Opinion: We are not Khalid Masood

The surfeit of names

His name was Khalid Masood at the time of his death, aged 52 and meeting his end having mowed down innocent people on Westminster Bridge and then running into the grounds of the Palace of Westminster where he stabbed an unarmed police officer to death before he was shot by an armed policeman and there he died, whilst receiving first aid from someone more human than he had ever been.

Khalid was born someone else, he was born Adrian Elms to a mother who was 17 at the time, when he was 4 years old she married Philip Ajao who became Khalid’s stepfather and the Adrian Elms became Adrian Russell Ajao. [Telegraph]

None of this would have been significant apart from the fact that a religious extremist had taken on a form of religion that in his mind gave him licence to commit senseless murder on the streets of London towards a goal that leaves one begging about the suicidal exploits of these mentally deranged people who think they get nearer to some deity by unmitigated evil, nothing could be further from the truth, if they and their handlers are visited by the truth.

The complex of identity

Janet Ajao, Khalid Masood’s mother lives a quiet and idyllic life in a Welsh-speaking village of Trelech, making bespoke cushions and until this terrorist attack perpetrated by her son upset the balance of her life with Philip Ajao, her husband being ill in hospital. They have been married since 1966 and have two boys who seem to be doing well. [Telegraph]

It was the Ajao surname that immersed me into this narrative because it is of Yoruba origin from South-West Nigeria and I am of Nigerian heritage.

Within the complex of identity and community, it is very easy as a minority to find issues to relate to and identify with. As a black man, I would celebrate the successes of other black people just because they are like me, and there is no link between us apart from that. It is a subconscious response schooled into our sense of identity and being that we should be ambassadorial and representative, we carry a mantle for the identity that we have.

Of subliminal identification

Breaking it down, you begin to find affinities with race, with nationality, with tribe, with clan and any element of diversity that differentiates you from the majority in the quest to retain some form of identity even when you find that you need to integrate with other cultures, communities and societies to be of relevance.

Therein lies the conundrum, we live in societies predicated on individuality and separateness, responsibility is rarely imputed on broader communities of the majority, but once the majority finds a collective by which you can be identified, it is easier for the majority to address the collective and individual and vice versa.

Stereotypes are the Shibboleths that we inadvertently lend ourselves to, that in celebrating the good amongst us, they are seen is individual but the criminals amongst us give licence to label all of us the same.

Of individual responsibility

Khalid Masood, Adrian Elms and Adrian Russell Ajao were one and the same person, in various stages of his life that was completely and essentially British. That he had a Nigeria stepfather did not make him Nigerian by any stretch of the imagination, he was not radicalised by a Nigerian construct, he charted his own path and must be held responsible for his own crimes.

Khalid Masood was a home-grown British-born terrorist, radicalised by anything from disaffection to persuasion within a frame of reference that is entirely British. His stint as an English teacher in Saudi Arabia was a projection of his Britishness, maybe not of British values, but that is debatable.

The association of his terrorist criminality with Philip Ajao is at best tenuous and even though there is some affinity with Philip as possibly of Nigerian heritage, he has spent a good deal of his lifetime in the United Kingdom, so it begs the question why we allow the mischief of depicting Khalid Masood as having anything to do with Nigeria.

On the crisis of identity

It is very likely that Khalid Masood’s conversion to Islam was related to a crisis of identity in a society that can be institutionally racist. Some disaffection about who and what he represents in the British society might have given impetus to his decision to murder people in broad daylight, that it was done in the name of religion is completely beside the point, a criminal is a criminal and a terrorist is just that, a terrorist.

However, within the forming of our core identity which is heightened in a different cultural setting and host society, as we celebrate successes we find ourselves conflicted and afflicted by the failings of some amongst us, we coalesce in trying to understand what has gone wrong in our communities rather than with the individual, because in our home cultures, we are brought up within a village construct of family, extended relations and society at large. To be individual is to go rogue.

We are not Khalid Masood

Yet, we need that essential individuality linked with purpose to thrive in societies outside our native ones, in that, we must conserve identity more to the individual and resist the temptation to identify easily with groups such that when the majority is looking for someone to blame, we get lumped together, blameless as we are.

Our identity is significant and must be constantly refreshed with wholesome community activity, but we must cultivate how we identify before we are consumed in a guilt complex brought on by no other association that the remotest tenuous links.

No, we are not Khalid Masood, he alone must answer for his crimes, not the black community, not the Muslim community, not Nigerians, not the Yoruba, not his stepfather, not his mother, not his half-brothers, not his wife, nor his children, except where they as named individuals have been co-conspirators or accomplices to his crimes.

Firing of Pardon Attorney hardly a victory for Nigerians

Pardon me

First the email and then the Nigerian blog-lines were awash with the story, amidst the euphoria, I took another look at the story and really, I saw we still had serious issues of objectivity to contend with.

Roger C. Adams [Source: Department of Justice - #302: 06-26-98 Adams Appointed United States Pardon Attorney] was a Pardon Attorney appointed just over 10 years ago on the 26^th of June 1998 by the then Attorney General Janet Reno [Source: Janet Reno - Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia].

His job was to review all petitions for Executive Clemency [Source: Department of Justice – Rules Governing Petitions for Executive Clemency] and submit recommendations to the President.

At that appointment he had already served 25 years in the Department of Justice and definitely was deemed qualified, experienced and capable of dispatching his duties objectively, fairly and justly – I will accord him all due courtesies.

An immigrant in crime

The case [Source: Furore over Bush lawyer's racism in deportation case of Nigerian minister] of Chibueze Okorie, a Nigerian immigrant in the United States might sound like a fairy tale with its twists and turns.

Mr. Okorie having reached the United States had tried in 1989 to take the short-cut to ill-gotten wealth by being a driver for a heroin ring – he got caught and ended up serving an 18-month sentence. The love of money, the need to be oppressively ostentatious and the pursuit of illegal ways and means bedevils many but we can choose to live right.

A federal law stipulates that immigrants who have committed felonies once having served their sentence should be deported – Mr. Okorie had the dilemma of turning his life around enough to make a strong case for clemency that would also act in his favour against deportation.

His lawyers created the impression that Mr. Okorie if deported would be tortured and imprisoned in Nigeria – the veracity of those claims are suspect, but be that as it may, he filed for clemency in 2000.

Assessing the case for clemency

Mr. Adams reviewed his case and obviously had his doubts about the truthfulness of Mr. Okorie in his application and petition – however, the Standards for Consideration of Clemency Petitions [Source: Department of Justice – Standards for Consideration of Clemency Petitions] do indicate that after a background check by the FBI, the following considerations play in the recommendations of the Pardon Attorney.

Post-conviction conduct, character and reputation – on a personal level Mr. Okorie had turned his life around, he is a minister who counsels prisoners and ex-convicts – we can be satisfied that he is giving something back to his community and society.

Seriousness and relative recentness of the offense – as a driver for a heroin ring, he was inadvertently involved in drug trafficking which is a very serious offence – there are countries where Nigerians have been executed for trafficking the drug.

More so, studies [Source: Edward Jay Epstein - Chapter 22 - The Heroin-Crime Nexus] going as far back as 1971 show how serious crime in the cities is related to heroin addiction, he being part of the vicious circle that becomes a bane of society.

Acceptance of responsibility, remorse, and atonement – not once in all the writing about this case have I read that Mr. Okorie has genuinely taken responsibility or expressed remorse for his actions, his counselling work however, might well be atonement.

Need for relief – Mr. Okorie’s urgent and particular need for relief was to avoid being deported and that basically is the crux of this clemency case, it obviously would make the assessors of his petition wonder if his being returned to Nigeria would lead to him being persecuted.

Official recommendations and reports – having assessed his case, the Pardon Attorney seemed to have recognised his work in the community, Mr. Okorie also had the backing of churches, community leaders and Senator Hillary Clinton in support of his petition.

Just because one has renowned people in their camp does not however mean that the process should be short-circuited.

Stereotypes in recommendations

Mr. Adams duly made his recommendations and expressed his doubts in comments that were eventually deemed racist.

He erred in judgement by saying, “This might sound racist, but [the applicant] is about as honest as you could expect for a Nigerian. Unfortunately, that's not very honest”.

This was an unfortunate comment made about Nigerians on the one hand, but it also showed that Mr. Okorie an ex-convict, albeit a reformed man, had become the standard by which the honesty of Nigerians was assessed – I think I feel more offended by that.

This is more than one man’s opinion

That Mr. Adams was compelled to express these views in writing is instructive, but on closer scrutiny, he was probably expressing a generalisation borne from the depiction of Nigerians in all sorts of criminal activity and the press.

In other words, Mr. Adams simply put in words what others might have by commission or omission allowed to affect their judgement when dealing with Nigerians.

Invariably, Mr. Adams was fired as long ago as January on the grounds of his being racist and that not through any activism of Nigerians but evaluation and monitoring within the Department of Justice.

I would contend that the sacking does not begin to deal with the deep-seated stereotypes certain countries already have of Nigerians, it only means people who harbour such thoughts or prejudices need to be more circumspect or subtle in their expression without leaving traceable evidence on which they might be hung.

Mr. Adams recommended that Mr. Okorie not be granted clemency.

I could see why part of the objective assessments and merits of his case would include considering Mr. Okorie’s nationality; he was fighting deportation, a deportation order that would have had him sent back to Nigeria. I think it is disingenuous of the activists that commented on this case to think that insignificant to drawing up the recommendations.

We suffer because of our own people

The most critical part of this discourse really affects us a lot more that the euphoria of a sacking for tarring Nigerians with a black brush.

Many of us have had to try harder, do better, strain more and excel at excelling ourselves to meet the average observation of our capabilities because people have gone before us and fouled up the system with dishonesty and criminality, that the playing field is already levelled against us, at entry.

In our different walks of life, we make little footsteps as mini-ambassadors of our country only to find that our trails are marked out by mileposts sunk in by those other Nigerians who had forsaken virtue for deception, dishonesty and crime.

Those mileposts then become the beacons that leave one slightly more sympathetic to the new Nigerian Ambassador to the Netherlands in terms of the address she gave when she was presenting her credentials.

We are still the majority and we matter

Those bad Nigerians are however NOT in the majority and the work that we do in our little way would not be over-shadowed by the nefarious activities of the few – our duty still remains to project the best that can seen of Nigeria by example of word, deed and life.

I do not begrudge Mr. Okorie anything as he struggles to keep his relevance within the community that sees him as valuable and avoid deportation; the truth is that Mr. Okorie might have served his time and is forgiven, but his criminal act then has piled up into the accepted body of knowledge about Nigerians - he is part of the creative process of what he is now up against.

If you have in the past brought the name of your country into disrepute, it would catch up with you somewhere in the future; the self-same people of Mr. Okorie’s ilk - many living in opulence without auditable means - when he was a criminal have allowed Mr. Adams to err very seriously in judgement – in those circumstances, it would be unfair to continue to bang Mr. Adams anymore on the head and rejoice at the ruin of such a long and distinguished career.

Bargainers and Challengers

The white driver of bus 21

I overhead this on Bus 21 shortly after getting on from a meal at the 805 restaurant – usually, I take a black cab from London Bridge to the restaurant and the hop on Bus 21 back to London Bridge – black cabs rarely ply South London routes and I am rarely keen on mini-cabs.

Two (Nigerian) ladies, most likely grandmothers in their late 50s or early 60s and looking like they have been in London since year dot.

1^st: I am going to Manor House, is Bus 141 the right bus?

2^nd: Yes, it is, you can get it at Newington Green. It is better because of the cold than London Bridge.

1^st: Thank you. I thought so too, when I asked the bus driver, he did not answer me. I ignored him because I knew when I ask my people they would know.

2^nd: They are always like that.

1^st: He just looked at me - imagine this is the job he is paid to do.

2^nd: Don’t mind him, he is a white man.

Deep-seated feeling of discrimination

I squirmed and shifted in my seat as I tried to understand how a simple enquiry had turned into a full racist put-down, I have never been able to understand or appreciate how some people see everything through the lens of race, oppression, rights, deprivation, discrimination and antagonism.

Each time I have tried to reason this matter, I have almost always been branded a sell-out in extreme cases, otherwise the more benign but insulting moniker of coconut or bounty bar has sufficed even though it is just as damning.

I ruminated over this conversation to see ways in which I could sympathise with these women at the expense of the driver but could not arrive at any objective reason why the bus driver should attract such opprobrium – I felt the women had issues that they needed to deal with, but it was probably too late to re-educate them on these matters.

Don’t blame the driver

There might be reasons why the bus driver was not able to give the woman an answer apart from probable abruptness, rudeness or his inability to understand her because place names in London can be quite funny – Manor House however should not trip anyone like Southwark (Sudork); Leicester (Lester) Square or Marylebone (Marleborn) would.

Bus 21 runs a long route from Lewisham in South-East London to Newington Green in North London – a journey of 45 minutes. Bus 141 runs from London Bridge to Palmers Green going through Newington Green and Manor House Station which are just 6 minutes apart.

Probably, the man should have known, but his bus company is run by London Central whilst Bus 141 is run by Arriva London. Bus drivers are not necessarily guides, they might be able to tell you where to get off along a route but do not expect them to how to get beyond the limits of their route.

They are not like black cab drivers who do the knowledge and twice in one day I did catch black cab drivers out, one can only memorise so much of all the streets and routes in London.

The two masks for gaining advantage

I have always counted myself fortunate for being born in England, but most importantly for growing up in Nigeria, it meant I was not subject to the race and deprivation politics of the 70s and 80s and my identity as a black man was never at issue.

That is one part of my story that I can explain to some extent, though people have different perspectives of having Western citizenship albeit with African parentage and how to thrive in those societies; there is another perspective that amazed me when I read an article about Barrack Obama in the Time Magazine under the title, The Identity Card by Shelby Steele.

It explored the issues of Senator Obama’s mixed race parentage; the conflicts and balance between his white Mid-Western values and the Black Value System. Now, the American society is quite entrenched in race we can still find marches very much like in the 60’s happening - Jena, Louisiana is case in point in Septmber 2007.

However, there are some clear and interesting points this article raised when it talked about how black Americans gain advantage in the mainstream through bargaining and challenging. Reading this piece, I realised that it did not just apply to just blacks or Americans – it applies to every minority in means, status, ability, creed, idea or number in the whole world.

Bargainers and Challengers

I acknowledge the authorship of Shelby Steele in the excerpts below, because there is no better way to depict this than in the words of the author.

“

Bargainers make a deal with white Americans that gives whites the benefit of the doubt: I will not rub America's history of racism in your face, if you will not hold my race against me. Especially in our era of political correctness, whites are inevitably grateful for this bargain that spares them the shame of America's racist past. They respond to bargainers with gratitude, warmth, and even affection. This "gratitude factor" can bring the black bargainer great popularity. Oprah Winfrey is the most visible bargainer in America today.

Challengers never give whites the benefit of the doubt. They assume whites are racist until they prove otherwise. And whites are never taken off the hook until they (institutions more than individuals) give some form of racial preference to the challenger. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are today's best known challengers. Of course, most blacks can and do go both ways, but generally we tend to lean one way or another.

Putting this in the context of the conversation on the bus, I would think I fell on the side of a bargainer and the ladies were challengers. It goes on to say that Obama is a natural-born bargainer and that is why his quest for the Presidency is plausible, whereas the Sharpton and Jackson quest could not have garnered the broad spectrum needed to make a good run for that office because no one would want to vote for a scold.

Making ones way

In a broader context, the bargainer-challenger issue is not black-and-white but shades of grey, there are people who are more bargainers than challengers and vice versa, I do not have statistics to show which end is most successful but I would think the bargainers can secure a better deal than challengers.

Ditching the black and white labels and applying this to circumstances in life one can surmise that a challenge indicates you want to take ground - you then have to be equipped to take that ground off the occupier who is entrenched, equipped and strongly defensive of their position – very few win those kinds of conflicts and programmes put in place to address issues like that in terms of immigration and affirmation do not in the long term address root-cause issues.

Bargaining requires dialogue, seeking common-ground, education and civil action by peaceful means as employed by Gandhi in India and King in America, it is how to accommodate each other for the common good. Indeed, those who wield power sometimes have to be goaded into realising the duty, responsibility or just plain ethics and humanity of doing the fair and just thing.

Need for more analysis

A blog cannot in anyway properly address this deep social issue, but we can see bargainers like Mandela and challengers like Mugabe and Chavez and those in the middle like Gaddafi and begin to understand why a deeper study of this needs to be made.

This begins to give meaning to why Mugabe as a challenger is being revered for giving the white man a bloody nose but in the process failed to bargain for the sustenance of his country. It is sad however when a whole people gravitate on the excitement of the challenge, the clash or the confrontation as it makes good press unlike the quiet and slow activity of bargaining and diplomacy.

It is all well and good to challenge if you can win that fight, it is however necessary to be smart enough to choose the battles you can win and bargain on the ones you cannot.

Rushing to the refuge of racism as a means of making progress is a function of the burden of history we all carry; the community and society in which we have been raised; the possible ignorance of all parties involved and sometimes the lack of confidence and low self-esteem.

One group I have not covered here are the fundamentally defeatists who can neither challenge nor bargain, even both sides have a duty to inspire those to greater heights. Like I have written before, when social disadvantage is yoked with the feeling that the circumstance is destined and ordained - there is much work to be done for our humanity as a whole regardless of race.

Achtung! Schwarz Neger

Coming to your local cinema

As if we were to expect anything less, the proud members of the Aryan race who being the grand-brood of the former Hitler Jugend that grew up to serve in the Panzer divisions that overran Northern France during World War II released their training video to much acclaim.

It featured a lion being taunted or rather, baited with a large juicy piece of bloody fresh meat; the lion snarled and roared then having had enough of the baiting lunged for the chunk of spicy beef, but just missed it by a fraction of an inch – they captured it all on film; what the director wanted was the action-play, even the National Geographic Channel would be put in the shade with this excellent storyboard and real life action.

Sorry, I must be writing about something else; I meant, the lion was a recruit being goaded into aggressive soldier behaviour and the bloody fresh meat was really a narration given to incense the soldier enough to show raw aggression, as one would expect at war.

A black narrative

That narration went thus – “You're in the Bronx, a black van pulls up in front of you and three African-Americans get out and start really insulting your mother... act!”

Now, that is some imagination the instructor has, the stuff that good German military prowess is made of.

From that narration, one would suppose the Bronx is one hell-hole, a black van is a vehicle of aggression, African-Americans are savages and this soldier loves his mother. To have abuse heaped on his mother by black strangers would have been enough to get any soldier-boy to ACT – I suppose that means charge with a gun and kill all the black men – amazing how words can create pictures in ones mind and urge you to express an aggressive emotion.

The habit of generations

Well, it was the same German army that had holiday snaps from Afghanistan posing with skulls, dare I say, the skulls once belonged to living members of the human race, the same troop had a World War II symbol on their vehicle – what skullduggery.

This is becoming a very long story being fleshed out in needless translation, I would say, the instructor simply bellowed with a very loud voice pointing the forward direction – “Achtung! Schwarz Neger” – you do not need much more to get the best out the German Army.

Do Africans still live on trees?

After dinner mouth not mint

I stepped out of the restaurant with a good friend after a beautiful Japanese meal last night, though I must say the Chinese have found better ways of packaging their cuisine for international tastes except for sushi and sashimi which is more about being trendy than having tasty food - my opinion.

However, before I could be distracted from the cool restaurant atmosphere I was overwhelmed with a barrage of abuse, bitter in content and caustic in utter disdain for Africans, supposedly, this almost haggard looking man thought I was African, which in fact I am.

He railed with contempt and almost choked on his hatred, but I ignored him as what came to my hearing was overt, nasty and unspeakable racial abuse; that was from a fellow black man.

Covert or overt

Indeed, I must confess that in Europe, I have had more overt racial abuse or show of racial disdain from people of my colour than I have had from other races; it is instructively eye-opening.

One must also say, that the kind of racial disapproval I have received from the “so-called”, indigenes of Europe has been covert, usually made in jest to the extent that one is supposed to grin and bear it no matter how hurtful they have been.

I have learnt that the best way to deal with this sort of stuff is to have a quick wit, it is educational and effective, I give real life examples of conversations I have had when some smart chap has tried to be too funny for my liking.

Cannibals cannot be shot

[In the midst of a disagreement coming to a point of parting]

Stranger: 100 years ago, I would have shot you.

Moi: 200 years ago, I would have eaten you.

{Conversation ends as stranger realises he has been trumped}

Taking him to the cleaners

[Cocky Englishman tries to be politely rude]

Englishman: Hey Akin, the guy you borrowed your suit from is asking for it.

{I see he has envelopes on him, so pointing to the envelopes, I say}

Moi: I see you’ve got a delivery service, would you take it back?

{Never again heard that kind of silliness from him after that encounter}

I pay your welfare

[Someone down on his luck tries to take it out on me]

Stranger: You black people come to our country for welfare.

Moi: I will tell you this much, I probably pay more taxes than you earn in a year (Compared to the national average where I live, I do); and that goes into your government to have idiots like you talk to me like that.

{Stranger is quite scolded beyond belief, walks away without mouthing another word}

An arboreal feeling of monarchies

[Smart Swedish man trying to make conversation]

Swede: Do Africans still live on trees?

Moi: Yes indeed we still do, in fact, when King Carl XVI Gustaf visited Nigeria; we put him on the highest tree and fed him bananas.

{Smart Swede does not look so smart anymore as his face drops in astonishment, he apologises for being so nasty.}

Postscript: Basically, he had insulted Africans and in the process made me call his revered king a monkey – cuts both ways. More so, he did not know that King Carl had really never visited Nigeria.

Mouse and snake chase

Like one of our legendary Nigerian musicians would say, if someone chases a mouse after you and you in turn chase a snake after them; fair cop.

In my own way, education in such terms is direct, effective and frank, those people would always think twice before they go shooting off such unforgivable hatreds masquerading as making decent and polite conversation.