Lagos — If there was anything the post-Hillary Clinton's visit to Nigeria last year has shown, it is the extent to which the country has sunk in stature. But diplomats believe it goes beyond that to include her weakness, or outright inability, to dangle the carrot or wield the stick in the spirit of reciprocity, a term used in diplomatic circles to explain the relationship among independent nations.

When the United States Secretary of State visited Africa last year, she threw several jabs at Nigeria, in manners international affairs analysts denounced as unacceptable (tacit) meddling in the internal affairs of her host country and direct assault on the integrity of her leaders.

Although, Aso Rock protested the Clinton's assault, Washington followed up with outright rejection of Nigeria's choice of Ambassador to the United States, Tunde Adeniran, based on allegations of rape against his son, alongside two other Nigerian nationals, last year.

The Nigerian government has not issued a statement on it, and today the country does not have an ambassador in the U.S. President Umaru Yar'Adua supposedly boycotted the United Nations (UN) Summit on climate change and a summit of the G20 in protest of the U.S. enmity.

Rather than thaw in the spirit of the new decade, the relationship was again strained on Monday, after 23-year-old Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound Delta airline on Christmas Day - an action Nigerians have unreservedly condemned.

Abdulmutallab is the first Nigerian to be accused of terrorism, and the country has pledged full co-operation with the U.S. authorities with a view to unravelling all the details.

Not satisfied, the U.S. has grouped Nigeria with Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen as countries to watch. This group differs from another made up of Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria that have been classified as state sponsors of terror.

Many Nigerians have called on Aso Rock to reply in kind, in the light of what analysts call clear attempt by the U.S. to unnecessarily profile Nigerians and in turn ridicule the country.

The Inspector General of Police, Ogbonnoya Onovo, believes that the listing is undeserved since similar treatment has not been meted to countries with high-profile international terrorists.

"Nigerian travellers to the United States need not be subjected to extraordinary hardship. There are no security issues in the country. The new policy is unfair," Onovo was quoted as saying.

"There are convicted terrorists who are American, British and Belgian citizens, and this fact has not made the TSA regard either Britain or Belgium as a country of interest. For the avoidance of doubt, I would like to point out that Hamid Hyat, who was convicted in April 2007 of terrorism, is an American. Richard Reid, who is serving a life sentence in the United States for attempting on December 22, 2001 to bomb an American commercial plane flying from Paris to Miami, is a British citizen. His collaborator, Nizar Trabelsi, is Belgian.

"If the American authorities could not add Britain and Belgium to the list of countries of interest, then there is no objective reason to include Nigeria. We may be deeply religious, but certainly we are no suicide bombers or terrorists. Both the Nigerian government and the people abhor fanaticism. We have zero policy tolerance towards Al Qaeda in Nigeria. We strongly condemn unequivocally all kinds of terrorism.

"It is self-evident that Farouk Abdultallab has no Nigerian cohorts. It is also self-evident that he did not develop radical religious views in Nigeria, but abroad."

A professor of International Relations at the University of Lagos, Kayode Soremekun, said enlisting Nigeria is like placing the sin of one person on a whole nation of 140 million people. He added in another breath that the action exposes the weakness of Nigeria in international politics.

"Considering the history of terrorism," Soremekun said, "Nigeria does not deserve to be added to whatever kind of list the U.S. might draw up on this.

"Nigeria's economy is already a weakened one and the impact of such a decision might not be seriously felt by an average Nigerian. They are acting in the heat of moment. When the heat comes down, they might look back.

"Nigeria is already a weakened state. Our leaders have given us a bad image outside there. We are known for other things, if not terrorism and Nigeria cannot have any leverage on the U.S. So, there is now an uneven relationship between the leadership of the two countries."

In what confirmed the weakened status of Nigeria, Information Minister, Dora Akunyili, merely condemned the diplomatic assault but without making any concrete demand of Washington, as other independent, self-respecting nations would have made in such instance.

Akunyili's words: "It is unfair to include Nigeria in the US list for tighter screening because Nigerians do not have terrorists tendency. AbdulMutallab's act was a one-off thing. He was not influenced in Nigeria. He was not recruited or trained in Nigeria. He was not supported whatsoever in Nigeria.

"AbdulMutallab's behaviour is not reflective of Nigerians and should therefore not be used as a yardstick to judge all Nigerians. It is unfair to discriminate against over 150 million people because of the behaviour of one person.

"AbdulMutallab was a well-behaved child from a responsible family who developed the ugly tendency to do what he tried to do because of his exposure outside the shores of Nigeria. Nigerians are peace-loving and happy people. We were even voted as the happiest people on earth."

The National Security Adviser, Gen. Sarki Muktar, also called an emergency meeting of all security chiefs for Tuesday over the U.S. statement, but analysts say no significant step has yet been taken.

Top Nigerians have called on Aso Rock to respond in kind, but many doubt the ruling elite have the gut to call the bluff of the U.S.

Former Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Audu Ogbeh, described the action as an "enemy act" to which Nigeria must respond accordingly.

"This should be considered an enemy act and we must respond in kind. I strongly urge our government to send a strong protest to the US to detest an obvious attempt to taint the image of Nigeria in the international community. The U.S. must be requested to reverse it immediately."

Abiodun Aremu, a prominent left-wing rights activist and scribe of the Joint Action Forum (JAF), said America is merely chasing shadows by labelling Nigeria a terrorist nation and urged Washington to reassess its "aggressive foreign policies" that undermine independent nations. JAF is one of the tripods making up the Labour Civil Society Coalition (LASCO).

Aremu insisted on Nigeria summoning the U.S. Ambassador for explanation, after which similar treatment should be imposed on Americans entering Nigeria or U.S. flights bound for the country - Nigeria.

He said: "Our government must summon the US Ambassador to explain to us why our country had to be placed on this list. We, and indeed people of colours, have suffered enough in the hands of these Americans. Our government should make it clear that they either remove us from the list or have us place their nationals on similar list here. That should be the message.

"They are chasing the shadows. The American chicken will come home to roost as Malcolm X predicted. If the United States wants to stop terrorism, they must stop their terrorist acts against sovereign nations like Cuba and Venezuela. If they don't want more Mutallabs then they must respect the right of other people to exist as independent peoples. I am not one of those Nigerians who condemn Mutallab and I will never be part of them because I know it is a direct result of the aggression of the American state. They started the terrorism and whoever lives in a glass house should never throw stone."

Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) Chairman, Moshood Erubami, said "the profiling amounts to underserved criminalisation of all Nigerians just because of the sin of one citizen," and warned the U.S. the action could bring the relationship between Abuja and Washington to a new low.

Campaign for Democracy (CD) President, Joe Okei-Odumakin, said the list "is not realistic. It is a worrisome trend, but the truth is that we can't be living outsiders. Today you hear of*** Boko Haram***, tomorrow you hear of one crisis or the other, and then nothing much has been done about it all. Even the ***Boko Haram*** leader that was killed nobody has been brought to book. So, the bottom line is that we should put our house in order. But on the whole, we think it will be wrong to hold the over 150 million Nigerians responsible for the sin of just one boy, whose action has been unreservedly condemned by Nigerians."

With President Umaru Yar'Adua away in a Saudi hospital without handing over to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, observers say Nigeria is currently without any effective leadership and that the Mutallab incident has further exposed the fragility of Africa's mos populous country.