Remove Nigeria from US Terrorism Watch List

  • by: Omar
  • recipient: U.S. Department of State
Nigeria has been scrutenized by the actions of one expatriate, Farouk Umaru AbdulMutallab. Residing and studying at the U.K. until 2009, he seeked to bring down a U.S. airliner on Christmas day. In fact, Farouk was only radicalized while residing in the U.K., with influences from al-Qaeda members based in both the U.K. and Yemen. None of these ever occurred on Nigerian soil. Even Nigeria's known domestic violences do not qualify to be of international concerns. Hence, with weeks of angry comments from ordinary Nigerians on news media, and doubts of the Federal Government towards its relationship with the United States, we all seek to demand the U.S. to remove the Federal Republic from its black list of terrorist states.

Good day,
 
We the undersigned wish to sign this petition because we do not believed that our country, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, should join more deserving nations on the U.S. watch list of terrorist states for absurd reasons. As a matter of fact, we are also aware of four conditions the United States imposed to Nigeria, as to remove itself from the terrorism watch list:
 
I. public condemnation of any form of terrorism anywhere in the world
II. Improvement of security in the nation%u2019s airports.
II. Deployment of air marshals on board of aircraft.
III. Passing legislative laws on anti-terrorism.

 
The above conditions are somewhat logical to abide, but the black-listing of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is absurd. It only occurred because of the actions of one expatriate, Farouk Umaru AbdulMutallab, being influenced by Islamists from both the U.K. and Yemen. In fact, his father, Mr. Mutallab, a well-known banker and a resident of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the time, reported his son's suspicious activities to the U.S. Embassy. He was prompted to do so when his son was believed to be in the U.A.E., instead of being in his university in the U.K. at the time. All these facts are according to CNN International and other news media. Hence implicitly, Farouk did not become radicalized on Nigerian soil.


The problems occurring in the north of Nigeria, Jos and the oil-rich Niger Delta do not qualify Nigeria to be on the terrorist watch list. These problems are of domestic concern and not of international implicitly. In 2009, compromise on national stability by a group called "Boko Haram", meaning "Western education is sin", aimed to attack the Federal government for its long-term support for western education in the north. No direct threat to the United States as a country by the group, not even on CNN. The man slaughter occurring in Jos is due to social and, maybe, religious divide, as repeatedly reported by Nigerian media and CNN on March 9th, 2010. And finally, the Niger Delta problems had been on for over two decades, due to lack of crude oil profits reaching the locals, comparing to non-oil states like Lagos, which is head office to ExxonMobil, Chevron and Oando. Long story short, these known three problems of Nigeria are of national concern, and are not of international threat as al-Qaeda's constant plots to conspiracy on U.S. or E.U. soil.
 
The reasons why I/we are signing this petition are as follow:
 
1. The conspiracy to blow up a U.S. flight was caused by an expatriate under U.K. and Middle Eastern influences.
2. The known three problems of Nigeria are of national concern and do not impose threat to the United States.
3. This may undermine Nigeria%u2019s relationship with the United States in a long term at the Federal level.

4. Black-listing Nigeria will undermine Nigeria's role on its war on terror within sub-Sahara Africa, as patronized by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
 
We thank you for taking your time to reconsider your stand on putting Nigeria on the list of terrorist states.

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