MOSOP and UNPO President, Ledum Mitee, has spoken of Abdulmuttalab’s attempted bombing as “predictable” but it must lead to a searching assessment of dissatisfaction among Nigerian youth

 

Below is an article published by This Day:

President of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Mr. Ledum Mitee has said that the latest decision of the United States of America to list Nigeria on the infamous list of “countries of interest” vis-à-vis terrorism is a proof that Nigeria needed to concentrate on internal house cleaning before spending money on rebranding.

His position is coming as former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Chief Onueze Chiejinaka Okocha said that any action taken by the Americans to protect their people was justified given the hindsight of previous attacks on them by terrorists.

While Mitee would want Nigeria to concentrate on removing tendencies that will make a young Nigerian want to bomb a plane, Okocha who described the incident as regrettable, insisted that it would be like abdicating a responsibility to protect themselves if they did nothing.

Though Okocha would not want Nigerians to be branded as terrorists since what happened in the attempted blowing up of an airliner was the action of an individual, Mitee also agreed that even though Afghanistan is seen as an enclave of terrorists, it is not everyone in the country that is involved.

Mitee described the action of Abdulmuttalab as “predictable” and called for reorientation of youths of the country so that they will imbibe the good morals of acting in ways that will not give the country a bad image.

Okocha said it was only a tree that would see that it was to be cut and yet stands waiting for its fate, adding when human beings face such threats, they react.

However, Okocha and Mitee agreed that there was need for the society to work on the minds of the youths and ensure that they drop all negative tendencies, adding that rather than blame any country for taking actions against us, Nigerians should work to ensure they attract less of negative mention in world affairs.