Nigeria, CNN, and the Stupid Boy

Here, we go again. A Nigerian commits a dastardly act and all you hear on the news is Nigerian this, Nigerian that. You forget the stupid boy even has a name. For those of you living under a rock, if you haven't heard by now, there was an attempted "terrorist attack" on an NorthWest Arlines plane on the Amsterdam-Detroit route. NW Flight 253 departed Amsterdam on Christmas day and about an hour to landing in Detroit, "a Nigerian man", 23 year old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was alleged to have set off an explosive device after spending a significant amount of time in the airplane lavatory. The general knowledge is that his intention was to blow up the plane as a means of expressing his solidarity for Al-Qaeda, 72 virgins, whatever.

The next question is when did we get to this point? When did Nigeria go from a nation of fraudsters to become a nation of terrorists? Well ask CNN: they are the experts at branding. As long as the people they are branding are not of the mainstream American culture, they have no problem with tarnishing the image of a group with repetitive non-stop bombardment of stereotypical language and images. All you heard on the news was "A Nigerian Man", "Attempted Terrorist Attack", "Extremist Ties". All the standard key words were there. These trigger-words are looped over, and over, and over until the average person watching CNN comes to associate "Nigerian" with "terrorist", with "extremist" and before you know it, it becomes conventional wisdom. I can already see the typical first conversation with an average person who doesn't know any better. "Oh you are Nigerian? Isn't that the country with the terrorists"? It's almost as if they were waiting for this to happen; Christmas day, slow news day, not much going on, and a story like this comes along. It's like heaven-sent. I heard "Nigerian-Man" so often, I thought the boy's name was "Nigerian" and his surname was "Man". Shame on you CNN.

And to make matters worse, and I am sure mainly due to CNN's reporting of the issue, another "Nigerian Man" who probably had too much Star lager beer and Isi-Ewu before embarking on his flight was harrassed after he spent a "considerable" ammount of time in the airplane bathroom the next day. And it did not help matters that the incident happened on the same airline, same flight designation, and same route, Amsterdam to Detroit. He was alleged to have been disruptive upon emerging from the bathroom. But of-course after researching the news from several sources, BBC included, you find out that the man was only being harassed for Flying While Nigerian. He came out of the restroom, was challenged by crew members after people raised alarm, and he became defensive and probably loud, understandably (I would have too), and then they label him as being disruptive, and alert the entire Detroit police and emergency department on the ground for a complete non-issue. And of course CNN was there to report, hear Larry King, " Another Northwest Flight disrupted by a Nigerian".

It turned out the Nigerian was a legitimate business man, who was just "sick" on the plane. No explosives were found on him, on the plane, but the damage had already been done. Flying while Nigerian is another hazard we have to deal with now, in addition to all the other labels we have to deal with as Nigerians. As if the fraudster label was not enough, this "stupid boy" has just elevated us in the global arena. A Nigerian on an international flight will now heighten everyone's security consciousness. If he so much as sneezes, he might just get tackled by the US marshal who will be strategically placed in the seat right next to him. Nigerians might now need escorts for toilet breaks on the plane. You better do all your business at the airport lavatory and pray you have no 'nature calls' on board or you will be arriving with the entire fire department, police force, and FBI happily waiting to receive you at the airport. What a honor! I don't even think Obama has that kind of security. But you are Nigerian, and you are special!

All of this because of a "stupid boy" who you can tell is anything but a terrorist. The first indication was his immediate singing as soon as he was in custody. CNN said the "the FBI says he is talking a lot...". Oloshi terrorist. Dem never even water board am yet. Wetin im go do then? He was talking straight from the plane it sounds like. Thanks kid, Nigeria did not have enough problems, we needed you to ginger things up. This at a time when the country is without a leader, the 'president' has been in a coma/life support for the past month in a foreign hospital while the fate of the country hangs in balance. But that is another story.