E.
Ablorh-Odjidja, Ghanadot
This Abdulmutalab kid has
just earned Africa a new title; “the crotch bombers”! And here
we have some worrying about the moral appropriateness of putting
body scanners at Accra International Airport!
You must wonder the sense of
it all, when human rights advocates raise moral concerns about
the placement of body scanners at airports. Morality
should be for the living. It is of no use for the dead.
Less we forget the need for
the scanners, it came as a result of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab,
a 23-year-old Nigerian “crotch bomber’s” failed suicide attempt
to bring down from the skies of Detroit a North West Airline
Flight from Amsterdam.
The question is should our
moral concern be directed solely at a technology that, hopefully
when deployed, could prevent the likes of Abdulmutalab from
destroying us? Or, rather, should it focus on the instant act of
the attempt to blow up human beings, the entire two hundred plus
passengers on board the plane?
The answers can show how far
advanced these advocates are in their hypocrisy. Presented with
the possibility of a massive terrorist act, they choose to bring
up this faux moral issue (and also perhaps to provide excuse for
drug smugglers).
As a country, we have a moral
responsibility to protect our people from people with dangerous
intentions like Abdulmutalab. He was fully conscious of his
act. To cover his trail, he skipped boarding the plane in Lagos
in order to start his journey from Accra.
That a 23 year old, who has
it all, can be perverted to a breaking point - in order to
embark on such unethical, immoral, suicidal journey – does not
sound horrible for these human rights idlers is amazing. We may
just as well remove all traffic lights from our roads because
some have moral concerns about them too!
But such is life these days
that we have finally managed to over-educate ourselves about
issues that don’t really matter. So much moral energy wasted on
this security enhanced management system when the same energy
can be used to find answers to larger matters arising from the
failed bombing attempt by this Nigerian kid.
Consider the pain of
Abdulmutalab’s father, who had to report his son to the U.S
authorities at Abuja after noting his son’s arrant behavior.
His call should be the moral example for all. With such
examples in the larger society, we may not need body scanners at
our airports.
Even with these scanners
deployed, we will need additional awareness. The danger posed
by Abdulmutalab’s act goes beyond the scanners, even if he had
managed to perish, together with the passengers on board his
flight. His success would have raised more scary consequences
for Africa.
For instance, why did he
choose Ghana as his starting point for his journey? Whatever
his reason, he never considered the immediate consequence beyond
his own death; that his deception could raise friction among
Ghanaians and Nigerians; or between Christians and Muslims. He
just didn’t care. The moral question to consider is why?
There is also the question
about why such a privileged kid’s mindset can be pushed by a
virulent ideology to a point of seeking his own self-destruction
and that of his fellow passengers; never mind the stigma or
infamy that would follow his family, country and the continent
of Africa – all “crotch bombers”.
More serious a question is,
if this conquest of mind could happen to a rich kid, well
educated who was assured of a very decent life, how would the
same influence fare with kids who are poor, have vastly less a
promising future than Abdulmutalab, and can be easily bought?
The poor will be recruited as
they were in the Kenya and Tanzania bombing in 1998; a useless
act for them and their future, but a convenient fodder for
someone’s religious angst.
Rather than directing their
disquiet at technology, our moral idlers should be concerned
about Abdulmutalab choosing December 25 as the day for this
infamy because Christians are wondering why the disrespect for
the Holy Day; as would Muslims if it were their Holy Day.
E.
Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher
www.ghanadot.com,
Washington, DC, Jan 7, 2010
Permission to publish: Please feel free to publish or
reproduce, with credits, unedited. If posted at a website,
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