Lagos — Since the terrorist attempt on the Detroit-bound United States of America (U.S.A.)'s Delta Airliner, by a young Nigerian, Farouk Umar AbdulMutallab, on Christmas day, attention has been focused on Nigeria.

As a result of that suicide bombing attempt, Nigerians abroad have been bearing the brunt, as they go through grave ordeals in the hands of foreign security agents. Subjected to different forms of searches and indignity, the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, described the exercise as strenuous.

The young Nigerian, now being described as Underwear Bomber, had packed himself full of deadly explosives, detonated the bomb, which incidentally malfunctioned and did not explode, saving the lives of 290 people aboard the airplane.

Incidentally, the new treatment on Nigerians necessitated by this action came off a recent classification by the U.S. government, which listed Nigeria among 14 other countries branded as terrorist threat states. The other countries include Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Cuba, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

As a result of that classification, the U.S. government gave directives to its security agencies worldwide to make sure that Nigerian nationals travelling to the U.S. from anywhere in the world were given extra security screening.

Surprisingly, the directive did not stop there; Washington DC also listed former Nigerian governors, senators, businessmen and their relatives, among those to be barred from entering America. As a result, the American government tightened entry requirements into their country, as some suspected terrorists and terror groups sympathisers are barred from flights into the country.

But the question is whether Nigeria is, indeed, a terrorist nation, deserving of such categorisation by the U.S.

Nigeria's Information and Communications Minister, Professor Dora Akunyili, said AbdulMutallab's action was a one-off thing that was not in anyway reflective of Nigerians as a people with terrorist tendencies.

She said: "It is unfair to include Nigerians on the U.S. list for tighter screening because Nigerians do not have terrorist tendencies. AbdulMutallab's act was a one-off thing; it is unfair to discriminate against over 150 million people because of the behaviour of one person. He was not influenced, recruited or trained in Nigeria; he was not supported whatsoever in Nigeria."

Nigeria's Foreign Affairs Minister, Ojo Maduekwe, also saw the inclusion of Nigeria in the list as an unacceptable treatment from a friendly country. He, therefore, charged that the American government should take another look on the matter. He said that Nigeria was neither training nor breeding ground for terrorism, a safe haven for Al-Qaeda, to be so listed because of the deviant behaviour of a single lad.

For Victor Umeh, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) chairman, "Nigeria is not a terrorist state. Nigeria can never be a terrorist country. The U.S. is just trying to intimidate us. It was clear that the young Mutallab was inducted into terrorism outside the shores of this country. He spent most of his life in the United Kingdom (UK); it was obvious that he got inducted in Yemen. And the idea of bombing the U.S. airliner was never conceived in Nigeria.

"In his mission to carry out the bombing, his journey did not even start in Nigeria. Investigation also showed that he spent only 23 minutes in the Nigerian airport before leaving for Amsterdam. His journey actually started from Ghana. So, there was no element of Nigeria in his evil act. It is regrettable that the U.S. is using it against us by giving us a blanket treatment."

This appears to be an issue in which all Nigerian political parties, irrespective of their ideological differences, agree that Nigeria should not be on the U.S. list. Nasarawa State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman, Yunana Iliya, for instance, believes that, "it is unfair for the U.S. to grade Nigeria as a terrorist country."

AbdulMutallab was not, according to investigations, made in Nigeria, but abroad. But one issue that appears to have aroused curiosity of Nigerians is how he was radicalised.

Being the last of the 16 children of his father, AbdulMutallab was born on December 22, 1986 in Lagos State, and attended one of the best schools, starting from his primary education at Essence International School in Kaduna State. He later moved to the Rabiatu Mutallib Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, which is named after his grandfather, where he was moulded.

He moved to the British International School (BIS) in Lome, the capital of Togo, thereafter, where only kids of the wealthy study. While there, AbdulMutallab, according to investigations, never exhibited traits of terrorism. His teacher, John McGuiness, described him then as incredibly polite and very hard-working young man. He was a devout Muslim.

Between 2004 and 2005, he studied at the Sana'a Institute for the Arabic Language in Sana'a, Yemen, where he also attended lectures at Iman University, notorious for suspected links to terrorism. At the end of his studies at Yemen, he was admitted to study Engineering and Business Finance at the University College, London, in September 2005, graduating in 2008, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

During his university years, he was the president of the school's Islamic society that holds political discussion and other activities such as martial arts training and paint-balling. In one of their paint-balling trips, a preacher once said: "Dying while fighting Jihad is one of the surest ways to paradise." AbdulMutallab was said to be more devoted to the group's activities than studies, which led to his graduating with a second class (lower) grade.

After graduation, he made regular visits to Kaduna, and between January and July 2009, he undertook a Master's degree programme in International Business at the University of Wollongong in Dubai, which he aborted half way.

In May 2009, his application for a visa to return to Britain for a coaching programme was refused on security ground and he reportedly sent his father a text in October that he was no longer interested in pursuing his Masters programme in Dubai.

"I would rather prefer a seven-year course in Sharia and Arabic from Yemeni alma mater," he was quoted to have said.

This request infuriated his father, who threatened to cut off his funding. Not bogged by the threat, the younger AbdulMutallab replied his father that he was already getting everything he needed for free and asked him not to bother to ask how, as, according to him, it was none of his father's business.

In later messages, he was reported to have written in one: "Please forgive me. I will no longer be in touch with you"; and "forgive for any wrongdoing; I am no longer your child".

According to a report by Yemeni officials, he was in Yemen from early August 2009, overstayed his student visa (which was valid through September 21), and left Yemen on December 7, flying to Ethiopia, and then, two days later, to Ghana. Ghanaian officials also said he was there from December 9 to 24, the day before his aborted attempt at blowing off the U.S.-bound plane.

Some people, who knew him in Kaduna back in the days, have tried to describe the kind of person he was. Umar Farouk, his namesake, who works at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, claims to have gone preaching sessions with Abdul Mutallab. He describes him as a quiet and reclusive young man that took his religion serious.
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"He was always talking about discipline, devoted to Islamic principles and the importance of Muslim women to adhere to Islamic prescribed way of dressing. It is more difficult to rate him because whenever he was available, he would have very few friends and he is not the socialising type at all."

Sheikh Ahmad el-Tijjani, an Imam of Mutallab bin Mosque at GRA, Kaduna, told Sunday Independent that Abdul Mutallab was a devout Moslem, who is always among the first set of people that would come during calls for prayers.

"The last I saw him, sometime before last year's Ramadan fast, was when he delivered a talk at Little Scholar Nursery and Primary School, Rabah Road. His mother was even present then. If there was any element of extremism in him, we would have dictated it. But his preaching centred on self-discipline, devout Muslim and that women should strictly adhere to Islamic injunctions," he said.

A soul that killeth shall die, there's no more agenda to it.