An AbdulMutallab Year!

*Photo: Young men walking on the streets of Funtua,

AbdulMutallab's home town. Many are turning to religion

as a means of getting away from the hardships that mar daily living.

Photo by Ololade Adewuyi.

The year 2009 ended on a low for Nigeria with the attempted airline bombing by Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab. Sad to say anyway but I think we should look more closely at the incident to see that young Nigerians are increasingly turning to religion as an elixir for the failings of their leaders.

Even though it's been proved that the boy got radicalised in London where he schooled, many of our universities are becoming playgrounds for radicals theses days.

I attended the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife and know how well Islamist extremism is going on in that campus. I remember when Sharia law was introduced in the north in 1999 and how many Muslim groups began to call for the introduction of Sharia on our campus and how it could have degenerated into something bad if the Christian groups had reacted otherwise.

I remember all the Jihad weeks on the campus and how at the car park bordering Angola, Awo Annex and Mozambique halls mullahs would scream into loud speakers denouncing Jesus' claim as the son of God.

There was a time in my final year when a religious broil almost broke out among the younger students during the Ramadan when a Christian student complained of the noise making that ensured in the early hours of the morning because it was also exam time. It's sad that our university is fast becoming a breeding ground for extremists, Christians and Muslims alike.

Fanaticism came to its head when some Christian students sometime ago decided to go into the forest to await the coming of Christ!

When shall this all end?