On Christmas day a Nigerian Umar Faruk Abdulmatlab made a failed attempt to blow Detroit bound airliner. This has been widely condemned across the world including Nigeria as well. Overwhelming majority of Nigerians condemned Umar Faruk and feel that this will have a negative impact on the image of Nigeria in the world. President Obama could not speak with his Nigerian counterpart as he has been out of country for now about two months due to medical reasons. Moreover the relations of Nigeria were already not very good with the United States for the last few years. Coupled with the fact that Nigeria is the second Muslim country after Palestinian territories where there is a high support for suicide attack. Eventually Untied States under such circumstances blacklisted Nigeria.
This would ultimately have consequences for Nigerian image abroad. The above facts raise several questions in mind. The nature of terrorism these days is transnational just as the issue of climate change or financial crisis. Often states are not backing the terrorists which seem to be the case of Nigeria as well. But the states or nations have to pay for the acts that have actually been committed by a single person or a group of persons. Blacklisting Nigeria means all the Nigerians will now be looked at suspiciously.
Keeping in view the fact that U.S. blacklisted Nigeria for genuine apprehensions but should it be considered as a right approach to deal with such crisis? Of course it is a very complex and sensitive issue. But Nigerian are after all humans like Americans. They are also very sensitive, and all of them are not like Umar Faruk. Do we not need to restore the confidence in each others nations to deal with the issue of terrorism today?
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