What Mr. Odighizuwa did was absolutely wrong and unbecoming of character associated with Nigerians especially, in the Diaspora. It is this writer’s strong conviction and that of a majority of Nigerians that nobody, regardless of status in the world has a right under any circumstance to take another human life. Mr. Odighizuwa had so many options available to him such as psychiatric help, taking a leave of absence when consumed by academic studies and difficulties, transfer to another school where he can start afresh or drop out and pursue another endeavor. Despite the aforementioned options at his disposal, Mr. Odighizuwa chose the deadliest – killing people because he cracked and that was an expensive choice. It is an expensive choice because the state of Virginia is one of handful states that pursue death penalty in cases of capital murder. In fact, if convicted of maliciously and premeditated crime and as the Prosecutors have indicated, Mr. Odighizuwa could notoriously qualify as the first Nigerian in the United States of America who is convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.

Mr. Odighizuwa does not have the wealth to fight capital murder, although it seems that a reputable attorney has been appointed to defend him. However, he may still be handicapped by lack of fund to mount serious defense that would save his life like in John Hinckley, Jr. who shot President Reagan in the early 1980 or the Menendez boys that executed their parents for family wealth. The type of charges that would be leveled against him depends on the psychiatric evaluation, which would be performed to determine his mental state. Furthermore, his attorney(s), despite the law that allow opposing attorneys to share information during discovery period may not have the supporting cast to help him or her analyze mountains of documents and determine those that would be beneficial to his defense.

But why would Mr. Odighizuwa put himself in this awkward position? One could only speculate as to why an event like this would happen to a Nigerian in the Diaspora. First, Nigerians in the Diaspora are one of the hardest workaholics in the world. They work hard because they have no other alternative to survive. Those who chose the easy way by doing illegal stuff are either busted by the law and are sitting in jail or would soon be after all an Igbo saying goes that every day is for the crook, but one day is for the (owner) law. That is when the criminal is apprehended.

Second, the bad economic situation in Nigeria. Nigerians in the Diaspora are like an Igbo idiomatic expression of a bat. According to this idiomatic expression, a bat is not regarded as a bird that flies in the sky or animal that live on the ground. They are regarded as floaters. Nigerians in the Diaspora does not have a strong footage in their adopted home nor do they have one in Nigeria where most of them departed from more than a decade ago. Thus, because of their experiences, most Nigerians would not like to see their kids undergo the same economic, social and psychological pressure and hardship, which they went through – thus, the pressure to succeed mounts and some like Mr. Odighizuwa crack.

But, what does Nigeria have to do with Mr. Odighizuwa and other similar situation one would ask. Nigeria has a lot to do with the bat-like predicament its citizens residing in the Diaspora live like. One recalls back in the eighties when Nigerians who travel abroad to study dreamt and longed for return home to join the rank and file of the middle class working force. They longed to belong to a class of educated and proud Nigerians whose goal was to help in the advancement of the country. Now, everything have changed, thanks to the pervasive leaders who would rather have these Nigerians stay in the Diaspora than come back and spoil their party – looting.

The unfortunate condition of Nigerians in the Diaspora has left some confused. Some Nigerians are working their butts off trying to adjust to the reality of their new situation. Most of these Nigerians are doing it through the legal way, whereas very few are doing it through opposite means. Unfortunately, the adverse publicity that those in the minority generate when they do bad things overshadows the good things done by a vast majority of honest hard working Nigerian citizens in the Diaspora.

Are Nigerians cracking under pressure in the Diaspora? There is no question in one’s mind that the culmination of events exacts enormous pressure on Nigerians in the Diaspora, especially, the need to succeed. As the pressure mounts, the Nigerian marital bliss also cracks. In the Diaspora, the need by Nigerians to succeed means that both husband and wife has to work. The need to raise money in order to meet their financial obligations mean that other Nigerian culture of marital dichotomy has to give way. The outcome is divorce.

The rate of Nigerian divorce in the Diaspora is alarming. When I was a kid, my father used to say that one would distinguish a man from a boy when under pressure. The truthfulness of this conclusion has dissipated when it comes to the life of Nigerians in the Diaspora. Some may attribute the ailing nature of Nigerian marriage in the Diaspora to adoption of resident culture where they reside. True, but to what extent remains a mystery subject to scientific study.

So we ask once again, as we analyze the synthesis or what forces compelled Mr. Odighizuwa to commit heinous crime, whether or not it has any thing to do with the culture of his adopted domicile. One school of thought would argue that since Nigerians in the Diaspora have nowhere to go and have no choice but to be assimilated into the culture of the society where they reside. This assimilation include eating there food, attempting to speak like them and finally, behaving like them. Here we are more interested with the behavior and its after affect on individuals.

Then, should it be said that Mr. Odighizuwa’s choice of violence by killing two professors and a student at Appalachian School of Law in Virginia falls within the perimeter of how problems are solved by the extremists or residents of his adopted culture? By all implications, he made his decision and that was a wrong one, which goes against rational requirements in a civilized society.

Every day in the news media, we read or hear of gun violence on the streets of America and at home. We read about the killings of innocent people, especially black folks in the inner cities. We bemoan such waste and senseless loss of lives, but we never imagine how close we, Nigerians in the Diaspora are getting to such violent behavior. Every person that I talked to about Mr. Odighizuwa attack was shocked to hear that a Nigerian would do such a horrific thing.

Succinctly, it would be reasonable to put the whole issue under the microscope for the purpose of comprehending what transpired. Odighizuwa flunked from law school, big deal, he is not the first person or Nigerian to do so. In fact, there are tens of Nigerians who went to law school, graduated, passed the bar examination and secured lucrative law practices. Some of these Nigerians for whatever reason went contrary to the dictum required to practice law and were disbarred. Despite being disgrace from practicing a profession where their passion lies, they did not go out on a shooting spree or to commit horrendous crimes. In fact, they moved on to other things, as it is always said, life goes on. This brings up the issue of whether or not Mr. Odighizuwa is mentally sick as he professes to be.

All mass murderers have adopted the use of mental illness as a last resort defense in the court of law. Unfortunately, it has been established that most mass murder cases were premeditated. They were planned; they are like ticking time bombs waiting to explode at the least provocation. In essence, when one, like Odighizuwa brings a weapon along to the school in order to discuss his academic demise, thus, one would assume that he had planned to commit murder if issues were not resolved in his favor.

Moreover, it is this writer's hope that the law school and the Appalachia community should see this incident as an isolated case. They should not use this isolated incident to deny admission to honest Nigerians who want to pursue law education at the school and also that the community must not treat them as pariahs. Over the years, we have noticed the practice of collective guilt perpetuated against ethnic groups with foreign accent when one of them breaks the law. For instance, back in the 1980s, a major newspaper located in Washington DC built a reputation of castigating Nigerians as drug dealers despite the fact that only a handful of Nigerians indulged in such illicit activity. I can vividly recall the humiliations suffered by my colleagues who believed such stereotyping in the absence of Nigerian Embassy denial of such labeling.

It is tough making ends meet in the Diaspora especially for the recent immigrates. We understand that back home that we enjoy strong family relationship, which enable all to intervene during personal crisis. If Mr. Odighizuwa were in Nigerian, perhaps, one would argue that his wife would have summoned the family to intervene when she noticed abnormal behavior from her husband. Maybe, their family would have prevented the killings, unfortunately, Mr. Odighizuwa is not in Nigeria, therefore, he has become another victim of bad government in Nigeria that discourages those who want to go home from doing so.

Finally, It is a long way from home, we may conclude that the process of Nigerian assimilation into the life and culture of their various Diaspora domicile will never be complete. We may still have the Nigerian accent when we speak, we may still name our kids Nigerian names, we may imitate the natives of our domicile when we speak, we may work hard to make ends meet, we are Nigerians, but the truth is that we are like  bats, neither a bird or a reptile – not completely assimilated in the Diaspora or at home in Nigeria, the land of our fore fathers.

January