NIGERIA AS THE NEW CENTER OF WORLD TERRORISM
The various administrations in the US and Europe, for whatever reason have turned a blind eye or are playing dumb to one glaring fact that is very obvious to even any disinterested observer today. The Nigerian state has fallen irretrievably into the hands of Islamic extremists such that today that country is fast becoming a major exporter of terror and religious intolerance around the world. Right from the early stages of its checkered existence while it was still under British rule the country began to cut its teeth on what will today become a major Islamic industry – The “scare-tactics” as is being employed by the Muslim world today to drive home their “message” of terror to the rest of the world.
For the past six decades starting from 1945 in Jos the capital city of present Plateau State and 1953 in Kano, Kano state, up till the present time, Nigeria has actively cultivated this culture of terrorism that has now matured. After some considerable period of tutelage it now has enough confidence to begin to ship out to the outside world its deadly wares of murder and religious intolerance. What informs this their new found confidence is the fact that at first the political elite could only sponsor a fanatical mob of the lowest class to carry out the murders and lootings of the non-believing Igbo and other Southeasterners who were supposedly their fellow citizens.
As the years passed, the frequency of these mayhems increased unchecked by any of the country’s authorities either that of Britain or the newly constituted Nigerian government. So, by July of 1967, barely seven years into its independence from Britain in October of 1960, the country had descended into a full-fledged war with the Southeasterners who declared themselves as the Republic of Biafra. The Southeasterners had had enough of the unending murders and destruction of their lives and property by these their religious bigot neighbors, they wanted out and be independent. But because of the oil from which much of the country’s revenue derived was in the Biafran territory, the Muslim North and West of Nigeria would not let the Easterners to go even though they hated them for being infidels of the Islamic faith.
The Biafra – Nigeria war would last for about three years and at the end of it, the Biafran side was completely defeated. And by this time when the war ended, the country’s economy became totally dependent on the oil exploited from the Biafran homeland and a new class of wealthy elite who made tremendous money without working hard and armed with very dangerous religious/political views emerged. And with the emergence of this group Nigeria’s terror industry went international. Until then, it was the low class fanatics that were radicalized by the less sophisticated Islamic clerics and imams. But with the sudden wealth from the conquered Biafran region they could afford to train these imams in the most potent radicalized Islamic schools and training camps all over the world.
Like we noted earlier, the first generation of these religious fanatics were not sophisticated enough to fly in airplanes and take their violent indoctrination across the seas and to far out foreign borders. But with the emergence of this new class of war generals/criminals with so much petro-dollars at their disposal they could both clean out the first group of violent radicals and entice the kids of the upper class into this army of international terrorism.
So, on December 25, 2009 Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab was on Northwest flight 253 headed to Detroit in the US. He was flying in from Nigeria with a lethal diaper of explosives around his waist. As the plane approached the airport, the 23 year old son of a Nigerian father and Yemeni mother fumbled over his groin trying to detonate the explosives sewn into his diaper. Thankfully, he was wrestled and disarmed by fellow passengers and crew before much damage could be done and, there were nearly 300 people on that plane. As a student he had lived in a 4 million dollar luxury apartment in London and flew all over the world to receive trainings in the act of Islamic terrorism, he could afford it. The Nigerian terrorist outfit has come of age. The father paid for this grand life style, having amassed so much money from holding many positions in both government and private sectors in a country with the long history of having one of the worst cultures of social and political corruption in the world.
As we write, the Nigerian terror network has grown and expanded into billion-dollar machinery. On the 26th of October 2010 a total of 13 shipping containers loaded with rocket launchers, grenades, and other arms, ammunitions and explosives were discovered at the Apapa Wharf, one of that county’s busy seaports by a combined team of security personnel. The investigation is still ongoing but so far there have been enough evidence which has shown that those weapons were meant for the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip. The arms were imported to Nigeria from Iran by a well known Northern Nigerian Islamic cleric in league with two other Iranian nationals for trans-shipment to the Gaza Strip.
It is interesting to note that this current event is coming at the heels of the time when United States had just rescinded its decision to place Nigeria on its terror watch list. Therefore, when we note here that Nigeria indeed has become the new center for world terrorism it might sound farfetched to some people, especially those who are blinded by the profits of blood oil they are reaping from there now. But in no distant time the world will wake up to the truth of what we have said here but it would have become late (we hope not). If the world failed to act decisively today by helping to bring about a peaceful break up of that country there will definitely be a lot more to pay by the time the monster will be unleashed full-fledged on the world scene. Then a lot more resources, time and blood will be required to get the situation under control.
