DORA AKUNYILI, A SLY MEGAPHONE OF A 'TERRORIST' COUNTRY IN DENIAL?

What a logic on its head that 'because Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab acted alone and chose Yemen for his terrorist-proficiency training, therefore, Nigerians are not terrorists and al-Queida has no base in Nigeria? Icheoku says, all Pakistanis are not enjoying full membership of the Taliban or al-Queida in Pakistan, yet it is a known terrorist state? Afghanistan too, not all Afghans blow things up, yet one cannot mention terrorism without firing off Afghanistan in one's brain? Even the Kingdom of Saud that gave the world 19 out of the 20 9/11 terrorists have some good non-extremists among their population. Somalia and Yemen inclusive, their functioning part are equally made of good people. So every Nigerian must not necessarily attempt to blow up a United States of America bound Delta airplane from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport for Nigeria to be tagged a terrorist state, period; and it does not matter what the authorities in Abuja would rather have, the decision is the world's to make and they have made it.

The gist of the catastrophe that was December 25 is that a Katsina sharia State of Islamic Northern Nigeria Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab became a finger that was dipped in oil which unfortunately have now soiled the rest of the fingers called Nigerians; and no amount of adumbration or wishful thinking will ever wash this stigma away and not this soon. It did not happen with 419 tagging; it did not happen with corruption notoriety; it did not happen with a known transit for narcotics and illicit drugs dealing; so why does any Nigerian with some modicum of sanity, now think and wish this latest case of terrorism is going to simply and quietly go away or vanish into the thin air? May be in their dreamland or such Nigerians are in a deep sleep and dreaming of a situation which they would rather have; instead of the one they are now saddled with. It is called reality check and Nigeria's have been checked in the terrorism column. Nigerians unlike many other more rational peoples the world who cope with whatever card nature deals them and sometimes use it to improve what is; only live in a wishful thinking state, without taking any proactive steps to fix what was or is broken. Perhaps, in this case, may be a good thing might come out of it as Nigerian officials have now pledged to install full body scanning machines at their airports. Icheoku says, provided it is not one of their usual white-elephant abandoned projects, such measure if it becomes a reality will be the proverbial killing of two birds with one stone. Those petty drug peddlers who swallow latex capsules of heroin and cocaine will then come to realize that it is game over for their nefarious trade; as these machines will also have the capability of spotting their ingested cargo of death. So may be, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab terrorism has inadvertently and unknowingly, helped Nigeria to deal with its ever intractable drug-peddling by ingestion. How about that for something positive out of a very really bad situation which have summarily baptised Nigerians as potential terrorists?

Icheoku listened in on an interview Nigerian Information Minster, Madam Re-branding Dora Akunyili granted one foreign news service, a few days ago, about the current terrorism of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab and its invariable link to Nigeria. According to her responses, there is no terrorism in Nigeria; Nigeria is not a terrorist country; there is no al-Queida base or bases in Nigeria; there is no terrorists living in Nigeria; that the CCTV at Murtala Mohammed Airport Lagos captured "every move of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab from his entry to departure at the airport and that there is no evidence Umar Farouk Mutallab adorned his bomb-laden diaper from Lagos?" Ridiculously, Madam Re-branding failed and could not provide an answer to the interviewer's follow-up question on "how come the Nigerian authorities failed or did not capture the terrorist, whose father purportedly declared missing earlier, and who later turned the diaper-terrorist, since he was allegedly seen on her CCTV passing through the airport?' Why was Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, who was declared wanted by his father not 'captured' at the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos? Why didn't the Nigerian security operatives do for the senior Mutallab what he allegedly 'begged' the FBI, M15, Interpol, MOSSAD and other security agencies the world over, to "help him locate, capture and return back to Nigeria his "radicalized" son"? What was the use of mentioning his appearance on the CCTV if a son whose father had declared missing and wanted was seen passing through the airport and no action was taken to bring him to his 'desolate and despondent' father? The question remains, assuming the senior Mutallab and father of the diaper-terrorist was sincere about 'finding and returning his wayward son back to him', which Icheoku have reasons to doubt, why then would the same hooligan of a son be seen in Nigeria and no action was taken to coral him in; and the elder Mutallab was pretending to be busy looking for help with his son's capture? Why would a Nigerian aspiring terrorist be seen in Nigeria and the same animal was a subject of an alleged international manhunt? Anyway, but it is in the same airport that fugitive from Nigeria's brand of justice, Nuhu Ribadu, came and went without notice while his manhunt was still on? Nothing surprises Icheoku about Nigeria any more, so it was no surprise that the father is now shedding the proverbial crocodile tears? Something appears fishy and does not necessarily add up with this aspect of the saga that is Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab and his journey into infamy! Now back to our rebuttals and rejoinder to Madam Re-branding responses to the referenced above interview.

The problem with Dora Akunyili's answers in the interview was that her responses preceded her thoughts, she did not adequately think through the questions to articulate silver-bullet answers before opening her increasingly becoming loud mouth. Dora was more interested in waging an imaginary war with the 'enemy' foreign press in defense of her war of re-branding Nigeria rather than appreciate correctly the intended destinations of those questions that were asked in the interview. If only Akunyili has not seen the interview as an attempt to sabotage her war of re-branding, maybe a more responsive answers, with better clarity would have been put forward instead of the apologetic performance that was later described as feisty! Icheoku also laments Madam Re-branding's very shallow or total lack of understanding of the meaning and purport of these words "terror", terrorism" and "terrorists!" According to definition, terror is intense fear or anxiety and any period of frightful violence marked by bloodshed. Terror also causes alarm, dismay, consternation, extreme fear in the presence of danger or evil? Terrorism on the other hand is the use of violence or threat of it to intimidate or coerce a point of view? This is very common with military juntas giving rise to the term terrorist governments, such as was witnessed during the hijack of Nigeria by Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida and the midget of Kano, Sani Abacha.

Dele Giwa's parcel bomb murder was terrorism to silence journalists and maintain a lid on Gloria Okon story at the fear of bodily harm to any future adventurous journalist who may dare; a terror by terrorist Ibrahim Babangida? Kudirat Abiola, Pa Rewane and so many others were murdered by Sani Abacha goons on his direct orders to terrorize democracy and silence democracy activists, agitators and defenders; and maintain a solid lid on Abiola's botched presidential mandate; another terror by terrorist Sani Abacha? Olusegun Obasanjo used his terror machine in his attempt to annihilate and permanently silence the peoples of Odi Bayelsa State and Zaki Ibiam Benue State? So Dora Akunyili are these terrorists not Nigerians or did their brand of terrorism not victimize Nigerians enough to sufficiently qualify as terrorism as defined and understood by you? What about Maitasine religious terrorists, Zaky-Zaky religious fanatics, Boko Haram religious terrorists, Bauchi riots terrorists, Jos mayhem terrorists, Kano riots terrorists, Maiduguri riots terrorists, Kaduna riots terrorists, Zango Kataf upheavals terrorists and a gazillion of other Islamic Northern Nigeria engineered terrorism activities against southern Nigerians and Christains alike which they mask as religious riots; and through which anxiety and frightful violence was unleashed on Nigeria, marked by unimaginable bloodshed? What is your myopic definition or and idea of terrorism, Madam Akunyili if these instances do not qualify? So Madam Dora Akunyili, are you telling the world that Nigerians are incapable of being put to fear of bodily harm or anxiety; or that their blood does not qualify as shed-able blood for purposes of terrorism defined? Is it only when Americans and other foreign nationals are put in danger and fear for their lives that an activity can very appropriately qualify as terrorism? Our advise, and a candid one too, please find time to revisit your dictionary or even Wikipedia or Britannica that you may expand the horizon of your present micro-understanding or appreciation of the nightmare of terrorism incubating and taking roots in Nigeria; and which one day shall bring Nigeria to its knees.

Further you claimed that there is no al-Queida base/s or training camp/s in Nigeria and that was the reason why Umar Farouk had to travel to Al-Queida proving grounds in Yemen to burnish and hone in his terror credentials with further studies in their offered terror-graduate program? And in making this bold faced assertion, you failed to inform your interviewer, in which terror-schools the recent Boko Haram terrorists trained or was it in Yemen also? Icheoku asks you Madam Akunyili, before the last two months of intensive crashed-program on terror by the diaper-bomber, where was your countryman Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab receiving his instructions and indoctrination; or rather his bachelors degree in terrorism? In case you have forgotten, it was in your country Nigeria, in sharia Katsina State of Islamic Northern Nigeria and also partly in London as president of London Schools Islamic Society? Continuing in the interview, Madam Akunyili postulated that, 'if there were al-Queida terror training schools in Nigeria that terrorist Umar Farouk Adul Mutallab would not have had a need to go to Yemen for his terror-training but would have enrolled in the local school? To this Icheoku jumps to say, did terrorist Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab go to London University College for his botched mechanical engineering studies just because there is no school in Nigeria offering the same program? Not even to digress so much, your son Madam Dora Akunyili, whom you attended his commencement just recently, from a medical school in Illinois, was or is he in studying in America because there is no school in Nigeria which has a medical school?

As was pointed out earlier in this piece, this Nigerian megaphone is really a loud mouth who talks before thinking, running her mouth as if she is in one village market sqare hustling a potential customer? Her logic is illogical, it does not make any sense at all because it is not based on any rationalized clear thought; imagine her smudged reasoning which easily falls part upon close scrutiny. Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, a son of extreme privilege, did not attend his terror-training school in Nigeria not because there is no shcool offering a program in terror somewhere in Islamic Northern Nigeria, but simply because he is too elitist for the local schools; hence his decision to go to the citadel of terror, Yemen. He could have easily gone to any of the terror schools in the north, which have been churning out all those religious terrorists, constantly causing untoward havocs and mayhem in Nigeria, but he chose not to share classes with acursed almajiris and bolted abroad to a Yemen terrorism university? He learnt well and very fast too, a doctorate in just within two months, except that the incompetence dogging his people in northern Nigeria also followed him with his evil plot and he 'forgot the proper amount of acid dosage to inject into his daiper laden PETN to ignite his diaper-bomb?' What a coward, an animal of the lowest cast and an uncircumsized dog.

Icheoku avers that those incessant religious riots plaguing Nigeria since ages are terrorism extra-ordinaire; and that those linchpins, perpetrators and sponsors alike are all Nigerians and live in Nigeria. Terrorism is terrorism, whether political terrorism, election-hijacking terrorism, economic terrorism, usurpation of power terrorism, stealing of Niger Delta oil terrorism, appropriation of other peoples stuff terrorism, concentrating of power in just Kano State and the north by extension terrorism, Boko Haram terrorism, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida terrorism, Sani Abacha terrorism, kidnapping terrorism including Governor Ngige's; unemployment terrorism, police and army brutality terrorism, lack of motorable roads terrorism, market women and men hoarding goods terrorism; petrol-scarcity terrorism, corruption terrorism, moribund medical care and facilities terrorism, unpaid salary of workers terrorism, looting of public funds terrorism and boundless other forms of terrorism which are suffocating Nigeria. Madam Re-branding, what qualifies as terrorism in your imagination if these enumerated acts of terror, terrorizing Nigerians does not do it for you? Are you seriously thinking that only an attempted mid-air explosion inside an airplane full of passengers and crew bound for America; or the flying of airplanes into the WTC is terrorism? It is all a function of inducing fear and trepidation in a people and Nigerians have had their fair share of such anxious moments and continuing till this day, of fear of bodily harm and wanton property damage caused by militant Islamic sharia Northern Nigeria; let the truth be told!

Dora Akunyili has shown that she has become infested with the Nigeria 'untruth-virus' which plagues most Nigerian public officials? it is either her understanding of this subject is very narrow or she chose not to understand at all or completely, feigning ignorance and covering up for an inept government which is in denial of the facts on the ground, that terrorism has endured in Nigeria and for so long. The only thing that recently changed is that one of their 'air-soldiers' took the act international and now the whole world knows what Nigerians have been forced to live with for too long. Northern Nigeria Islamic terrorism and Dora doesn't seem to get it! Dora Akunyili, a woman who has been variously described as feisty, combative, militant, loquacious, shouting, abrasive, thirsty, aggressive, loud, talkative and somewhat bitchy is once again shouting herself hoax over what many reasonable Nigerians would rather her government not gloss over, the fact of the existence of terrorism in Northern Nigeria, albeit Nigeria. Acceptance is 9/10 of problem solving and Nigeria is a country known for its denial-ability. Imagine the length of time it took the sickly President Umaru Yar'Adua to own up to his debilitating illness? Let us pray too that such a conflicted woman like Nigeria's mis-Information Minister Dora Akunyili, waging an un-winnable war on re-branding of a Nigeria in a cesspool, with another terrorism-side dish added to her plate, usually unwinds into a real woman whenever she returns home after each day at the office? Otherwise imagine what the man who have to put up with such over-militarized woman in the house 24/7, has to deal with? A woman who readily reels off her resume`and not necessarily thinking through her answers to such delicate questions and with such combative aggressiveness, mode and tone. Her demeanor, tone and aggressiveness is somewhat too frightening, that it might as well pass for giving-out-information terrorism?

Further, Icheoku urges Nigerians to learn to ignore whatever comes out of the mouth of this former darling NAFDAC Iron-Lady, she has also drank of the cool-aid hallucinogenic substance intoxicating many Nigeria public officials. The world and its media has learnt since to ignore her, the reason why she hardly gets any press each time and whenever she goes overseas; they already know the soundbits of her bullshit, which she spouts with such an ease, trying too hard and with zesty effort to launder a silly and sleazy government of hers, which no one in the world truly respects. What a fumble of great magnitude by the Nigerian government, trying uselessly to contain the spilled corrosive sulphuric acid that is Katsina sharia State born Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab's terrorism. Even Nigerians in America are utterly surprised that Nigeria's ambassador in the US, if they have any at all, has not flooded every media outlet trying to douse the inferno that is Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab which is sweeping everything Nigeria and every Nigerian into an abyss of global hatred for being another terrorist country? At least he or she should have been trouble-shooting and explaining and trying to repair or contain or control the ensuing damage to the Nigeria state; but he seem to have burrowed away from public sight and public airwaves, begging the question, what use are these money spigots when they cannot coordinate a damage control in situations as this Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab excursion into terrorism dragging Nigeria with him into oblivion!

The problem is that these government officials are always playing to a homeland gallery that are majority illiterate, less travelled, less educated and not well read, to know any better or the difference between a lying Dora Akunyili and the naked truth? If only majority of the population know how much their lives have been badly damaged by these so-called leaders, a mass movement would have since arisen from within the 150 million strong Nigerians and swept away the dregs that are the present and past leadership in Nigeria. Away with them and usher in a new vanguard for a rebirth and regeneration of a Nigeria, that could stand tall among the comity of nations and be counted; and not the present disparaged near-pariah state that is fast crumbling and in life support, just like her debilitated comatose President Umaru Yar'Adua? Tell Icheoku who your friends are and we will tell you who you are; and same goes with a country with a president in comatose and rudderless? It does not look good Nigerians; the situation is bad and very bad indeed. But regrettably some people seem not to get it, a case in point, one Henry Omoregie, a self described Nigerian oil and gas recruitment consultant and freelance online journalist based in Port Harcourt Nigeria. According to sources, the said 'HO' is organising an online petition group to condemn terrorist Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab and state that Nigerians are not terrorists?

Icheoku says, really, if only they have said, 'not all Nigerians are terrorists' or better still 'some Nigerians are not terrorists' or admit that 'Nigeria have some terrorists in northern Nigeria?' That would have been a more reasonable statement but not the blatancy of a naked lie that Nigeria is not a terrorist country and that Nigerians are not terrorists, except of course they are discounting Northern Nigerian as Nigerians? Please give me some oil to chew some palm fruits! Icheoku says, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab is not just one "lone numbskull who has just dragged Nigeria's already sodden image more into the mud;" no, there are so many other terrorsits like him in sharia Islamic Northern Nigeria who frequently orchestrate all those religious riots including this very past Monday's Bauchi blood-letting aka terrorism, get it Henry Omoregie? Addressing Henry further, Icheoku rebuts that there is nothing really great about a country that cannot temporary transfer power to a vice president, while the president is sequestrated in a hospital intensive care unit semi-conscious; and that the 150 million population do not all travel as only less than 1% of the population may have actually have and used an international passport? Again Icheoku retaliates that Henry and his group are merely pontificating and could not appreciate indeptly the terror that these recurring religious riots represent and which visit, on Nigerians qualify them as as full terrorism; thereby eminently making Nigeria a terrorist state? How about that for scientific analysis? And Dora Akunyili that one is for you too!