Nigerian Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe on Tuesday protested to the US ambassador to the west African country over Washington's introduction of tighter screening for passengers from Nigeria.
Nigerian Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe
"I made it clear, through the US ambassador, to the US government that this is unacceptable to Nigeria," Maduekwe told journalists after a meeting in his Abuja office with ambassador Robin Sanders.
"I told the US ambassador that listing Nigeria on the second tier of countries that are indicated on the radar of security measures from the US, is an unacceptable New Year gift to a friendly country like Nigeria," he said.
He stated that Nigeria had since independence in 1960 always maintained "very excellent relations" with the United States.
"I told her clearly that we want the US authorities to look at it again. We conveyed the message that putting Nigeria on that list is not helpful. It is counterproductive," stated Maduekwe.
"They didn't need to put us on that list and we want to be off that list. That is the message I conveyed to her, through her to the US government," he said.
Washington on Sunday introduced new security measures for passengers flying to the United States from 14 countries, including Nigeria, after a 23-year-old Nigerian was accused of trying to blow up a US jetliner over Detroit on Christmas Day.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a trained mechanical engineer, who had explosives sewn into his underwear, had boarded a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. He had flown to Amsterdam on a KLM flight from Lagos.
The minister, a lawyer, underlined that Nigeria "has been traditionally friendly with America (and it is) a country whose 70 million Muslims are among the most peaceful Mulims anywhere in the world".
He accused Washington of double standards by imposing sanctions on Nigeria following the incident.
"I made it clear that we sensed some double standard because as regrettable and as unfortunate what this young man tried to do or attempted to do, was not different from what the suicide (shoe) bomber attempted to do."
He was referring to a British national Richard Reid, the so-called "shoe bomber" convicted of trying to blow up a Paris-Miami flight in 2001.
"And yet the country of origin of the suicide bomber was not put in a category of countries of security concerns," he stated.
Earlier on Tuesday, Justice Minister Michael Aondoaaka said that Nigeria will appeal to the United States to remove it from the terrorism flight watchlist.
Aondoaaka told reporters he believed the United States "will rescind that decision because Nigeria is not a terrorist country and a single incident that involves a Nigerian cannot criminalise all Nigerians".
Nigeria's police chief Ogbonnaya Onovo also backed the call, insisting there was "no security issue" in the country.
"We may be deeply religious, but certainly we are no suicide bombers or terrorists," he said.
Nigeria's main opposition party Action Congress said Tuesday that rather than sanctions, Nigeria needed the understanding and support of its international partners to stamp out religious extremism in the country.
The party said that "a threat to peace anywhere is a threat to peace everywhere. Therefore, Nigeria?s international partners will also be assisting themselves by assisting Nigeria," it said.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20100105/twl-nigerian-fm-protests-to-us-envoy-ove-2802f3e.html
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