The most appropriate reaction to Nigeria’s name on a list of 14 countries to watch in the war on terror is not the one that most Nigerians and I have had. It should not be dismay, shame, or outrage. Instead, it’s times like these that we need to hunker down and get to work on making our home a place that isn’t so easy to ridicule. And this applies to every person from the continent of Africa.

I think I’m done talking and thinking about the entire AbdulMutallab incident. We have an ailing continent to build and all this talk isn’t necessarily getting anyone closer to that goal. There is little room for dissension to the fact that creating strong education, healthcare and business systems in every single African nation with or without the help of the government is a priority.

As much as is in our hands to do, Africans, Nigerians, what’s your role in moving your country off the so-poor-and-dysfunctional-it’s-easy-to-ignore-them list? The thing is, when we start answering that question and implementing those solutions, the activities of extremist crazies are less likely to have a voice to drown out the idealism, hard work and plain-to-see results of millions of individuals working to build their piece of home.

There’s an Igbo proverb that says, “If one finger touches palm oil, it spreads to all the other fingers.” This is indicative of how Nigerians the world over felt when they heard the news of a young man who attempted to detonate a bomb on U.S. soil in the name of Al Qaeda. Many of us worried that the actions of this one finger would spread to cover the entire 150 million of us. I even heard some people say that this is why north, south, and eastern Nigeria should have  never been the same country.

And then the next day, the news surfaced that the young man’s father had sent word months earlier to security forces saying he was worried that his son had become radicalized and might even be a threat. In an instant, I was again proud to be Nigerian. I was relieved that the shame that would have hung over my country’s reputation by adding terrorism to the list of already popular vices was abated. Yet somehow, the newsflash on CNN did not reflect this development as fervently as I’d hoped. Instead, there was a special on CNBC about whether or not Nigeria could be a new place to watch in the war on terror.

If all British citizens don’t have to carry the stigma of the shoe bomber, if all Oklahomans, don’t have to bear the shame of the Oklahoma bombings, then let the world be mindful of the invidious conclusions it so easily makes when someone from a poorer nation commits similar crimes. And if this is too much to ask, then let the oil of his father’s noble and highly sacrificial actions spread to cover those worried 150 million fingers.