggle ahead for the couple we were both reminded of the case of the Cameroonian nine who were arrested on 21st May 2005 on charges of sodomy.  After a 12 month campaign by human rights defenders / LGBTI activists across the continent the men were released and acquitted without charge.  The case of the Cameroon nine went along way to solidify the movement as Joel pointed out.

The case in the Cameroon helped solidify the movement and this could happen here.  The movement is not out but it could do the same.  Because you know the organisation in Cameroon came out of that movement to fight for the rights and thats how the “Alternative Cameroon” was founded and why they are so strong now.

There have been other victories over the past five years.   The two Nigerian Bills – the Same Sex Marriage Bill and the The Same Gender Prohibition Bill have both been shelved despite the backing of both bills by religious leaders such as the Nigerian Anglican Primate, Bishop Peter Akinola.   This is not to say they will not rise again especially if the Ugandan Bill gets passed but preventing both of them from being passed was a victory for Nigerian and international human rights activists.    In December 2008, after three and half years, Ugandan activist, Victor Mukasa won his case against the Ugandan attorney general

From the momentum created by the Ugandan LGBTI Human Rights Court Case, the numbers of people involved in advocating for the protection of the basic human rights of LGBTI people have continued to grow in Uganda. Although the 30-day “Let Us Live In Peace” Ugandan LGBTI Human Rights Media Campaign led by Sexual Minorities Uganda in August and September 2007 was met with great controversy and hostility, greater awareness and understanding of the need for protection of the basic human rights of kuchus was built among large segments of the general population in Uganda. Publicity around one of the key aspects of the case, inhuman treatment and discrimination based on gender identity, has helped to foster openness and courage in many transgender individuals in Uganda.

In September 2009, Eudy Simelane finally received a measure of justice after her murderer and rapist was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.   However, two other men involved in the crime were acquitted on the basis they were there but did nothing,  a judicial position which campaigners will be working towards changing.  The campaign around Eudy’s trial was not an easy one and was fought with very little resources despite the international media interest in the crime and trial.

It’s a relief for everyone – family and friends of Eudy to have finally received justice. The campaign around Eudy’s case has been central to raising awarness of hate crimes against lesbians in South Africa and for that we must acknowledge the work of The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project and it’s director, Phumi Mtetwa who worked tirelessly to make sure the case was given the highest possible profile. Recognition must also go to all the friends and supporters who attended the court hearings despite the lack of funds to transport and accommodate them during the endless postponements and delays.

Most recently in Decemeber last year,  the Rwandan government changed it’s mind on the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill with the Minister for Justice following pressure from African and International LGBT organisations declaring.

“The government I serve and speak for on certain issues cannot and will not in any way criminalize homosexuality; sexual orientation is a private matter and each individual has his or her own orientation – – this is not a State matter at all,” said Karugarama.

The Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill remains in place.  it will set a dangerous precedent across the continent if it gets passed on any level let alone with the death penalty.   It could influence and encourage those behind the Nigerian Bill as well as the governments in Gambia, Senegal, Malawi, Kenya and Zambia which have all taken a draconian stance towards same sex relationships in their countries.   What I wanted to do in this post, was to also return  to and  emphasise some of the victories African LGBT activists have achieved over the years – sometimes on their own with very little resources, sometimes with the help of international human rights organisations.
Links:

Boycott the 2010 World Cup

Open Letter to President Zuma

Statement by Equality Project

Statement on Gender & Sexuality – South Africa

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By Blacklooks – January 27, 2010

Just when I thought we could move on from Undie-Bomber Dude…..

This.

I have a lot of respect for Dr. George Ayittey, but come on.

“In many African countries, government has ceased to exist or function. In its place is a vampire state — a government hijacked by unrepentant bandits who use the machinery of the state to enrich themselves, crush their enemies, and perpetuate themselves in office. In Chad, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Sudan, and Zimbabwe, governments that scarcely provide basic social services are even at war with their own people. And their people have responded with violence. Just last week, a separatist group, Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), opened fire on a bus carrying the Togolese soccer team to the Africa Cup, killing the driver and two team officials. FLEC seeks independence from Angola, whose government is one of the worst of these dysfunctional bodies. What motivated these young men was likely not that different from what compelled Abdulmutallab to board that plane.”

First of all, we’re talking about a guy who was barely even in Nigeria. He spent most of his days in Togo (International High school) and England (College) and Yemen (Jihadist training).

Second, Ayittey’s points about African leaderships ineptitude is duly noted and absolutely true, but the groups in Nigeria that take up arms vent their spleen on other Nigerians, as they do not have the capital to mount an offensive against “Great Satan” America or Europe.

Ayittey’s post and does something stereotypical of the most destructive foreign aid narratives on Africa do: It belies the very personal nature of the (in this case, Abdulmutallab’s) struggles and removes the possibility of individual agency. The Washington Post expose on him showed Abdulmutallab talking a lot about his personal East-Meets-West issues, his problems with adhering to the demand Islam places on his sexuality, his loneliness, his inability to marry his desire to be a good Muslim and his desire to do what he wanted.  It is true that religion or culture could create such an ideological split within one, but (a)People from all religions in the Judeo-Christian tradition (this includes Islam) face such troubles, and (b) how you choose to deal with these problems is up to you as a follower in the religion.  Wanting to kill people does not have to be a direct result.  Same can be said for all troubles, be it poverty, political frustration, etc…

Finally, and on a more visceral note, because of the atypical nature of this guy’s background, I just don’t buy that this is the beginning of a trend. I know it looks like a lot when you live abroad, but truly, not many Nigerians have the money to gallivant from one European country to another, go from one international school to another. I haven’t run the numbers, but I’m sure it’s safe to say not even 15% of the 180 million or so Nigerians are wealthy bankers. Not even 10%.  Maybe not even 5%.  The Kalo Kato sect and their fellow fundamentalist brethren in the North do not have the financial capability to carry out such an attack in America/Europe/Anywhere. Okoh’s MEND in the South-South does not have the desire (And probably not the financial capital either). One can bemoan majority of African leaders’ shortsightedness, political ineptitude, and rampant corruption — and Dr. Ayittey is right to do so — but his FP article does not identify the correct perfect storm. Not in this situation. Not this time.

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By Saratu – January 19, 2010

Reblog of my Tribute to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

http://lifelib.blogspot.com/2010/01/tribute-to-umar-farouk-abdulmutallab.html

Pat-down searches now required at airports – assuming the airport security staff is mostly gorgeous people, this could be healthy fun for everyone. Let’s do this groping worldwide, not only in America. Imagine the possibilities…

Humour – His attempt at terrorism has been called The Christmas Crotchfire Attack. And today, as we lit up firecrackers for New Years Day, the ones that wouldn’t ignite were named the Abdulmuttalibs. Abdul Mutilate-A-Balls. Because we love fart and butt jokes and we still can’t pronounce non-Anglo names.

Now that it’s clear that I don’t really mean the title, and that there’s no need to put me on any bloated security lists even though I have been to Yemen (possibly my most beautiful place in the world ) and sometimes say insha’Allah and al-hamdulillah, let’s take a look at serious reasons why I don’t exactly pity or loathe the guy:

he “got radicalized.” He came to believe in something so much that he was willing to give his life for it. Although clarity and singleness of purpose can be beautiful, I, as a scientist, do not have ANY fundamentalist beliefs – who knows what modifying discoveries tomorrow may bring?

I may admire his quest for purity, but I don’t admire his willingness to kill other people to make his political statement. I think from now on, we need to think more Gandhi, Woodrow Wilson, Mandela – more nonviolence – and less war. I know he’ll come to this realization over the next many years in prison, and I hope he can make amends for this foolishness that caused him to take to the air and nearly kill hundreds of people, human beings.

I think renegade terrorists and state-sponsored terrorists alike need to move on from their brutal business.

I think terms like preemptive strike and war-on-terror are rubbish, and that by my standards I haven’t yet seen a just war fought by the US in the last ten years.

What happened to the Powell Doctrine? Where are our military philosophers? Are they really dumb and unimaginative, are they not being heard or are they just not speaking up anymore?

Fear is not an excuse for war. Greed or creed should never be an excuse for war. Land and country often have been excuses for war. I say we get some flexibility about how important “owning” land is, or how sacred country or faith is relative to a single human life.

The only thing that ought to excuse war has been extinguished by now: a need to get food to survive. The world now produces enough food (in total, not evenly so.) My friends, we now have no excuse for killing one another.

Because we are young as a human race, there may still be times when a show of violence is needed. In those times, it will be very clear that what was averted was a clear and certain danger of big big size compared to the violence applied. Such a war won’t take years, costing even the aggressor hundreds or thousands of lives.

By this standard, Israel-Palestine is a rubbish war that ought not to be happening. Maybe we need to execute – ok, not really – the leaders on both sides because both countries are mired in hopelessness (one being reduced to a military state, the other a prison) while the leaders seem to think fighting is cool. End the bloody war: Call in Powell, Mandela, and friends. Divide up the land between the warring groups. Take feedback for a short while and make adjustments, supervised by people / institutions with high credibility as people of fairness and peace. Use military or legal force against those few who would rather have the baby cut in half, who want Jerusalem for themselves alone at whatever cost to their civilization.

Likewise, Iraq and Afghanistan should be about getting the so-called Allied Forces out while keeping down the risk of civil war. I mean, really, I feel bad for the soldiers whose mission seems impossible to accomplish simply because it is endless. To think some of them only joined the Forces to get money for school.

This first day of 2010, one week after the averted body bomb attack, I am thankful that George W. Bush is no longer the POTUS. Because sometimes bone-headed crackerpants come from accomplished families.

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By Tosin Otitoju – January 18, 2010

Of Mutallab, European Football and Terorrism

These days whenever you walk into a bar, you are almost always certain people will be watching or arguing football, European. The debate on the soccercolonisation of Nigerian youth consciousness is more or less foregone. But the tragic thing is that virtually all informal discursive space has been insidiously compromised because of this collective hysteria for European football. I mean when was the last time you witnessed a serious socio-political debate at a bar, a vendor’s stand, a bus stop? Yet these are a useful, national culture of street parliamentary: vibrant, moveable confabs enriched with diverse imagination and admixed on highly informed commentary, shrill sentimentalities, uneducated but sometimes imaginative conjectures and sometimes near- accurate mythologizing. These forums, reserved largely for those who do not usually have access to avenues of discourse like the newspaper and the internet, are now been endangered by a tenacity of ‘a single story’- the European football.

Even when the president has been absent- some say missing- for more than 50 days; even when the legislature seems grounded in timid idiocy; even when the Federal Cabinet is hushed in cultic embrace of criminality watching, as the nation is reduced to aspirations of 4 or 5 individuals led by the First Lady but cheer-led by the ever consociated minister of justice, we stick to our foreign passion. And you would have thought the attempted bombing by citizen Farouk of a plane over the USA would have caused a solemn break, however brief, from soccer frenzy, to ruminate on human elements of our systemic collapse. No. On 26th of December, the day after the incident that shocked the whole world, my people were still seen at the bar and other places discussing stale victories and losses of foreign leagues .Maybe they could not be bothered. Maybe football offers a kind of therapy, an escape, from the sordid realities around them. What more, it is better to lavish your emotive resources on a thrilling, sensually pleasing spectacle of football than waste them on impassioned commentary on the polity, which will not reduce the subscription fee of the cable networks. Even an a-soccer cynic like me allows a glance or two, once in a while, for the kinetic spectacle of the round leather game.

That was what I was thinking, nursing a lone bottle, last night at a bar in Ilorin, Kwara State, when someone shouted at someone else, amidst a rather frenzied football argument, to shut up and stop behaving like Mutallab. There was a momentary cessation of the babelling, I supposed a lot of people had not heard what preceded the mentioning of the name, and within like 20 seconds ,eyes passed from face to face until all heads turned to the owner of the voice; he apologetically shrugged and said quietly, I mean fanatic. I could have sworn I saw a momentary fear in his eyes, a moment before voices rose again. I took a good look at this guy, he looked like a banker that had come to the bar straight from work- tie and all. Probably not a Muslim in a town preponderantly Muslim, he could have realised at that suspended moment, that there was no way to gauge what people in Ilorin thought of Mutallab and his action.

Yes, we know a larger section of world Muslims frown at terrorism and that many governments in Arab world are participating in the global effort to rid the world of Islamic terrorism, but when we have a respected local opinion shaper like Mohammed Haruna reminding us why Abdulmutallab was possible in the context of American hegemony and murderous interference in the political economy of many a Arab country, we could not be sure that we, as a nation, collectively condemn Mutallab’s idiotic adventure. Haruna, writing in The Nation, reminded us that US’s self-serving foreign policies, powered by her interests in Big Oil in the Arab nations, which have seen criminal invasions of Arab countries and killing of thousands in the process made, global terrorism possible. This is not a new argument, yet Haruna dedicated two columns, two weeks, to tell us how American economic imperialism in the Middle East has continued to criminalise Islamic beliefs and practices, therefore making people like Mutallab take to terror as a weapon of protest. One would have thought, killing of innocent passengers on board, some of whom might be muslims, would not have led to evacuation of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. But then, the statement would have been made, wouldn’t it? And if other Muslims had perished in that plane, one cannot be too sure of their chances in the after-life, even if one conceded Mutallab his eternal bliss of multiple virgins, as they might not think of themselves as fighting any holy war.

But Haruna was right; and he would have been more so if it had happened that Mutallab had taken Yemeni citizenship before his misadventure. His misadventure would have been a mere shock to us rather than the catastrophic dimension it has now taken, if he had renounced his Nigerian citizenship before boarding that plane. Nigerians are not all Muslims and we might not all share in the Islamist romanticism and sense of injustice that inspired young Mutallab, but now we are all going to be told to step out of line and be strip-searched at airports all over the world; we are all going to be punished for politico-religious convictions of an impressionable young man. There is nothing sensible for any Nigerian, even if muslim, to fight an Arab war at our collective expense.

These are things we expect public commentators like Mallam Haruna to address. Many enlightened Nigerians- muslim or Christian (like the enlightened American commentators that Haruna copiously quoted)- are aware of and sympathetic with the colossal injustice going on in the Middle East for instance, but we still object to these things erupting unwarranted violence in our country. So we expect public commentators, when they question America’s reason for including Nigeria in the list, to remember that we have always lived with such extremist tendencies in Nigeria. America overreacted, yes, but we are also known to have overreacted more than once when we decided to slaughter people for holding different religious views. Terrorism need not be targeted at the US, need not be global, to be deemed so; the routine massacres that occur in Kano and Kaduna and a lot more northern cities in the name of religion and ethnicity are terrorism. Remember the recent Bokom Haram atavism. Yet unlike global terrorism, there is nobody to be held responsible, to be prosecuted, no country to be bombed- a case of unknown Yankaba, I guess. And do we really think the little Jihads that dotted home landscape did not contribute to Mutallab profound ignorance and his fantasy of Islamic millennium?

Let us not be so bothered in locating Mutallab geography and psychology of influences in his foreign education, his existential loneliness, his background of privilege. Let us be bothered more by the ruination of Nigerian body politic. As Princeton Lyman pointed out, Nigerian has been deconstructed by its internal contradictions. Corruption and bad leadership have continually made project Nigeria a still birth; our sullied international profile has taken another feather of ignominy- thanks to Mutallab: we are done f or. Let’s not even start to wonder if Mutallab was Ghanaian, would American include Ghana in the terrorism list. No!, they would not: Ghana, despite her sizable muslim population is not known for violent extremism. Ghana has shown commitment to sustainable democracy, forward-looking economic planning and leadership that is ready to work with people in mind. Besides, Ghanaian president would have contacted President Obama immediately for resolution after the failed terrorist attempt, but we don’t even have a government in place. So how much different are we from Somalia that we object to sharing pride of place with on that list? When we get our acts together and resolve the avoidable implosions of our national structure through good governance, we might not need to shout ourselves hoarse before Nigeria, as an international brand, becomes credible again.

Back to my bar moment: There could be a justification in the tag of Mutallab that the gentleman put on his overzealous interlocutor. Football is a game of extreme passion, fierce faith, dogmatic commitment, irrational belief. Have I described a religious temper? Yes, football can take on religious experience and it has recorded its own bloody history all over the world, hasn’t it? And if Mohammed Haruna can deploy Mutallab’s action as metaphor for liberating impulses, why couldn’t our man equally see the zealousness of this fanatic fan of an English team in such terms? My thoughts couldn’t have been more beer-sodden, could they?

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By Ayemidun – January 15, 2010

Yet another Nigerian review of ‘District 9′

Among other things, I can understand why so many Nigerians should think that ‘District 9′ shows how deeply some South Africans detest us. The lumpen elements in the film are called ‘Nigerians’ – and the loathing is heaped much heavily on them. Throughout the story, there is not one moment in which they are invested with anything humane in their ethos and life ways. And there is only one thing for them in the end – complete extermination.

The South Africans in the film do not all behave in the same way; nor do the aliens. But not so the ‘Nigerians’.

But then, I think that that aspect of the film is not about us. The ‘Nigerian’ characters are not convincing at all. They look to me, in their get-up and mannerisms, like the South African criminals who murdered Lucky Dube. Their accents in English are variations on classic Channel O-speak, not to mention their ‘mother-tongue’ chatter which resonates as an insult to what one knows of the sonority of the languages of SA.

What is more, their violence is the carbon copy of what we have been led by the international media – SABC included in that ilk – to expect of South African black street gangs in the post-Apartheid era. And their ‘black magic’ and cyborg obsession seem to have been taken straight and undiluted from the writing of the Comaroffs on the phenomenon of the ‘occult economy’ in South Africa (Jean Comaroff and John L. Comaroff, 1999, ‘Occult Economies and the Violence of Abstraction: Notes from the South African Postcolony’, in American Ethnologist, Vol. 26, No.2, pp. 279-303).

I heard that Dube’s killers said during trial that they attacked him because they had thought his social poise and palpable sense of control over material wherewithal marked him out as a Nigerian who was flaunting his wealth and rubbing their noses in the rude fact that he had beaten them to ‘it’ in their own country. Those urban SA brigands are the prototype for that ‘Nigerian’ sub-underworld in the underworld of ‘District 9’.

If I regret anything in the film it is the myth of its storytelling framework. It is clear that crucial parts of this mythic framework revolve around the laager mentality and a fascination with miscegenation that beggars belief and neurosis, hence the film’s inevitable interjection of science fiction into the stream of everyday life. These are themes that were prominent social issues in South African society in the Apartheid days, and the film just seems unable to get beyond them. Is that the way their society still is? God help us.

The insight of the film is clearly about South Africa. It is the nightmare of that country of otherwise great promise whose current president is Jacob Zuma – fucker of anything, the Zuma stereotype would, indeed, have brazenly fucked the aliens in the flick and damned and, perhaps, survived the consequences to boot.

(Let me add that the Obasanjo stereotype would do the very same thing. His son Gbenga knows it, and OBJ’s first wife has confirmed in her tell-all that her husband is a sex monster.)

‘District 9’ is about that country where some variety of folk medicine prescribes the rape of virgins, old women and day-old infants as cure for HIV/AIDS; South Africa whose medical establishment once boasted a ‘Doctor Death’ among its membership; that country one of whose favourite exports to the rest of the continent is deadly weapons and even deadlier mercenaries; South Africa many of whose citizens, caught up in the delirium of how to deal with the turbulence of life in a long period of social transition, have in the very recent past maimed and massacred Nigerians and other foreigners residing in their country. This film could make me shed some tears for that otherwise beloved country.

The fictive concept of ‘District 9’ is that it is cast as a documentary on one defining event in the history of SA in the twenty-first century. Yet the themes that propel this concept make up, as I have said, a neat raft of South African déjà vu, thinly ‘alienated’, à la Bertolt Brecht, by the techniques of science fiction and pseudonymy.

However, the use of the term ‘Nigerians’ to label a particularly worrisome element in the society of the film suggests that the filmmakers are missing something in their faculty for self- and other-awareness as regards contemporary SA society. It is not as if real-life Nigerians cannot be gangsters. They can be; in fact, as is well-known, many Nigerians are terrible and shameless gangsters at home and abroad. And there are, for sure, Nigerian gangsters in Jo’burg who bring the already tattered image of their country into further disrepute, if that is still possible these days. The trouble is that these people in the film are called ‘Nigerian’ gangsters and prostitutes, but they play their roles to the hilt as the South African version of a social problem that is common the world over. They do not seem and sound Nigerian in the least. Well, since disguise is part of the skills-set gangsters require, this problem has resolved itself. And it is a very poor disguise, indeed, one to which we cannot apply the standard ‘voice of Jacob, hand of Esau’. Call them what you will, the lumpen elements in ‘District 9’ are one and all South Africans. This looks like a classic case of Horace’s Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur (Though the name has been changed, the story is still about you).

But is there or is there not something in the fact that the latter point is lost on so many of us Nigerians? What if a group of Neo-Nazis in some film set in Europe decide to call themselves ‘Nigerians’ and give their leader the name Obasanjo: would we as citizens of the UN-recognized state of Nigeria feel that it is our lived experience that is being alluded to? What does that kind of reaction say about some of our inmost fears—the paranoia that one of these days we might just be found out to be what we are not?

Apart from the skilful use of FX (Nollywood, shame on you!), I think that the filmic qualities of ‘District 9’ are high enough. It harks back to Orson Welles and the ‘War of the Worlds’ in its use of the concept of the TV documentary and news report to give impact, immediacy and verisimilitude to its narrative sequence of dystopian cyborg fiction.

‘District 9’ is a film that seeks to propagate an enlightened view on alien treatment, with the message: If only we understood them, we would know that they want to go home. But all of that enlightenment is undermined by the name-calling or pseudonymy that tries to gloss over one of the most serious problems of urban life in the country. The gangster problem in SA is not merely an immigrant thing. And it is high time this reality was bluntly faced and tackled. The South Africans can learn a thing or two from Ghana and Nigeria. Each country, at some point in its history, attempted the self-deception of blaming immigrant bloodsuckers for its real woes and hallucinatory terrors; both failed.

A couple of years ago, we saw what xenophobia wrought in South Africa. Obviously, there are other things besides xenophobia in this film. But the depiction of the ‘Nigerians’ cannot be downplayed as a minor event. It is one of the components propping up the action in the plot, giving it dimension as well as a visible force field of tension. It is also a fictive missile that bears scorn and contempt intended for real-life Nigerians. I don’t feel perturbed by it because I am aware of its ultimate failure—the ‘Nigerian’ characters are phoney; they don’t come alive as such. Instead, they tell me a South African story in SA style and voice. Too bad for the intentions of the makers of the film, but the Nigerian version of the malaise of gangsterism does not come out in what they portray.

But how many other people can see through it all? And I don’t mean how many others of us Nigerians; I mean how many others in the world at large see it like I see it? Will the Somali who doesn’t know our Nigerian ways notice that the name-calling in the film boomerangs as a witless joke on the South Africans themselves? Will the Indian, the Finn, the Chilean, the Moroccan demand their money back on witnessing the collapse of the cheap trick in the very first scene in which it is mounted? Are the Israelis aware that the South Africans have not been able to reproduce our Nigerian shibboleth?

Who amongst us thinks that everything in a film is taken as fictive by every viewer? Any resemblance to persons and places blah, blah, blah.

Well, I have to admit that those who made this film somehow chose their target well. Surely, it would have been a different matter entirely if the kingpin of the ‘District 9’ Nigerians is named Emeagwali or Margaret Ekpo or Osundare or Oshiomhole or Aminu Kano or Claude Ake or Mary Onyali or Fawehinmi or Saro-Wiwa or Anikulapo-Kuti or Buchi Emecheta.

Just as many of us who are citizens of Nigeria, suffering from some Jekyll-Hyde syndrome, are afraid that we might be caught one day doing what we never did – hence our indignation at this image that is not us; this image that we could have pooh-poohed and laughed at – so are we hardly bothered to demand, even if only in a face-saving routine, an apology from the ‘District 9’ filmmakers for naming their leader of thugs Obasanjo.

Of course, that thug leader doesn’t even begin to function as a lampoon of the Nigerian leader. Only comic farce can stand the tragicomedy of OBJ on its head. But that is beside the point, which is that the vast majority of Nigerians are not going to request that SA apologize for the abuse of OBJ’s name. His name cannot be abused, as it were. And Nollywood won’t dare repay the compliment by desecrating, say, the name of Mandela or Desmond Tutu in one of its demon-infested absurdities.

So isn’t there something in ‘District 9’ that speaks the truth about one aspect of our social experience, something that we are living with at least until our much delayed ‘revolution’, er, er, happens—that the Nigerian head of state or governor, minister, rep, senator, etc. often doubles as the chief of the bandits who menace the rest of society?

There is something in this film for us, no matter how badly done the stereotyping is.

But good luck to any of those South Africans who do not want to call a spade a spade. They might as well eat their corn meal porridge with a shovel and brand it a ‘Nigerian’ spoon.

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By Benson Eluma – January 8, 2010