By Clarius Ugwuoha
A DENT once more registered on the already besmirched and battered image of our dear country, on Christmas day, December 25, 2009, when 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to detonate an incendiary device aboard a flight bound for Detroit. 

It is very disturbing that at a time our country was critically challenged, a Nigerian national should perpetrate full-scale-terrorism of that dimension, setting up global hoopla against our beleaguered country once again.

Certain puzzles and questions are, however, admissible, with respect to the occurrence. How did Mallam Abdulmutallab beat the security networks, spiriting himself across from Nigeria to the Netherlands and finally berthing in the US with an explosive device concealed in his thighs?

What could have driven this scion of inheritances to self-eating religious extremism? Could Nigeria have been incubating the like of Abdulmutallab and how extensive is their network?

Is there direct link, as reportedly confessed to by Mutallab, with Al-Qaeda network and how entrenched in Nigeria is this terrorist group? Is there any link of the Mutallab group with Boko Haram, which investigations have once been earthed by the suspicious death in custody of mastermind, Mallam Mohammed Yusuf?

Endless questions these are. As the various security operatives around the world spread dragnets to, at least, curtail this upsurge, Nigeria, the home country of the Al-Qaeda dissident, is once more internationally spotlighted.

Many innocent citizens of that country would become vicariously stigmatized, and target of probes and dehumanizing scrutiny at international entry and exit points.

Expectedly, and only very fairly, irate Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora, have massively condemned the Al-Mutallab misadventure, describing him in the most insalubrious aspects.

This is understandable. He has dented the image of not only his own but that of the entire Nigeria and the Black race in general. The international media have become awash with the portraits and descriptive of the would-be bomber, with his image still splashed on yahoo homepage.

I think the saga is over-sensationalised, granting the culprit some kind of international limelight that might have spiral effect. Who knew about Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab prior to this incident? What stops a suicide candidate from taking it international and achieving immortality, by merely strapping an explosive to their body and being caught at an international airport?

This is not to downplay the grievousness of the offence committed against humanity by Abdulmutallab. I am of the view that attention could have been diverted from him while the full glare of international searchlight is beamed on the subject matter itself, with only skeletal references to his person, if truly necessary.

For one thing he is already under arrest and not on the run.
What we have dismissed as religious extremism is in fact a kind of mental derangement.

Many of these organisations hawking terrorism like wares, are de facto association of lunatics, conscripting otherwise mentally healthy people, turning them into something else and depleting the sane world. There is a saying, no one sends a child on an errand that has no end. Islam, as a religion, espouses peace.

If the arch-plotters of these suicidal charges, could be safely shielded from reprisals, while purporting to send their subordinates to a violent Jannat, it is the worst kind of brainwashing ever.

I would specifically want to know the very reasons why world’s foremost terrorist, Osama Bin Laden, remains in hiding or alive; why he hadn’t since strapped a bomb to his waist, flown to the nearest infidel habitation of choice, the USA, perhaps, and detonated himself to immortal bliss?

There is more to the suicide missions than are obvious. The various governments and research institutions across the world should establish grants for in-depth research into the behavioural mechanisms of these terrorists with a view to deconstructing them effectively.

The situation is grave enough, globally. We have come to a turning point. With Tehran and Pyongyang dangerously close to nuclear warhead, escalation of terrorist attack elsewhere could spell an end to global sanity.

While Nigerians issue throaty condemnation of Farouk Abdulmutallab, it is pertinent that the government of Nigeria institutes a subtle but vigorous inquest into all forms of religious extremism in the country, volunteering information from all sources. Discoveries could be startling.

We must wake up from slumber. Abdulmutallab cannot be alone. He has acolytes and accomplices in the low and high places, in Nigeria, in Yemen, Britain, the USA and even, only quite obviously, among the security details and the compartment crew of the fated aircraft!

Mr. Ugwuoha, a public affairs analyst,  writes from Ezeali Palace in Egbema.