On May 7, 2015, a Nigerian, Chuka Umunna,
could make history by becoming the first black Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom. Born in London in 1978, Chuka was bred in the UK. His late father,
Bennett, hailed from Anambra State while his Irish mother, Patricia, is a
solicitor.
For instance, Chuka is of mixed race, being
the child of a Nigerian father and an Irish mother while Obama is also of mixed
race, being the offspring of a white American woman and a Kenyan father. Also
Chuka’s father, Bennett, was killed in a mysterious car accident in Nigeria in
1992 while Obama’s father was killed in a car accident in Kenya in 1982.
If history repeats itself as it is being
predicted by British political observers, Chuka, who is also a six-foot tall
lawyer like Obama, could become the first black Prime Minister in the UK.
Chuka’s life story is perhaps a better guide
to his future political direction. It is the story of a rise from the streets
of South London (scene of some of Britain’s worse race riots in the 1980s) to
the parliament. But it is not the story that some might expect.
His father, Bennett, was a Nigerian labourer,
who arrived in Britain in the sixties with one suitcase and no money. Having
borrowed the fare from Liverpool to London, he worked in a carwash, became a
successful businessman and died in a car crash when his son was 13.
Bennett began an import-export business
trading with Nigeria and was starting to make a decent living when he met
Patricia Milmo, a solicitor, at a London party. She happened to be the daughter
of Sir Helenus Milmo, a Cambridge-educated High Court judge and a prosecutor at
the Nuremberg Nazi trials. They later got married, a rare combination during a
time of high social inequality and racism.
Chuka believed his father was killed because
he refused to indulge in corrupt practices when he was running for the
governorship of Anambra State during the administration of former military
dictator, General Ibrahim Babangida (retd.).
Bennett died after his car ran into a lorry
carrying logs along the Onitsha-Owerri highway in Anambra. Bennett had been
splitting his time between London and Nigeria – where he unsuccessfully ran for
the governorship of Anambra State and had taken a stand against bribery.
At a point Bennett was also the owner of the
Rangers International Football Club of Enugu, the darling of the Igbo people.
When quizzed about his father on Sky News, he
had this to say: “There was a lot of speculation in Nigeria at the time around
his death. He was a national political figure standing on an anti-corruption
ticket and refused to bribe anybody.
“We don’t really talk about it because it is
not going to bring him back but I think he would be bowled over that his son is
now a politician just like him.”
Chuka, an English and French Law graduate from
the University of Manchester, who also holds a Master’s degree from Nottingham
Law School, says his interest in politics was shaped by seeing extreme poverty
while visiting his father’s relatives in Nigeria and the social divide in his
own Streatham constituency in the UK. He says that he is “not super-religious”
but that his soft-left values are “rooted in my Christianity.”
The 35-year-old Labour Party Member of
Parliament, however, has two hurdles to cross if he is to make history in the
UK. This is because in the UK, for one to become the Prime Minister, the person
must first be a Member of Parliament, the person’s party must win majority of
seats out of the 560 seats in the House of Commons during the parliamentary
elections and the person must be the leader of his party.
Presently, Chuka is the Member of Parliament
for Streatham, a position he has held since 2010 but must re-contest in 2015
and win to retain the seat.
He is also the Shadow Business Secretary, a
position held by a member of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. The duty of the
office holder is to scrutinise the actions of the government’s Secretary of
State for Business, Innovation and Skills and develop alternative policies. The
office holder is a member of the Shadow Cabinet.
According to the UK Telegraph, Chuka is
rumoured to have the strong support of a former British Prime Minister, Tony
Blair, who was also a Labour Party leader.
According to the British newspaper, when asked
if he was Blair’s anointed candidate, Chuka said, “I really don’t know anything
about that.” However, when he was pressed further whether he aspired to head
his party, he said, “I don’t entertain any discussion beyond winning the
election next year. That would be completely hypocritical of me. To start
thinking about hypothetical scenarios would be totally indulgent. All my energy
is focused on winning the election, and so should everyone’s. It will be very
close.”
Chuka is one of the youngest MPs in the UK
having been introduced into British politics by the current Labour Party
leader, Ed Miliband, while he was in his 20s.
It was Milband that helped him become an MP
and later made him his Parliamentary Private Secretary before he was promoted
to the Shadow Cabinet in October 2011. He is tipped to become Miliband’s
successor and could become the Prime Minister should the Labour Party win next
year’s election.
Chuka, however, claims to hate the comparison
of him and Obama which he terms the “construct of lazy journalists.” He sharply
divides opinion in British politics. Good-looking, articulate, new-media-savvy
and a good orator.
According to FT Magazine, he is not
universally popular among his own colleagues, who see more style than substance.
“He just has a knack of alienating people,” said one experienced Labour MP. “He
is probably the most natural communicator I’ve seen since Tony Blair. The
problem is that each week he has fewer supporters than he did at the start of
the week.”
Even potential allies recount stories of
apparent slights or snubs. A senior party figure says, “Chuka has put people’s
backs up. They feel he is inaccessible.” Another long-serving MP adds, “The
idea of learning the trade first is only for mere mortals, not for him.” Peter
Mandelson, the former Labour business secretary who played a key role in
Blair’s rise through to the top, thinks the explanation for this is quite
simple, “Envy plays a big part in politics,” he says.
Like Blair, Chuka sometimes connects better
with those beyond his own circle. John Cridland, head of the CBI employers’
group, calls him “a guy with whom we can do business.” Andrew Tyrie, Tory Chair
of the Commons Treasury Committee, say: “He’s extremely talented and charming.”
Andrew Adonis, a former Labour minister, sums up his cross-party appeal: “The
best politicians are those who look outwards not inwards.”
However, allies of the current British PM,
David Cameron, scoffed at the idea that Chuka might represent a threat to
Cameron’s second term bid.
“I can’t think of any issue where he’s put us
under pressure,” says one close friend of the prime minister. “He’s pretty
average – he’s a slick corporate lawyer.”
Also, among his fellow party members, Chuka’s
lack of political definition is another source of irritation as some claim they
struggle to work out what he really believes in. But Chuka says people should
show a bit more patience. “It would be rather unhealthy if after just three
years in parliament I was setting out some blueprint for my country,” he says.
“What do people expect?”
But some see him as the potential leader of a
mainstream 21st-Century Labour party with the kind of crossover appeal of
Blair’s New Labour. Despite initial reservations that Chuka might be a bit too
left-wing, Blair has started seeing him regularly. “Chuka strikes Tony as very
smart,” says one close ally of the former PM. “Business is a particularly
important brief in tough economic times and Chuka seems to be rising to the
challenge.”
As if Blair’s blessing was not enough, Chuka
recalls the “honour” of spending “a small bit of private time with former US
President, Bill Clinton, who he describes as one of his political heroes. “I
think he defies the left-right description,” Mandelson says in approbation.
“He’s part of a generation that transcends those labels.”
He has also recently been to Europe to meet
his friend, the French PM, Manuel Valls.
According to statistics, almost 15 per cent of
people in Britain describe themselves as “non-white” but the country has never
had a party leader from an ethnic minority background. Nobody has ever come
close. Chuka confesses that until his late teens he had not even thought about
a career in politics because there was “nobody who looked like me” running the
country.
Chuka has been vocal in the call for a
reduction in government spending as well as issues on immigration. “They [the
French] have something like 40 ministers compared to our 80,” he says.
On the EU itself, he has called for reform,
saying not long ago that free movement of workers was not intended to mean free
movement of jobseekers. “As one of the most pro-European shadow ministers, I
don’t think you can ignore the impact that free movement has had on some of our
communities,” he says, adding that it has changed because there are “many more
EU members.”
He adds, “There’s a number of things we need
to look at. Those who tend to raise the issue of immigration with me are my
African and Asian constituents. They want confidence there are proper controls.
“They want to see people integrate, which is
why we shouldn’t be spending all this money translating documents and [instead]
directing resources to ensure people learn English. And you do need to look at
free movement.
Next year’s election may not be based on
ethnicity but it obviously will be hard not to notice that a British-Nigerian
could become the leader of one of the world’s wealthiest countries.
On the issue of ethnicity, Chuka has this to
say, “A lot of people presume – because of my ethnicity – that I come from a
particular social background. I am very quick to disabuse people of any sense
that I’ve wanted and struggled in the way that, say, my father did. I come from
a fairly middle-class background. People try and pigeonhole you in a box and I
find that frustrating sometimes.
If Chuka is hard to pigeonhole, that may be
linked to his own pedigree. It seems likely, if not certain, that Chuka, whose
name means God is the greatest, is destined to become a larger presence in his
party and thus a bigger potential target despite being a person whose father
came to the UK from Nigeria without a dime.
source
source
No comments:
Post a Comment