By Ochereome Nnanna
HAPPY New Year, folks! Sorry I did not sign off formally when I proceeded on my annual vacation which, by the way, is still on-going. You know how things can get sometimes. I just had to pop in and say my mind on a couple of issues. The first is the phenomenon whereby Nigeria produced her first international terrorist.

For years we have suffered the plague of local terrorists who with little or no provocation, and for the misguided promise of “paradise” if they murdered those who do not believe in their faith have cowardly unleashed mayhem against innocent Nigerians.

Apart from the usual fire brigade system of quelling riots when they get out of hand, the Federal Government and governments of the endemic terror-prone states usually go back to sleep as soon as one riot ends, thus putting the next on the brew.

It is our unwillingness to adopt a lasting solution to frequent extremist religious eruptions, especially in the North, and also the open sympathy of some Northern intellectuals and opinion leaders with terrorist groups and nations of the Middle East and Asia that led America to list Nigeria among nations of interest in their fight against terrorism after Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab’s failed attempt to blow up a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day of 2009. It is a pity that when one finger picks up oil it soils the rest. Other Nigerians who are often victims and target of our local terrorists are going to suffer a stigma and ordeals over an offence of which they are innocent.

On Wednesday, January 13, 2010, the issue came up in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader, Teslim Folarin and nine others sponsored a motion which, among others, asked the Executive to seek dialogue with the US and officially commend Dr Umar Mutallab, the father of Farouk, for alerting both US and Nigerian security agents when he felt that his son was walking in the company of Islamic terrorists, Al-Qaeda. In a youthful exuberance (funny, for a man nearing 50) Senator Ike Ekweremadu suggested that Mutallab Senior should actually be recommended for a national award! Wisely, the senators thumbed the asinine suggestion down.

Yes indeed, Mutallab senior deserves commendation for warning every relevant security agency about the waywardness of his son. Only a good person with character will do what he did, and in today’s world of degraded social values, you can count them on your fingers. But that does not subtract from the fact that Dr Mutallab is the father of Nigeria’s pioneer international terrorist. Farouk has blighted his family’s name forever, his father’s laudable efforts notwithstanding.

What I see here is failure of parenthood. The Bible says: “Train up a child in the way he should go. When he grows up he will not depart from it”. It is true that some children are targeted by demonic forces such that no matter what you do for them they will still bring problems on the family. Do your best and leave the rest for the state – and God.

Failure can come as a result of over-pampering, under-pampering or mis-pampering a child. An  under-pampered child is not loved and catered for enough. A mis-pampered is loaded with the wrong values. Rich parents like Mutallab Senior often throw money at their children but neglect the intimate fathering touch which creates family value in the child and draws him/her away from destructive tendencies.

A good father inspires his child and sets life’s goals for him or at least provides the child with the equipment to set his own goals. But when parental touch is lacking, something else fills the void, as nature abhors vacuum.

Many rich parents ship away their minor children to boarding house or abroad, where they become available to human predators and perverts looking for impressionable and undefended sproutlings to prey on. Many fathers do not know where their children attend school or how they fare. They are “too busy”. They just pump the money. Fatherhood is much more than that.

I was 18 before I went to live in the boarding school. Once upon a time, a child of 11 years in Form One was alleged to have committed some offence by his 16-year-old Form Two senior. He was told to kneel down in the dormitory. To my horror, the Class Two student brought out his manhood and loudly ordered him, in the glare of everybody: “Kiss my pe-is!”.

We had to intervene and save the confused and frightened child from getting  into something that could probably have changed his life forever. It is such exposures that produce homosexuals or worse still, bisexuals. I reported the offensive boy to the Principal and his father was invited to take him away from our school indefinitely. A much older boy given sound home breeding can defy the “senior” when asked to get into situations that are unbecoming, degrading and beneath his contempt.

In spite of his father’s wealth, Farouk was lonely and friendless. His propensity to travel from one country to the other at such a young age suggested that he had the freedom, licence and funds to do as he wished. He fell into the waiting hands of religious perverts. He did not have many reasons to live to be useful to himself, his family and least of all, his country.

Rather he had greater motivation to leave the world early by taking other innocent lives with him with the vain hope of being rewarded in “paradise”.

Let parents go back to being true parents. Don’t be an incompetent parent. If you cannot raise a child who will add value to society, please don’t bring him into the world. “It is not by force”, as we say in Nigeria.