Nigeria - reactions to US plane attack

Nigerians blame government neglect for rise in Islamism

Article published on the 2009-12-28 Latest update 2009-12-28 13:31 TU

Nigeria's Information Minister Dora Akunyili speaks during a news conference in Lagos on Sunday
(Photo: Reuters)

In the United States, President Barack Obama is expected to make his first public statement since the attempted attack on a flight to Detroit on Christmas Day. Meanwhile, Nigerians have been shocked by the news.

A suspected attack on the same route Sunday was dismissed by the FBI after initial alarm when a Nigerian passenger with the same seat number as the alleged attacker locked himself in the toilet of the plane.

Nigeria's Information Minister Dora Akunyili said in Lagos on Sunday that the alleged Christmas Day attacker, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, "has been living outside the country for a while" but "sneaked into Nigeria on 24 December 2009 and left the same day".

The country's airports were already "very safe", she said, but added that security systems have been reinforced in the light of the news.

Abdulmutallab's family on Monday declared that they will be co-operating fully with local and international security agencies and said that when he cut off communication with his family recently, it was "completely out of character".

Residents of the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna, where Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab grew up, have been reacting to the news of the attempted attack.

"Parents around here are shocked because this is our son," says Bilikisu Yusuf of reproductive health group Advocacy Nigeria. "We know the family very well - good family, good background, well brought-up."

"He was brought up in affluence, he had everything any child could ask for. Something must have snapped somewhere, we don't know, that's why we are in a state of shock." says Yusuf. "We are all parents so we are praying for the family, for Allah to see them throught this trial."

She blames Nigeria's educational system for forcing young people out of the country.

"Our educational system has collapsed to the extent that any right-thinking parent who has the resources will send their child to go and seek education where you can get quality education."

"Umar Mutallab is a neighbour of mine, his family lives just two houses away from mine here in Kaduna," says Civil Rights Congress head Shehu Sani.

In Kaduna, "religous intolerance and extremism is not something that is new", he told RFI. 

"For the past 30 years we have witnessed the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in this part of the country and it has inspired many young people into acts that are subversive to national security".

Sani says that some groups have been funded by individuals and countries from the Middle East.

"There are individuals that have been given scholarships to study in countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan and they come back with radical ideas," Sani says, "Umar Mutallab is one of many boys that are here in Kaduna and have seen violence at the local level."

Abdulmutallab "is just one of so many for which nothing has been done by the authorities for a long time", he says.

"It is a clear case of negligence on the side of the authorities, negligence on the side of security agencies and negligence on the side of the parents," adding that other youths may be tempted by violence in the future.

A statement from Nigeria's Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), the country's most active rebel group, condemned the attempted attack and said in a statement that "the young man who attempted this cowardly act is not alone".

It blamed the government for concentrating attention on Mend activities in the southern Niger Delta, rather than possible extremism in the north.

"The Nigerian government has persistently turned a blind eye to Islamic extremists coming from northern Nigeria, choosing instead to focus and waste its resources on military hardware and troop deployment in the Niger Delta", the statement said.

But, speaking from Lagos, Dr Nuraini Shafa, co-chairman of the Islamic and Christian Forum, insists that intolerance is foreign to Nigeria.

"The culture of Nigerians is a culture of diversity where we accept and respect differences," he says.

But he also blames the trend of sending young Nigerians abroad to study.

"I believe very soon there are going to be consultations," Shafa says, "A meeting will go on for the highest Supreme Body for Nigerian Islamic Councils to be able to discuss and look at the way forward of addressing such negative influences on our children".

"The majority of Nigerian Muslims actually feel quite sad that this is happening," says Disu Kamor, Director of Communications for the the Lagos-based Muslim Public Affairs Centre.

 

They are saddened "that it has involved a Nigerian Muslim, a Nigerian youth and that is at the moment what has been beamed around the world", he says.