Many prominent Nigerians have called for the removal of Nigeria from the list of countries with links to terrorist organisations. They have argued that Nigeria has no business being on that notorious list. Personally I beg to disagree with them. The US should not be in a hurry to de-list Nigeria due to the following reasons.
First of all Nigeria was placed on the terror watch list following a failed attempt by a Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bomb a US airliner in December. Even though the case has been charged to court, investigations are still going on to determine how this young Nigerian suddenly transformed to a suicide bomber. Because of how terrorist groups operate, time is needed to dig out and piece together all the bits of information before establishing that Nigeria has absolutely no links with terrorist groups.
Some people have argued that Nigerians by their nature are not terrorists. That Farouk got radicalized, and embraced his suicide mission outside Nigeria. Well it depends on their understanding of the term ‘terrorism’. Many of the incidents that are taing place in the country like the attacks and killings in the Niger Delta, Jos, Kano and Kaduna can rightly be described as terrorist. People are not born terrorists. People become terrorists. Osama bin Laden was not born a terrorist. Farouk was not born a terrorist. So, terrorists are made.
The fact is that a Nigerian can become a suicide bomber whether as result of local or foreign influence. And as long as that is the case, then Nigeria is a nation to be monitored closely in terms of terorism.
Again I think the US-led global war against terrorism has weakened the bases and links of terrorist groups like al-Qaeda in classified countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq etc. And it may be that the terrorist organisations are now looking to unclassified countries like Nigeria for new recruits.
Related to this point is the fact that Nigeria is home to many radical islamic groups. Even though some people will disagree with me, militant islam is the ideology of most terrorist groups like al-Qeada. Islamism is another face of terrorism. In fact many of these terrorist organisations started as local radical or militant islamic sect. Northern Nigeria is filled with many of these militant islamic sects that have been terrorizing the country since 80s.Maitatsine, ‘Taleban’, Boko Haram are some of such radical groups that have unleashed violence and destruction on the country. Some people have argued that their attacks and violent campaigns have been largely local. That is true. The same could be said of al-Qaeda so many years ago. And nothing says that these local terrorist groups in Northern Nigeria won’t go international if they are given the necessary training and resources.
Also there is ample evidence that terrorist groups have supporters in Northern Nigeria. For instance, when al-Qeada bombed the World Trade Center on September 11 2001, some islamists rejoiced openly on the streets of some states in Northern Nigeria. Some people have argued that these are sympathisers, not members of terrorist organisations. First of all because of how terrorist groups operate, it is difficult to distinguish sympathisers from actual members. And if given the necessary training and resources, the sympathisers of terrorism of today can become the suicide bombers of tomorrow. So there is a lot to watch out for in term of terrorism in Nigeria.
So instead of wasting national resources lobbying the US government, staging protests to American embassy, sending delegations to the US to persuade the government to get Nigeria off the list of nations with terrorist links, the Nigerian government should use ‘this opportunity’ to put its house in order. Nigeria should use the opportunity to tackle radical islam, defeat and disable all links and networks that could aid or abet terrorism. Nigeria should use this opportunity of being on the terror watch list to take all necessary measures to ensure that no Nigerian muslim would, under any influence, local or international, embrace extremism or terrorism.