The ill-fated attempt by a young Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, 23, to blow up Delta 253 has enraged many Africans. He spent weeks in Ghana before purchasing his ticket with cash. Inevitably, enhanced security measures and technology will be installed, costing tens of billions. But for Africa, the cost will be much greater:

In the past few decades, Africa's youth – like Mutallab -- have become increasingly disaffected, lost, and restless. About 60 percent of Africa's nearly 1 billion people are under 30 years of age. Poorly educated and jobless, they lack local role models with moral stature. Their governments are dysfunctional and the leadership is sclerotic. Hard work and entrepreneurship no longer bring success and wealth; political connections matter. The richest in Africa are heads of state and ministers. Of the 209 heads of states since 1960, fewer than 15 can be adjudged as "good, clean leaders." The rest -- an assortment of military brutes and aging autocrats – are moribund and uninspiring. The chairman of the African Union itself is Muammar Khaddafy is hardly exemplary. He has ruled Libya for 40 years and admitted responsibility for the Dec 1988 bombing of PAN AM 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. He paid $2.7 billion in compensation to the relatives of the 270 victims. Disillusioned with their leaders and governments, Africa's youth succumb to radical ideas, easily recruited to fight wars (child soldiers) or fall prey to religious extremists –not just the Islamic fanatics in northern Nigeria and Somalia but also the Christian (the Lord Resistance Army in northern Uganda) and traditionalist (Mungiki sect in Kenya) as well. Some seek escape in rickety boats to Europe. Others turn to crime (drug trafficking, internet scams), prostitution and to extremist groups that seek violent change.

Catastrophic government failure has bred extremism in many African countries. Nigeria's government is a towering edifice of ineptitude, corruption and mismanagement. The country is rich in natural resources but 60 percent of its people live on less than $2 a day and lack access to basic social services. Its rulers have looted more than $430 billion in oil revenue since independence in 1960 -- or six times America's Marshall Aid Plan for post-war Europe. The educational system is a shambles. University degrees are openly bought. Electricity supply is epileptic; only 30 percent of Nigerians have access to reliably supply of electricity. Clean water supply is spasmodic. It is an oil-producing country but must import refined petroleum products.

Whole states and groups are now in open revolt. Nigeria's May 1999 Constitution is secular but 12 northern states defied it and adopted their own state religion -- the sharia. Still, a local Islamic fundamentalist sect, Boko Haram ("Western civilization is forbidden"), emerged in the northern state of Bornu. It denounced "the wicked political parties leading the country, the corrupt, irresponsible, criminal, murderous political leadership," and called for a jihad across Nigeria.

Clashes with security forces in Maiduguri in July left over 800 dead. Meanwhile in the south, the Yoruba mull secession. Back in the late 1960s, the Ndigbo attempted it, leading to the Biafran War (1967-1970) that claimed over 1 million. The Delta Region is the most rebellious and volatile. Various groups are demanding a new political dispensation. The most violent is the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which has launched a string of attacks on the country's oil industry, abducting foreign workers, bombing major tanker loading platforms and sabotaging pipelines. These attacks cut Nigeria's oil production by 20 percent in 2006.

Efforts to clean up government have been thwarted by the ruling gangsters. Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, tried in 2003. She secured an $18 billion debt write-off from the Paris Club for Nigeria and recovered billions in stolen assets. But she was quickly re-assigned to the foreign ministry. She resigned in 2006. The head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Nigeria (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, also made a courageous effort in 2003. He went after internet scammers and corrupt politicians, prosecuting state governors and recovered more than $5 billion in stolen booty -- despite attempts on his life. Then suddenly, he was shipped off to Britain -- for "further studies."

It would be lugubrious for the U.S. to partner with Nigeria to fight terrorism. In fact, this war on terrorism has become theatrical in Africa. Back in 2001 when former president George Bush declared war on terror, rogue regimes that were terrorizing their own people saw an opportunity. They quickly parroted the war cry in order to receive U.S. aid. Charles Taylor of Liberia, the indicted war criminal, set up an "Anti-Terrorist Unit" ran by this brother. And Somali warlords, who had been terrorizing residents of Mogadishu, even formed a Coalition Against Terrorism and secured CIA funding in 2006.
The current clutch of U.S. allies in this war in Africa – Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda – reeks of repression, corruption and government failure. Yemen, where a new front is to be opened, is even worse. And in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai stole the October elections right under the noses of NATO forces. Partnership with such corrupt regimes carries the risk of propping up regimes that have failed their people.
Strategies need to be re-calibrated or revamped. Reliance on military might and advanced weaponry is not enough. Intelligence is important but so is an understanding of the situation and cultures in poor regions where tribal loyalties are strong. Focus needs to shift in two areas: First, slightly from terrorism to the more fundamental problem of government failure, which breeds extremism.

Illiterate and tribal people have their own ancient ways of dealing with government failure. When Benin was teetering on the brink of implosion in 1991, it convened a "sovereign national conference" – modeled after Africa's native institution of village meeting – and replaced its Marxist dictatorship with a democratic order. South Africa followed suit in 1994 with a similar vehicle (the Convention for a Democratic South Africa). In 2002, a loya jirga -- or "grand assembly" – was convened in Bonn, Germany, to chart a democratic future for Afghanistan. The loya jirga, rooted in Pashtun tradition, has been called to deal with national crises for centuries. In 1747, one such assembly in Kandahar selected King Ahmad Shah Durrani, who united a tapestry of fractious tribal entities into the modern Afghan state. It is needed today, not just in Afghanistan but also in failed states and U.S. allies in the war on terrorism to deal with crises in government.

The second shift is informed by the value system of poor tribal communities. In the West, the individual is the focal unit and held accountable for his/her actions. In poor developing countries, it is the collective or community – the family, the village and the tribe. Consider this African saying: "It takes a village to raise a child." Conversely, it takes a village to produce a criminal or a terrorist.

If an individual commits a crime, he brings shame to his family. The extreme form of punishment for a transgression of this type may be "honor killing." Further, the family is held liable for any damages the individual may have caused. It was this value system that propelled Mutallab's father to tip off the U.S. Embassy of his son's growing radicalism. Apply this notion of "collective responsibility."

If a member of a family, a church or a mosque commits an act of terrorism, the family, the church or the mosque should be held accountable. The entire family may be placed on "no-fly list" or deported and his church or mosque shut down. If held collectively accountable, maybe family members and church or mosque leaders will start disciplining the extremists among them. The target of terrorist is not an individual American but a collective – Western civilization.

Perhaps, to defeat terrorists, it may be necessary to speak the language they understand. _______________________________ The writer is a native of Ghana and President of the Free Africa Foundation in Washington, DC