By Ochereome Nnanna
I HAVE asked myself over and again: what if those eagle-eyed policemen had not stopped the drivers of those bomb-bearing vehicles at the point they did?

What if, by some fluke, they were able to drive as close as possible to the local and foreign dignitaries? The casualty rate would have been on a catastrophic scale, and then the world would give up on Nigeria as a nation on its way to Somalia.

So, as we grieve over the loss of innocent lives and seek succour for the injured, we should still find time to be grateful to God that the worst-case scenario did not happen.

I am dismayed by the attempt by some presidential aspirants to turn this into a political subject. In any normal nation, when a tragedy of this magnitude hits, citizens put aside political differences and come together to reaffirm their common bond as a nation.

When Islamic terrorists attacked targets in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, all Americans sank their traditional differences.

There were no Whites or Blacks anymore. And when President George Bush called an emergency meeting of his cabinet and announced grimly: “we are at war”, there were no Republicans and Democrats, but Americans determined to hit back at those who sought to destroy their nation.

It was much, much later that the argument developed as to whether the invasion of Iraq was necessary, since no weapon of mass destruction was unearthed in Saddam Hussein’s den. Citizens of the UK, Spain, Pakistan, India, Chile and Haiti came together, setting aside politics to grieve and sort out the calamities that befell them, be they man-made or natural disasters.

But in our own case, our president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan and a former military president seeking to be president again through the ballot box chose to make some political capital out of it.

Babangida’s camp was correct to have observed that more use should have been made of the security tip-offs which were received by government and even media people long before the tragedy. But the way they presented it to score political points smacked of low-ball tactics. Some issues must be above politics.

Part of the qualification for leadership of this country should include the maturity to know when to draw the line between politics and patriotism. A person who is unable to draw this line is unlikely to be able to congratulate the winner of a keenly-contested election umpired by an unbiased electoral referee.

A person who cannot rise above politics is unlikely to rise above ethnic and religious sentiments or set aside personal interest in making important decisions. In other words, such a person cannot lead well.

Even though I score the President and his wife highly for rushing to the hospitals to see the victims and offer help to their families, I seriously fault the President on his undue haste to exonerate the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). The blast had all the trappings of a typical MEND venture.

Since the end of the creek hostilities, the Movement has adopted the tactic of warning people ahead of time before they strike. MEND’s intention, it seems to me, is to reduce civilian or collateral casualty rate and burnish its image as a “civilised” freedom fighting outfit.

This was exactly what they did when they bombed out the Vanguard Newspaper’s post-amnesty talks in Warri earlier this year. The warnings, the emails to media houses, the use of the faceless Gbomo Jomo as spokesperson, and the claims of responsibility for the cowardly act, were all parts of MEND’s familiar footwork.

However, this is not to say another terrorist group may not hide behind the inscrutable MEND mask, strike and claim responsibility. It was wrong of the President to exonerate MEND, whose leader, Henry Okah, was already in the net of the South African police.

The investigations are still going on. Thank God, President Jonathan says he knows those behind the attack on Nigeria. Let him brief the security agencies accordingly. Above all, we want to know who those people are. And please, no politics!

Meanwhile, let what happened in Abuja be a lesson to ordinary Nigerians. We live in an age where terrorism has become part of the mishaps that could visit any large gathering. We all saw how the Al Shabazz terrorist group in Somalia launched a dastardly attack on innocent civilians in Uganda during the World Cup in South Africa.

Terrorists thrive on large crowds. The Abuja blast was tailored to reap grim harvest. The bombers knew that after the first blast, there would be a tendency for people to rush to the scene to gape or help those affected or even loot their personal belongings.

That was why they programmed the second blast to go off when a large crowd must have gathered after the first.

The lesson here is that whenever you hear a bomb go off, leave the scene as quickly as possible and keep your distance. Then call in the emergency services if you have their numbers.

A bomb scene is a specialised one that is best handled by trained professionals. Rushing in soon after a blast could turn you into a bomb-fodder, which is what the evil-minded terrorists would love to see.

Let this unfortunate incident remind us of the need to fashion out a means of securing and defending our country better. Terrorism is probably here to stay. Apart from genuine or false freedom fighters, we also have local and foreign-based religious fanatics nibbling at us.

Very soon, a number of politicians will lose the presidential race, and they might turn to the various malcontents to foment trouble. It’s time we woke up to the danger we find ourselves in.