It was the height of barbarism for one British-born Micheal Adebolajo to have teamed up with another suspect also identified later as Michael Adebowale, another Nigerian to hack a British soldier, Lee Rigby, to death at Woolwich last Wednesday in the full glare of some passersby. It was also the height of hypocrisy for the authorities and the press to make a mountain of the molehill that he is of Nigerian descent when he bears a British passport and has probably never set foot on Nigerian soil. Even more vexatious was the initial reluctance of the UK authorities to reveal the name of the second suspect, even when they were quick to tell the whole world that he too is of Nigerian descent. Coming three years and 142 days after Farouk Abdulmutallab popularly referred to as the ‘’Underwear Bomber’’ was arrested on Christmas Day 2009 in the United States after a flopped terror attack, the incident tended to give the evidently erroneous impression that Nigeria was now exporting terrorism.
Adebolajo after he allegedly killed Lee Rigby on the crowded London street was said to be chanting ‘’ Allah Akbar’’. Their victim, sent to the great beyond in his prime was merely 25 and hailed from the city of Manchester. He joined the army in 2006 and later served in Afghanistan. He was allegedly hacked to death by two suspected Islamists. Welding knives including a meat cleaver, two men carried out the attack near Artillery Barracks, Southeast London then delivered Islamist tirades to passesby. Chilling footage of one of the suspects showed him still holding blood stained knives, telling a member of the public that they killed the victim’’because Muslims were dying daily’’ in the hands of British soldiers. Speaking in British accent, Adebolajo, who is black, made various political statements, including a demand for Cameron ‘’to bring our troops back’’. Media reports said the men first ran over their victim in a car before finishing him off with the knives.
Outraged at the development British Prime Minister David Cameron who cut short his trip to Paris vowed that Britain would be resolute against violent extremism. He believes that the vicious act by the two suspected Islamists was an attack on Britain and a betrayal of Islam.
‘’there is nothing in Islam that justifies this dreadful act’’ said the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister is largely right. Islam which prides itself as a religion of peace has been turned into a vehicle purveying unmitigated violence by extremist and terrorists. The mystery lies in knowing what motivates the likes of Abdulmutallab and Adebola for whom violence seem to be an outlet for their religious beliefs. Who teaches them and are they indoctrinated by what they hear? It bears repeating that no religion supports wilful wastage of life and it is disservice to any religion to kill in the guise of protecting its adherents.
There have also been imputations that such barbaric act may root from frustration and psychological disorder. Accusing fingers also point to poor parental upbringing such that provide material necessities for children with little or no attention on character moulding.
The senior Adebolajo, 56, is believed to be a trained nurse now working in a managerial capacity. The suspect was born in London in 1984 to a Christian family. His friends from Marshals Park School where he attended are at a loss and cannot come to grips with the horrendous act of an ordinary British schoolboy who they once knew. He had been fed with false sinister information about his new faith, which is why religious leaders must preach peace and not violence.
Condemnable as the act evidently is, there is a sinister motive in the British media’s deliberate emphasis on the Nigerian roots of the suspects. Nigerians resident in the United Kingdom are rightly miffed by that emphasis. Reacting to the incident a chieftain of Nigerians in Diaspora, UK, Sam Onigbanjo said “the beheading was done by a British citizen and not a Nigerian as speculated. He was issued a birth certificate in the UK and held a British passport. Suddenly, he is now a Nigerian? This guy is not a Nigerian-British born.’’
He drew a reasonable analogy in support of the view here that it was mischievous to hurriedly dump the human garbage in Nigeria. Sectarian crisis existing in our clime now burgeoning on the aegis of the Boko Haram insurgency has opened the country to such unfair label.
But there is more to Nigeria than Boko Haram and sectarian crisis. The media outside our shores seem preoccupied with plastering Nigeria with the mud of insecurity and sectarian crisis. Last Summer Anthony Gold won Olympic gold for United Kingdom. He was well celebrated but the media did not dig out or deliberately concealed that he was an English born of Nigerian descent. Also Philips Idowu, a Nigeria won Silver for the UK in the last Olympics, likewise Chistie Ohuruogu and others won gold for UK but they were not referred to as Nigerians. They were flying high therefore they cannot be Nigerians. Nothing can be more unfair than to single out a people and paint them in bad light all the time.
In his protest Onigbanjo noted that because the accused is not Gabriel Agbonlahor playing for Aston Villa and Three Lions or Andrew Osagie, UK’s reigning 800 metre champion or Lawrence Okoye, British discus record holder or Abiodun Oyepitan, British Olympic Silver and Gold medallist or Eniola Aluko British Olympic female football star or Temi Fagbenle, British Olympic Basketball queen or several other thousands of British citizens with Nigerian connection who are making the country proud, it is being made to look like Nigeria shown itself again over that dastardly act.
Even as we urge the authorities here to continue the battle against insurgency, it is just not fair for the media to choose insurgency as the only identity with which to denote Nigeria.
SUN
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