Umar Farouk Mutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian suspect in the attempted bombing of a passenger jetliner as it approached the US city of Detroit on Christmas day, is just like any normal folk, despite his affluent background as the son of a prominent banker and former Nigerian government minister.
Known and addressed by his middle name, Farouk, he attended the high brow preparatory British International School in Lome, capital of the West African nation of Togo, from where he went to study engineering in England.
After his first degree, he proceeded to Dubai University in the United Arab Emirates for his post-graduate studies in Business Administration. He was later to abandon that course, saying he was travelling to Yemen for Arabic studies.
Realising the move did not have the backing of his parents, he severed communications with his family, who never heard from him again until his arrest in the US on 25 Dec., for attempting to blow up a Northwest flight (operated by Delta) from Amsterdam.
Farouk had bought his flight ticket in Accra, Ghana, only to ”sneak into Nigeria” on 24 Dec. to board his flight to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, en route the US, according to the regulatory Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
”Prior to this incident, his father, having become concerned about his disappearance and stoppage of communication while schooling abroad, reported the matter to the Nigerian security agencies about two months ago, and to some foreign security agencies about a month and a half ago, then sought their assistance to find and return him home,” the family said in a statement issued in the capital city of Abuja late Sunday.
”We provided them (security agencies) with all the information required of us to enable them do this. We were hopeful that they would find and return him home.
It was while we were waiting for the outcome of their investigation that we arose to the shocking news of that day,” the statement said.
The family added: ”The disappearance and cessation of communication, which got his mother and father concerned to report to the security agencies, are completely out of character and a very recent development, as before then, from very early childhood, Farouk, to the best of parental monitoring, had never shown any attitude, conduct or association that would give concern. As soon as concern arose, very recently, his parents, reported it and sought help.”
Indeed, while he was generally reclusive and shunned the company of women, Mutallab was said to have shown compassion for the less privileged starting from his days in the preparatory school, when he reportedly gave 50 pounds to an orphanage rather than spend it on souvenirs in London during a school trip abroad.
But associates said the good-looking Farouk, from the predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria, was also deeply religious.
The local Daily Trust newspaper Monday quoted an unidentified young associate of Farouk as saying that while at the preparatory school, he spent the money given to him by his wealthy father mostly on religious books, and had a stint as an Islam ic preacher in Kaduna, the political capital of northern Nigeria.
He was said to have featured as a ‘preacher’ at the weekly preaching session at Little Scholars, a nursery and primary school in the city.
”The associate said he remembered Farouk once giving a long talk of the importance of Muslim women covering themselves with the hijab, or veil. On another occasion, he said, Farouk preached about the importance of fasting during the Muslim holy mon th of Ramadan. On yet another occasion that he was present, the source said he dw elt knowledgeably about the meaning of Suratul Ahad, the 63th chapter of the holy Qur’an,” the paper reported.
According to the associate, at no time in his preaching did Farouk ever dwell on political topics or give any indication that violent action was justifiable.
The associate said the session was attended by many people from the middle-class houses all around, and that he saw Farouk’s own mother at two of the sessions where her son spoke.
Daily Trust quoted another associate who schooled with Farouk in London as saying he had very few friends and mostly kept to himself. He said while in Britain, Farouk refused to exchange greetings with women, and usually moved away when his friends stopped on the way to exchange greetings with women.
”Whenever women greeted him, the associate said, Farouk will bow his head slightly in acknowledgement but would never shake hands with them,” Daily Trust quoted the associate as saying.
So what could have driven a young man from an affluent background to the world of terrorism? The investigations ordered by the Nigerian government into the matter, as well as the probe being carried out by international security agencies may help unravel the mystery!