Nigerians struggle to understand why a privileged son tried to become a bomber.

By Frankie Edozien— Special to GlobalPost

Published: January 1, 2010 09:15 ET

 ABUJA Nigeria — Nigerians are still struggling to come to terms with the news that Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old son of one of this country’s most prominent and wealthiest bankers, allegedly tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight as it landed in Detroit on Dec. 25.

“The man who shamed Nigeria,” is what the local newspaper, “The Guardian,” dubbed Abdulmutallab.

In a country where the majority of people live on just $2 a day, people are asking how someone who’s been born and reared with a golden spoon in his mouth could throw it all away?

And if the privileged young man could be drawn by Islamic extremism into a suicide bombing plot, what does this say of about Nigeria’s efforts to encourage its Muslim and Christian populations to live together peacefully? Muslims make up about 50 percent of Nigeria’s 149 million people, while Christians comprise 40 percent, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Abdulmutallab’s attempt to blow up a passenger-filled airliner has left Nigerians angry and puzzled. And it comes at a time when officials here are trying to improve Nigeria’s image.

“This singular act has done unquantifiable damage to the nascent re-branding project,” said Steven Douglas, an executive with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company. “He was simply unenlightened and stupid to allow himself to be used.”

Abdulmutallab’s father Umaru Abdulmutallab, 71, is at the top of the heap of the Nigerian elite, and has been for years. His 16 children and two wives share massive homes around the world. His home on Asa Street in the tony Maitama district of Abuja is palatial, as is his country home in the sleepy Funtua in the nearby Katsina state.

He just retired as chairman on First Bank, one of the nation’s largest, after serving on its board for 13 years. And before that he ran the large United Bank for Africa (UBA). For decades Abdulmutallab, has worked the corridors of power here, serving as a federal minister, as far back as 1975 and currently heading up the current president’s Business Support Group. He has racked up national honors over the years.

In a country where some 90 percent of the people struggle economically, Abdulmutallab’s wealth allowed him to give his son, Farouk, an international education that most Nigerians can only dream of.

Abdulmutallab sent his son to a posh boarding school, the British International School in Lome, Togo and then to the University College, London, where his son lived in swanky apartment. The younger Abdulmutallab seemed destined for success.

After graduating in the U.K., the quiet young man, who was dubbed “alpha” and “the pope” because of his saintly ways, went off to Dubai for post-graduate studies.

He never completed them and reportedly left due to nonpayment of fees. The younger Abdulmutallab instead went to Yemen to study Arabic. By August he was severing ties with his family and his worried father was calling the U.S. embassy to warn of his son, who he was worried was now under the sway of extremists.

The son re-entered Nigeria on Dec. 24 in order to board the KLM flight to Amsterdam that same night. He used an e-ticket that had been purchased from Accra, Ghana. And he boarded the international flight with just one piece of hand luggage and no checked in luggage, which is most unusual in Nigeria, where traveling light means two checked bags.

“The man in question has been living outside the country for awhile. He sneaked into Nigeria on Dec. 24 and left the same day,” said Dora Akunyili, Nigeria’s information minister.

From the bustling seaside metropolis of Lagos with its searing skyscrapers, to the red soil dirt roads of Asaba, on the banks of the River Niger, Nigerians can’t understand what has transpired. And it’s the talk of many towns.

“It is a reflection of poor family values but more importantly it is a clear evidence of the disadvantage of allowing very young children to live a life away from family from a very young age,” said Ifeanyi Ukoha, 39, a banker in Lagos. “The young man’s values would have been so mixed up thus opening him up to extremism.”

Ukoha added: “Nigerians in the diaspora will suffer in terms of a renewed perception as terrorists. Already Nigerians are grappling with issues relating to immigration abuse and advanced fee fraud.”

Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan said Abdulmutallab’s actions may lead to a clampdown on all Nigerians.

“A Nigerian has created an additional problem for us by wanting to blow up an aircraft,” he said after a church service here. “That means that those Nigerians who travel out of this country will be subjected to unnecessary harassments and searches.”

Timothy Obiorah, 43, an oil and gas industry manager concurred: “Everyone will be a suspect now. This was the bleakest Christmas in this country.”

One Detroit-based businessman who landed in Abuja right after Christmas said that when he withdrew thousands of dollars from an American bank for his trip, he did not want to tell the teller that he was traveling to Nigeria, because of the hysteria about Abdulmutallab.

“I said I was heading to Kampala [Uganda],” said the traveler. “With all this stuff, she might have thought to herself, out of an abundance of caution, to call the FBI and say ‘this black guy just withdrawn all this money and is heading to Nigeria.’ I just don’t want the hassle.”

By FRANKIE EDOZIEN

ABUJA

International travelers flying out of Nigeria’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos during the Christmas season are used to being hassled by security. Usually, it’s a demand for tips and gifts. At every point of contact with officials, from check-in to final boarding, the requests are constant.

As a result, many passengers familiar with the Lagos airport aren’t surprised that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the young man accused of trying to blow up Northwest Flight 253 over Detroit, could have boarded his flight with liquid explosives. “They tell you, Take your shoes off, take your boots off, take your belt off, but the woman who is looking at the X-ray machine is looking at you to give her a tip,” says Victor Chidi Asaba-One, 41, a businessman who shuttles between Detroit and Lagos about 20 times a year, often on the same KLM and Northwest flights that Abdulmutallab used.

The 23-year-old son of one of Nigeria’s wealthiest men and most prominent bankers has lived outside Nigeria for years and had severed ties with his family. On Dec. 24 he re-entered Nigeria and boarded a KLM flight to Amsterdam that same night. He used an e-ticket that had been purchased in Accra, Ghana.

Shortly after the thwarted bombing attempt, Nigerian authorities stressed that its airports had recently passed the International Civil Aviation audit and just last month passed a Transportation Security Administration audit as well. “However, in light of our new developments, we have reinforced our security systems in all our airports,” said Information Minister Dora Akunyili.

Nevertheless, Ifeanyi Ukoha, 39, a banker in Lagos who flies from the Lagos airport regularly, insists the security at Murtala Muhammed International Airport is comparatively lax. “Unauthorized persons are allowed beyond the stipulated point mostly because they are in uniform,” he says. “And security personnel will keep soliciting gratification, especially during festive seasons.”

Other passengers say screening processes, particularly at Lagos, are geared toward looking for drugs. In fact, there is an additional checkpoint for local drug enforcement once passengers have passed customs and immigration.

At the airport in Lagos, as well as the one in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, passengers are now subjected to extra screening, with officials there saying everyone will now be subjected to body-screening. “It’s a joke, man,” Asaba-One says. “They may have functioning X-ray machines, even though they are older, but I’m not sure the person looking at the screen even knows what to look for. If, for example, I had a liquid explosive that is going through it, will they be able to tell the difference between a liquid bottle of Coke versus a liquid bottle of PETN? I don’t think they can tell. I know they can’t tell.”

Some passengers also know that liquid gels in plastic containers less than 100 ml don’t set off magnetometers. They say they simply put them in their pockets and let their shirts hang over them as they walk through airport checkpoints in Nigeria — and head for Europe and the U.S.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1950695,00.html

It’s been five years since the designer emporium Cloth debuted in a brownstone on a quiet side street — Fort Greene Place, off Hanson.

Back then, compared to the longstanding boutiques on Fulton Street, Cloth was the upscale newcomer.

But with little fanfare, owner Zoë van de Wiele has built up a clientele and a reputation as the woman to see for stylish duds that won’t break the bank.

To read more click here 

By Frankie Edozien

ACCRA, Ghana - For weeks the ‘Welcome Home’ signs have been up.

Billboards with President Barack Obama’s smiling face and that of his Ghanaian counterpart, John Atta Mills now dot this seaside capital.

Underneath them is the slogan ‘Partnership for Change’.

While Obama ‘T Shirts have been commonplace since 2008, the local fabric with his photo is all the rage now.   Within the past few days, hawkers and street vendors in the city center, a mainstay of here, have vanished.

When the president and his wife Michelle, step off Air Force One, Friday night they will encounter a spruced up Accra and heavy crowds expected to give them a rousing ‘Akwabaa’ throughout the weekend.

“The Kenyans are asking why is he not in Kenya?” said Isumaila Wortey, 50, as he supervised a cleaning crew planting flowers and removing unwanted structures at Kwame Nkrumah Circle, in the city center.

 “It looks as if Ghana is more peaceful that ever before. We have had stability for over 20 years now,” he added, explaining his reasoning for Obama’s choice of Ghana for his maiden presidential visit to Africa.

Ghana’s president, assumed the presidency earlier this year after leading the opposition National Democratic Congress party to victory over the then ruling New Patriotic Party.

 Before leaving the White House for the G-8 summit in Europe, Obama told all Africa.com that there is a direct correlation between governance and prosperity.

He said indeed he chose Ghana because part of the reason was its stability.

“Ghana has undergone a couple of successful elections in which power was transferred peacefully even in a very close election. I think the new president, President Mills has shown himself committed to the rule of law.”

Maxwell Ofotsu, 49, said that his new president “sees the suffering of the people the unemployment, the armed robbery and he assures Ghana that all these will stop.”

Obama’s visit “means that what Atta Mills has promised, he will be able to deliver with the help of the United States.

As state visits go, this is a short one. The First family arrives on Friday night from Rome and will spend only one night in Africa. One Saturday morning, there will be a breakfast with both presidents; Obama and the First Lady will then pay a visit to a health facility at La Polytechnic.

Following that he will make a major foreign policy speech to invited guests at the Accra International Conference center. The speech had been scheduled for the grandiose Independence Square but the heavy rains that have caused flooding in the capital forced officials to move it indoors.

Afterwards the President and his family are expected to head to Cape Coast, two hours east where he’ll meet with the traditional ruler there.

Billboards welcoming the Obamas line the road to Cape Coast although it is likely the president won’t seem them if he flies there.

Oguaa Omanhen Osabrimba Kwesi Atta 11 will sit in state with his sub-chiefs and then honor Michelle Obama with a title of queen.

Afterwards the two are expected to tour Cape Coast Castle, and its tiny ‘Door of No Return’ from where millions of shackled slaves passed through on their way to America.

Officials said this castle visit, which is often a very emotional one for visitors will leave a lasting impression.    A whirlwind 24 hours. When former President Clinton came, he stayed eight hours. For President Bush, it was 36 hours.

Aisha Abudu-Whitman, a prominent Accra architect, points out that there are two distinct perspectives on the historic visit. “Regular people are really proud that he chose to come to Ghana first. Rightly or wrongly we always think of ourselves as the gateway to Africa so we are really proud.”

But the 28-year-old added: “then there is the intellectual perspective which is that we just discovered oil, so he must want that.”

With rampant rumors of gas prices skyrocketing, long queues at filing stations, and unemployment still climbing, everyone is hoping for something tangible.

“We hope he will bring the whole world to Ghana for investment so that unemployment can go down. If he brings us money, one day that money will run short, but if he brings us employment it will last longer,” Wortey, who spent 12 years in the Ghanaian military said.

Speculation is also rife that the establishment of United States Africa Command in Ghana will be on the agenda, but so far the Foreign Ministry here have denied that. African leaders oppose any such military base anywhere on the continent.

Photo: Phil Molnar

Abdoul’s Fort Greene Jewel

“You travel with my food. You can travel from Africa, to Europe, to America, to Asia. And at the same time you’re comfortable with what you’re eating,” he said.

“Africa is rich, a billion type of cooking styles,” he said. “I wanted to use that and infuse it with what I know. I have experience in French cooking and Asian cooking. I take all these varieties and put on one dish.”

To read more click here

Pierre Thiam’s Amazing Restaurant

Five years ago, he opened Le Grand Dakar in Clinton Hill, a stone throw from the home where he’s been raising three children for the past 14 years. Yolele has since closed. But Le Grand Dakar, with its 1,000-square-foot space and seating for 75, has evolved into a cultural hub. Mr. Thiam’s food is the draw, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays diners are treated to jazz.

Last week Bill Lee, father of Fort Greene’s own Spike Lee, jammed all night. Afrobeat maestro Jojo-Kuo is headed there later this month.

For the rest of the story click here

A look at an extraordinary Wine Shop in Fort Greene.

“I didn’t think there would be that much foot traffic on Myrtle Avenue,” he said. “I thought the store would be kind of dead and I would have to make a living by calling up people, by building up a client list of contacts that I would be delivering cases of wine to in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and throughout the five boroughs.

To read the entire piece click here

KAMPALA, Uganda - A beacon of hope has emerged for the millions of Africans dealing with HIV/AIDS from an unassuming single story clinic, nestled in the hills of this city.

Since its doors were open in 2004, the Infectious Disease Institute (IDI) has been on the forefront of Africa’s response to the pandemic, quietly and methodically conducting scores of clinical trials while treating thousands. IDI and its staff have proved through their outreach and treatments that high-quality care can be given without having to build brick-and-mortar infrastructure in every rural area.

The friends, as the patients there are called, are regaining their foothold in society, living healthier, with their heads held high and some are even heading back to the workplace after being pull from the brink of death.

“When this clinic started in a small room, a HIV clinic was a specter of a lot of depression and sadness, people laying on the floors. Now as you will see it’s a vibrant population,” said Andrew Kambugu, IDI’s head of clinical services.

“People are well, they are going back to work, they are looking for spouses if they’ve lost their loved ones and they are looking to live life again. For me as a young African professional, I think there are fewer places that give more satisfaction,” the doctor added.

IDI’s success in rolling out anti-retroviral therapies (ARVs) while simultaneously conducting high level research work began as dream. American and African academics wondering how to deal with Africa’s AIDS crisis came up with the idea to open up a state-of-the-art regional center of excellence to serve the continent.

Thus, the Academic Alliance for AIDS care and prevention in Africa was born. The Alliance got the Pfizer foundation to donate funds for the building and operational cost for the first few years and IDI opened it’s doors in 2004. It costs $2 million a year to operate.

“When we came here in 2001, it was very clear that we would never be able to accomplish the vision with the physical infrastructure that was here at the time,” said W. Michael Scheld, a medical professor at the University of Virginia who has been involved with IDI since it was an idea. “We had the [nearby] Mulago Clinic, but it was only open a half day at a time. They saw about 100 patients a day and almost no one ever came back because there was nothing to offer.”

Today, thousands are treated, given medication, taught new activities to help them generate income, and most are smiling on any given day you find them at IDI. Indeed the miracle drugs paid for the Global Fund; the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are partly responsible. But anti-retrovirals (ARVs) were just the beginning.

“Two and a half years ago, we had trouble in the waiting area. It was a very stigmatizing environment. Friends (patients) would come in and hide in the waiting area. Not wanting to be noticed. Some of them would actually cover their heads. There was a lot of stigma in that waiting area,” said Caleb Twijukye, 32, coordinator of IDI’s creativity initiative.

“So we saw a need to start something that would engage those friends and something to fight that stigma. We began by creating communes in those waiting rooms.” With participating in music, games, spiritual healing, and sharing, each patient found a place to feel more vibrant.

“They come in now dance and sing, and they are happy. By the time they get into that doctor’s room, they are already happy and treated. It really works,” Twikujye added.

IDI, at its core is a clinical research facility that holds its own with other such facilities the world over, despite being right in the middle of a relatively poor country in East Africa. Dusty dirt roads lead up to the hills where IDI is yet, its laboratories are only one of three College of American Pathologists(CAP) certified on the continent. Stepping into the sterile environment with its international cadre of medical professionals, it is easy feel like one is in a Western capital.

“We’re not here to train Europeans or North Americans to have their African experience,” insists Phillipa Easterbrook, the head of research. Easterbrook is a medical professor who took a leave from Kings College in London to work at IDI.

“We are here to train the next generation of clinicians, teachers, researchers in sub-Saharan Africa.” The era of scientific projects emanating from the West with Africa being the receptacle is ending. It will be us in sub-Saharan Africa saying these are the questions we want to ask together. We will write the grants, we will do the programs, we will do the analyses, we will write the papers. And that’s the spirit I’m trying to engender in IDI.”

In just a few years, 27 African nations have sent close to 2,000 medical professionals to be trained in the latest in HIV care. Yet, some trainees have come from Europe and Asia. IDI insists that those it trains go to their home country and train others. They keep regular communications and have staff waiting to take queries about difficult cases.

Taking a short break from one of the intensive month long training sessions, Zambian physician, Patrick Makelele, said he was drawn to IDI by the caliber of clinicians lecturing. “My expectation is to update my skills in ART management, get the latest if there is any and also to learn from the huge experience of Uganda,” he said. “I wanted to know more [see] what is going on, on the ground … realize my gaps.”

Nigerian military physician, Nathan Okeji, said he planned to return to his home facility and turnover how he’d been doing things. “I’m very impressed with what I’m seeing here, I think we are going to bring an entirely new face to HIV management in Nigeria especially among the military,” the doctor said. He said he immediately wants to begin testing infants born of HIV positive mothers at six weeks rather than wait 18 months as he’d been doing. “The standard here is exactly almost what I’ve been seeing going abroad the in the UK or USA. As far as I’m concerned, the USA is now here in Uganda.” He also plans to use an IDI inspired method of shifting medical tasks to competent nurses. “The doctors are doing everything and we are overwhelmed. We are seeing about 40-something patients, daily. You go from your house to the hospital. Then you are fagged out and you go to bed.”

Easterbrook, who has brought a strong focus on epidemiology to all staff and trainees at IDI, insists that Africa is the place to get answers for HIV now. “My role is to really make sure we’ve crossed every ‘t’ and dotted every ‘i’, in having a rigor in our procedures that rival those in North America and Western Europe.”

Yakari Manabe, a doctor from decamped to Kampala to run the labs here, said simply that “IDI has the ability to answer questions that cannot be answered in the states.” The New Jersey doctor added that: “If you want to look at HIV and tuberculosis co-infection and understand better the collision of those two infections and the devastating epidemic that comes from it, it is best done in places like this.”

While IDI serves some 10,000 friends, it has partnered with Kampala clinics and heads out to different clinic sites ach week to treat hundreds of other patients.

“My dream is maybe to see a negative generation. A new, negative, generation,” said Zam Nakawooya, 35, a former teacher now peer counselor at IDI.

IDI is part of my life now,” added Peter Kamlimba, 38. “I can’t relate it to anyplace. This is where I found my life. I’d lost my life and now I’ve gained my life again. I’m strong, I’m healthy, I can do anything.”

For IDI’s board, the goal is to replicate its success across the continent. Already similar centers of excellence are planned for Ethiopia and Nigeria.

This report is supported by the Project for International Health Journalism Fellowship Program as part of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation’s Media Fellowships Program

IDI clinic by the numbers:
Patients/friends being served: Over 10,000 for free.
Clinical trials performed: Over 80
Tests performed yearly: 160,000
African countries trainees have come from: 27
Trainees trained since 2004: 2000.

Images Courtesy of http://www.idi.ac.ug/

By Frankie Edozien

KAMPALA, Uganda

With so many people infected by the HIV virus here, it was inevitable that a sizable number of couples would have negative partners. Keeping those partners virus free has led one organization to try a novel approach — having a social club for such couples. The Discordant Couples club is run by The AIDS Service Organization (TASO), Uganda’s longtime HIV support network. They meet quarterly and share experiences and have counseling sprinkled into their sessions. “It is a big challenge,” said TASO spokeswoman Anne Kaddumukasa.

“Many of them do share that their spouses get tired of using condoms and sometimes if it is the woman, because culturally the woman has less power over sexual related issues, sometimes we may not have enough power to convince the spouse to put on a condom,” she added. Since TASO began the club, it has grown to over 100 couples. About half of the patients in TASO’s Kampala center qualify as discordant couples. Indeed, many women have found out they are infected and their husbands continued as before, until the women actually fell sick, as was the case of Zam Nakawooya, a schoolteacher.

The married mother found out she was HIV positive in 1993, but it was not until her second child was born and she fell sick years later that her husband got tested. “We took our blood and found out I was positive and he was negative. So he wondered ‘how did it come? I’ve stayed with my wife almost 10 years; how can it be like that?’ That doctor said it usually happens and we call those people, discordant couples.”

At Kampala’s leading HIV clinic, the Infectious Disease Institute, head of clinical services explained that HIV has touched the entire nation. “In Uganda any family, has lost someone or a friend to HIV, in that sense it is easy to deal with stigma. Everyone is affected,” said Andrew Kambuga. “The national prevalence stands at 6.4 percent that represents a triumph. So before this, HIV prevalence was between 12 and 15 percent in the late 90s.” The doctor estimated that now there could be 150,000 new infections annually so novel approaches are welcome and needed. The nation’s population is 27.6 million.

“We realized that we really needed to support these people, because many of them have children, many of them have been living together for over 10, 15 years, and encouraging them to separate will not help because they need to bring up these children,” Kaddumukasa added.

Speakers are brought in often and blame is severely discouraged. Part of the club’s mission is to have members have a life free from blame, free from judgment and a sexual life that includes proper condom use all the time. Very few members who are negative have been infected in the five years of the club. “We keep checking them but it’s very insignificant. So that means they are using condoms. We also assure them that ‘you may not remain negative all your life if you continue to expose yourself to the infection. You can sero-convert and become positive,” she added.

This report is supported by the Project for International Health Journalism Fellowship Program as part of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation’s Media Fellowships Program.

Images Courtesy of www.tasouganda.org and http://www.idi.ac.ug

New York Amsterdam News

Nov 27-Dec 3, 2008

 KAMPALA - Nathaniel Okeji looks out from the balcony to the gargantuan Mulago Hospital across the dirt road and shakes his head in awe.

On this spring day, the Nigerian military doctor is on a break from the intensive lectures he and 22 other African doctors are receiving from Uganda’s Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI).

As the cacophony of dialects hum around him, Okeji a pediatrician marveled at how Ugandan doctors successfully test newborns for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

In his home country, he has to wait until the infants are at least 18 months old.

“I’m very impressed with what I’m seeing here,” Okeji says. He’s been making the rounds with IDI doctors for the past three weeks.

“We are going to bring an entirely new face to HIV management in Nigeria, especially among the military. The standard here is exactly almost what I’ve been seeing going abroad the in the UK or USA. As far as I’m concerned, the USA is now here in Uganda.”

Along with Okeji, the Nigerian government has dispatched eight other doctors to this inconspicuous single-story Ugandan clinic, nestled in the hills that surround Kampala.

Since opening in 2004, this state-of-the-art facility has become the go-to institution African countries trying to effectively manage HIV treatment, as well as others looking to learn what works in developing nations.

The institute is dwarfed in size by its neighbor, Mulago Hospital, Uganda’s national hospital.

Mulago’s expansive grounds and blue and white walls are familiar to some moviegoers, as scenes form “The Last King of Scotland” were shot there.

IDI is showing consistently that premium care can be given even without having investments in numerous brick-and-mortar structures. Its patients, called friends, are regaining their foothold in society after being pulled from certain death.

Other African nations have taken note of Uganda’s success in bringing a sizable chunk of its population back from the brink of death and looked to its successful roadmap to treating millions infected with HIV.

For Patrick Makelele, one of two Zambian doctors who came for the IDI training program, a need to learn to successfully managing patients on antiretroviral therapies brought him to Kampala.

“My expectation is to update my skills in ART management, get the latest [information] . . . basically to learn from the huge experience of Uganda,” says Makelele, who is employed to support Zambia public health ministry.

Andrew Kambugu, 35, the institute’s head of clinical services, says training in the management of malaria, the continent’s other great scourge, is also offered to doctors. And he says dividends are already being paid in the region.

“The outlook for this institute is to be a regional institute serving [all of] Africa, not just Uganda. One of the initial stimuli for the development of this institute was to have a program that would impact beyond Uganda.”

So far, 28 African countries have sent close to 2,000 medical professionals there to be trained. Skills are then passed on to doctors and nurses who could not be there.

IDI has set up an on-call center manned by two pharmacists daily to take calls and emails from doctors and nurses from across the continent whom they’ve trained.

“A doctor might call and say ‘I started my patient on these three drugs and he’s come back later and his body has broken out in a rash. His eyes are swollen and red. What could be the cause?’” explains Rabinah Lukwago.