Anger as US places Nigeria, others on terror watch list

Nigerian authorities yesterday protested the placement of the country by the United States (US) on the terror list, along with 13 other countries, whose citizens will now go through ‘enhanced screening’ at airports.

The special screening, which started yesterday at several airports all around the world, targets people from Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen.

The procedures are in reaction to the botched Christmas Day bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound US airliner blamed on Nigerian Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, who US officials believe was trained by al-Qaeda in Yemen.

Citizens of the listed countries were, yesterday, subjected to extraordinary security screening, including full body pat-downs and thorough luggage search.

The Federal Government, however, condemned the procedures which it described as “unfair discrimination against over 150 million Nigerians because of the behaviour of one person.”

Information and Communications Minister, Prof. Dora Akunyili, said yesterday, while addressing a team from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) officials, who visited her in her office in Abuja that it was “unfair for the US to include Nigeria on the list for tighter screening because Nigerians do not have terrorists tendency”.

The new rule says travellers flying to the United States from or through any of these countries will face ‘enhanced screening’ at airports.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in the U.S outlined the new rules in a directive sent to airlines on Sunday.

Prof Akunyili said: “AbdulMutallab’s act was a one-off thing. He was not influenced in Nigeria. He was not recruited or trained in Nigeria and he was not supported whatsoever in Nigeria.

“Abdulmutallab’s behaviour is not reflective of Nigerians and should therefore not be used as a yardstick to judge all Nigerians. It is unfair to discriminate against over 150 million people because of the behaviour of one person.

“Abdulmutallab was a well behaved child from a responsible family who developed ugly tendency to do what he tried to do because of his exposure outside the shores of Nigeria. Generally, no Nigerian wants to die. We are peace loving and happy people. We were even voted as the happiest people on earth.”
The House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora also opposed, yesterday, any plan for a secret trial for the suspected Nigerian bomber.

The chairman of the committee, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, in a statement, reacted to the comment by US Congressman, Peter King, of Republican Party, New York and a member of U.S. House of Representatives, Homeland Security Committee, that Farouk should be tried in a secret military court.
The committee described the call as “unfair and unjustifiable”, adding that it would rather prefer an open court trial for the suspect.

Dabiri-Erewa, who joined others to condemn AbdulMutallab’s action, appealed to Nigerians in Diaspora to exercise restraint and caution when being subjected to screening at various airports.

The committee also advised the security agencies globally not to use the event of December 25, 2009 as an excuse to molest and harass innocent Nigerians in Diaspora.

“Having watched with keen interest the investigation being carried out by the security agencies in the US on the alleged bomber, Farouk, the committee is hereby insisting on an open court trial, rather than a military one for the suspected bomber.

“This is so important in order to allow the global community listen to Farouk talk in an open court, understand his motivation and take the necessary learning as individuals and as nations. It will be in the global interest to share the information and lessons to be learnt through an open court trial by the global community, so as to forestall any likely future occurrence.”

Reports say U.S. airports have also been instructed to increase “threat-based” screening of passengers who may be acting in a suspicious manner. The screening will include full body pat-downs, bag searches, full body scanning and scans by explosive detectors.

Further information say that the introduction of the new measures coincided with a security alert at New Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, which was locked down for several hours after a man walked through a security checkpoint without being screened on Sunday night.

Planes were grounded for six hours, and thousands of passengers had to go through security again, while the authorities went through CCTV footage in search of the man.

He was eventually tracked down.

The TSA said the ability to enforce the new security measures was the “result of extraordinary co-operation from our global aviation partners”.

The body said in a statement: “TSA is mandating that every individual flying into the US from anywhere in the world travelling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening.”

Pakistan International Airlines said it had been applying the new approach to US-bound passengers since Saturday.

In a related development, Katie Hulme, spokesman of Delta Airline, the only American flag carrier that flies directly between Nigeria and the U.S., said that it had fully complied with all the security directives as mandated by government on security worldwide.

“Delta is fully compliant with all security directives as mandated by governments worldwide. However, in the interests of security, Delta does not discuss security,” Hulme said.

Arik Airline, the only Nigerian airline that has direct flight to the U.S., says it has put total restrictions on liquids, gels and aerosols in its cabin. The airline says it will not allow any of the items in its cabin even though government directive allows 100ml of such items in the cabin.

The airline’s spokesman, Banji Ola, said: “No liquids, gels, or aerosols will be allowed in the cabin, irrespective of the 100ml rules.”

Prior to the new measure, the Federal Government had given directives, through the Aviation security committee of Nigerian airports, that enhanced security measures should be applied on every passenger travelling out of the country with the installation of Three Dimensional (3D) total body screening in all the gateway airports across the country; security screening of passengers should also be stepped up in all the domestic airports, which every passenger must comply with before boarding an aircraft.

The Three Dimensional (3D) Total Body Imaging Scanner is a security equipment that uses millimeter waves to detect what is concealed in human body.

Addressing a world press conference after the meeting, the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Harold Demuren, who reeled out the directives, said no person, including crew members, would be allowed to board an aircraft without passing through all aviation security screening procedures and formalities.
He added that 100 per cent examination “is mandatory for all passengers.”

He also said that secondary screening of passengers and carry-on baggage should be total and performed for all departing flights at the boarding gates including body search.

He also added that it would be mandatory to conduct 100 per cent physical inspection of all passengers’ accessible property at the boarding gate prior to boarding.

Besides liquids and gels, the directives ordered for the thorough security checks on catering fuel and maintenance vehicles accessing the tarmac.

Other directives, according to Demuren, are that all liquid gels and aerosols that are more than 100ml should not be allowed on board aircraft. He noted that the liquid, which must be in compliance with 100ml, must be in transparent resealable plastic bag.

Hundred per cent screening of check-in baggage would also be carried out, as well as positive passenger match.

According to Demuren, all airlines have also been directed to ensure that all passengers comply with the directive and that any passenger who refuses to comply 100 per cent would be denied boarding.
Demuren, who urged that strict compliance must be demonstrated at all times, noted that the directives were already in place at the airports long ago, but they were being repeated for the purpose of emphasis.

Although Demuren said that the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) was in the process of purchasing the equipment, he added that they would not be installed in the gateway airports until later in the first quarter of the year.

Meanwhile, Ghana’s Deputy Information Minister said yesterday that AbdulMutallab arrived in Ghana on December 9, from Dubai and left on December 24 for Lagos. He added that the country was unaware of any security alert on him during that time.

“A liberal Christian, from the southern part of Nigeria…” was how a relation leaving for the United States of America tonight said he would introduce himself to the US immigration officials. If they wish to know, he said he intended to also let the Americans know his baptismal name, Jeremiah, even if it does not appear on his passport. Anything that would remove the suspicion of being remotely connected to religious fundamentalism, he said, he would be willing to do, just to get through the US airport and transact his business for a few days in one piece.

Without doubt, my cousin is not alone in this anxious moments by many Nigerians who have genuine reasons to visit America. Every traveller wants to avoid being caught up in the tension that air travellers are being confronted with in the light of the decision by the US Transportation Security Administration to group Nigeria among countries whose nationals visiting the US will henceforth face tougher screening.

What amounts to a blacklist in diplomatic circles of course stemmed from the Christmas Day foiled attempt by a 23-year-old Nigerian, Umar AbdulMutallab, to detonate an explosive on a passenger aircraft on which he was travelling to the US from Amsterdam.

Many people have misunderstood the precise categorisation of Nigeria. To be fair, America has not described us as a state sponsor of terror. For now, only Cuba, Sudan, Syria and Iran are in that expanded ‘axis of evil,’ in the reckoning of the US government. We have only been listed alongside Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Lebanon, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Yemen as a “security risk state” which America would closely monitor, with a view to protecting its citizens and interests.

Neither list is good for any country‘s image though. But before one wonders why North Korea is not listed, or why Britain, for the sins of its ‘shoe bomber,’ Richard Reid, does not appear on the list of countries where America has special interest to curtail terrorism, the sole reason Nigeria has suddenly become a target comes down to Mutallabism.

I imagine that if a code would be used in the US intelligence service to justify our inclusion in this odious list, it would not just be because a British-trained young Nigerian engineer got brainwashed in London and Yemen to carry out a terrorist act, but because ours is a land of many souls, more than half of whom are Muslims living largely in an area where extreme religious views, from Maitatsine to Boko Haram and lately, Kala Kato in Bauchi, strayed in once in a while, leaving sorrow, tears and blood on their trail.

But in a country of 140 million people, this single profiling would amount to a shot wide off the mark.

It is, indeed, very likely that AbdulMutallab got indoctrinated by the warped argument that as an unwanted ‘aggressor’ in some Islamic countries in the Middle East, namely Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, and with an unwavering support for Israel against Palestine, the US government has courted the enmity of some people in the Arab nations. This has always been the central principle in al-Qaeda‘s reactionary an-eye-for-an-eye doctrine.

But at the point that AbdulMutallab succumbed to the brainwashing to rise in defence of the oppressed brothers in “occupied territories,” he was not there as a Nigerian or a representative of the Nigerian State. He was there, apparently, as one who had bonded with that violent principle, essentially out of personal conviction, and perhaps on the strength of his religious affinity.

When the whole story is eventually told, AbdulMutallab’s conversion to the way of violence would likely be similar to the way the Pakistanis and Afghans, suspected to be shielding Osama bin Laden, got this seed of animosity sown in them as well. If examined further, the same reason would apply to the seven Saudi Arabian young men who were in the majority among those who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers and other sites in the US in 2001, as well as the growing band of Somalians and Yemenis who seem to be taking a cue from those sympathetic to the violent cause that is largely directed at America‘s contentious foreign policy.

To begin to formulate policies that would appear as though America sees an AbdulMutallab in every Nigerian traveller, therefore, would not only be unfair, but would amount to treating a potential strong ally with disrespect.

Would this lead to a diplomatic row or a severance of diplomatic ties between the US and Nigeria? Going by the Senate‘s position as canvassed by its spokesperson, Mr. Ayogu Eze, on Tuesday, and the Federal Executive Council’s declaration on Wednesday, a cloudy and tempestuous climate appears to lie ahead. Yet, if this leads to a damaging strain in the two country’s bilateral relationship, it would not be because America thought that Mutallabism now define Nigeria‘s new approach to its foreign relations. It would happen because the Federal Government, unfortunately, had ignored the tell-tale signs of the past few years that Washington was not getting the kind of vibes it expected from Abuja.

The subtle misgivings over the sudden appearance of an American warship –– US 5 Emory S.A Land –– in the Gulf of Guinea, 700 miles off Nigeria‘s coast in 2005, was one of recent indications that the two governments did not appear to be seeing the challenges of regional security from the same position. Shortly after, hostile assessment of Nigeria came when Nigeria appeared on the list of 10 countries that American citizens were urged to be careful about. Then, in April 2009, the US government in a Warden Message to its citizens in Nigeria, titled, ‘Threat Against Diplomatic Mission in Lagos,’ expressed worry over the safety of its consulate in Lagos.

The elaborately stated fear of the US government that Nigeria could become a failed state in a matter of years was yet another indicator of a troubled relationship with Abuja.

If Nigeria made any serious move to challenge those far-reaching summations, they were either not strong enough or communicated in the proper diplomatic language; or not backed by intense media positioning, knowing that you do not go into a battle of wits with America without being certain of your long-term media and propaganda strategy.

Having failed to articulate its objections to America‘s gloomy assessment, two other opportunities came through the office of the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, to express America‘s dissatisfaction with Nigeria. First was when Clinton visited Abuja in July and expressed concerns over the Niger Delta violence and the reluctance of the Yar‘Adua administration to effect electoral changes. The other, only last month, was when Clinton claimed that Nigeria was among countries that were able but unwilling to effect positive changes in their polities.

As usual, if there was a response on the part of the Foreign Affairs Ministry at all, it must have been so feeble as to be seen as an admission of guilt.

Now that the various arms of government appear to be speaking up against this harsh classification by the US, how it is ultimately handled would be as important for America, which needs no further enemy in prosecuting the terror war, as it is for Nigeria.

But with a clear conscience and an expected intention to fix its other failings, the Nigerian State should toe the path of honour in defending its territorial integrity and dignity of its citizens at home and abroad. And to issue a reminder, if necessary, that, like Obama‘s America, in spite of its constraints and contradictions, in God, too, we trust.