The ability to laugh and remain optimistic amid the most dire circumstances remains one of the enduring characteristics of Nigerians.

Perhaps this is one reason we find it so hard to believe that the terrorists are our own fellow citizens. It is difficult to imagine a single Nigerian who would willingly leave this world by blowing himself to smithereens. Much easier to imagine is that they have infiltrated our land from neighboring countries — Chad or Niger, perhaps.

This suspicion was captured in a joke by IGoDye, another of the performers at Crack Ya Ribs, who spoke in pidgin English. He said he wouldn’t argue with anyone who accused a Nigerian of being a 419 scammer — referring to the country’s notorious connection to advanced fee fraud (if you’ve ever received an e-mail beginning “I crave your distinguished indulgence” and ending with a request to send your bank account number in return for a large cash transfer, you’ve come into contact with a 419 scammer). But you can’t accuse us of being terrorists, he continued. Nigerians are no terrorists.

He gave the example of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who, on Christmas Day 2009, boarded a flight to Detroit and failed in his attempt to blow up the plane with explosives concealed in his underwear.

Mr. Abdulmutallab was given money to make a bomb, he agreed to take the bomb onto a plane and detonate it, he was given payment to carry out the job, he promised to carry out the job, and then he boarded the plane but ended up not detonating the bomb.

“That sounds like a 419 scammer to me, not a terrorist.”

Making light of the situation helps us cope with the constant threat of violence. Every Sunday morning when I pull up to the concrete road blocks outside my church, policemen surround my car. One peeps through the window at my driver, his finger hovering close to the trigger of his gun. Another slides a bomb detector beneath the vehicle, then ransacks the trunk.