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The United Kingdom-based Nigerian teacher, Vincent Uzomah, who was stabbed by his pupil in a pre-planned racist attack, has been celebrated in the British media for forgiving his 14-year-old assailant.
Uzomah, who watched the teenager given an extended sentence of 11 years (though he could be released after three years) by the Bradford Crown Court, said: I have forgiven him.
I pray he will become a changed person.” UK’s leading newspaper, The Independent, which featured Uzomah and his wife, Uduak, on the front page of its August 11 edition, described the 50-year-old Supply teacher as “a deeply Christian man,” who “gave a lesson in mercy that will inspire parents and pupils far beyond his native Bradford.”
The “dangerous young offender” had stabbed his teacher and bragged about the “racially-motivated” attack on Facebook for which he got 69 likes on his profile.
The mother-fucker getin funny so I stick the blade straight in his tummy,” the Facebook post bragging about the incident that took place at the Dixons Kings Academy in Bradford, South Yorkshire 20 minutes after his escape, read.
Uzomah had been working in the school for seven weeks before the incident. Prosecutor, Jonathan Sharp, reportedly described the teenager, who has a Pakistani origin, as “disruptive and a bully, who at 14 was already using cannabis.”
The boy was said to have resented being told off by the Nigerian-born teacher. Sharp said the boy “did not show any especial hostility to other teachers.” Mr. Uzomah, however, is black.
The defendant disliked him, claiming he couldn’t teach, and freely referred to him by the epithet beginning with the letter, ‘n’, including saying it in anger just before he attacked him.
The Crown’s case in consequence is that the attack was, at least in part, racially motivated,” the prosecutor said. Reports say the boy had already been telling friends about his plan to stab a teacher.
And after being reminded of the school’s rules on mobile phones, got angry, red in the face, and put his head down, muttering the word “bastard” and “nigger.” According to Sharp, the boy approached Uzomah, saying, “you can have my phone, and reached into his pocket, but at that point he took out the knife and stabbed Mr. Uzomah in the stomach.”
The Supply teacher was quickly taken to the hospital for treatment on injuries to his stomach and bowel as the boy fled the scene and posted his online message.
Six hours later, the assailant was arrested in Bradford city centre- though the phone and the kitchen knife were never found. “Although the boy refused to answer police questions, he reportedly gave a statement saying: ‘I am really sorry for stabbing my teacher. I do not know what is wrong with me.
I do know I did not intend to kill him. I want to say sorry to Mr. Uzomah and I hope is feeling better soon.” But outside Bradford Crown Court last Monday, the U.K-based Nigerian teacher, who was accompanied by his wife, told journalists that “As a Christian, I have forgiven this boy who has inflicted this trauma and pain on me and my family.
Our prayer for him is that he will make use of the opportunities and support that will be provided to him to become a changed person, who will make a positive contribution to the society.”
Also speaking to the BBC, Uzomah said he prayed that he would not die after he realised what had happened to him. He said he was also concerned about the safety of his wife, who is also a teacher.
An Nkwerre man from Imo State, the Diaspora Nigerian studied Civil Engineering (Waste Water) at the University of Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK.
Racist attacks in the West The latest attack is not just an isolated case, as there has been steady increase in the number of attacks on Nigerians and other blacks in the UK, United States of America (U.S.A) and other western countries.
After reports found up to three race-related incidents reported daily in Northern Ireland, a Nigerian man, Michael Abiona, whose Belfast home was subjected to a racist protest in June 2014 reportedly gave up his new home, according to the U.K edition of the guardian.
Abiona was literally forced to give up the house he was allocated in the Knocknagoney area of East Belfast after racists turned up on his doorstep.
According to reports, five people, including a woman, held up banners with the slogans “Houses 4 Local People” and “We need Homes 2” on them.
Abiona, who likened the incident to “ a flashback” to an attempted racial assault on him three years earlier, said he would “not now move into the Northern Ireland Housing Executive home- the region’s public housing authority -because he feared for his three-year-old son’s safety.
This also took place in East Belfast and it involved teenage boys throwing stones and bottles at me as I passed by in the street. They then chased me down the street carrying iron rods and threatened me.” “Only for a good neighbour, who saw what was going on and came out to take me inside his house, and stood up to these youths, I would have been badly beaten up or worse,” said Abiona.
There was remarkable increase in racist attacks in Belfast in 2014. For instance, a racist graffiti- “No Blacks” – was written on a house occupied by two Nigerian men in August 2013, less than one year before Abiona quit his home.
Evident in two incidents from the frontline of American police’s ongoing campaign against soft drugs, racial discrimination against blacks is gathering more steam in the U.S, in spite of efforts by the President Barack Obama administration to stem the tide.
In one of the cases, a young black woman alleged she was forced to pull down her trousers and endure a cavity search after an officer said he smelled marijuana in her car.
In the second, a young man, who was arrested for speeding and who reportedly admitted to having smoked marijuana before getting behind the wheel, was permitted to pose for a selfie with the arresting officer.
Courtesy – Guardian News
