In one of the
most keenly contested general elections in the history of Britain, four
Nigerians won seats to the revered parliament, making it the first time
such feat would be recorded.
Against all odds, David Cameron has won his re-election bid in one of the fiercest polls in the country.
Cameron, Prime Minister of Britain, led the Conservatives to almost a
landslide victory against the Labour Party – a development that forced
arch-rival – Ed Miliband to step down as head of the opposition.
But it is not only Cameron that has been left smiling following the
announcement of winners – four politicians of Nigerian descent also
tasted victory during the general elections in the Queen’s land.
Before
Thursday’s keenly contested polls in Britain, not many within and
outside it were familiar with Chuka Umunna, Helen Grant, Chi Onwurah and
Kate Osamor. But by mid-day Friday, the four have almost become
celebrities of sort after an elaborate media focus on them.
The four Nigerians won seats into the British parliament, making it the
first time such would be happening in the highly conservative United
Kingdom. While Umunna, a Labour Party politician who has served
Streatham as Member of Parliament since 2010 and has enjoyed a meteoric
political rise in recent years is a relatively known face outside
Britain, the profile of the other three was largely unknown until
Friday, a day after the keenly contested elections, even though Grant
and Onwurah had been Members of Parliament over the last five years.
Chuka Umunna
Born on October 17, 1978 to a Nigerian father – Bennett and British
mother – Patricia, Umunna began his education at Hitherfield Primary
School in Streatham, South London, and the Christ Church Primary School
in Brixton Hill. He later moved to St. Dunstan’s College, Catford,
Southeast London where he played the cello and became a respected
prefect in the school.
Pursuing higher education, the eloquent Umunna bagged an upper second
class in English and French Law from the University of Manchester before
going to study for one term at the University of Burgundy in Dijon,
France. He would later pick up an MA at the Nottingham Law School.
Umunna did not just get to the top all of a sudden – he slowly but
vigorously climbed his way to the centerpiece of British politics. In
2002, after graduating from the university, the 37-year-old began
working as a solicitor for Herbert Smith, a law firm based in the heart
of London. Four years later he joined Rochman Landau, specialising in
Employment Law.
However, he soon began writing and providing commentary on the Labour
Party, as well as broader social and economic issues, usually in his
capacity as a member of the Management Committee of the Labour-aligned
Compass pressure group. He also wrote articles for the Financial Times,
Tribune, The Voice, The Guardianand the New Statesman, and began to
appear on various radio and television programmes as a commentator.
Umunna would later go on to establish and edited an online political
magazine, The Multicultural Politic.
In early April 2013, his law firm was linked to favourable updates made
on his Wikipedia page in 2007, which included a reference to him being
tipped as the “British Barack Obama”. Earlier in June 2010, he was
elected a member of the Treasury Select Committee while in October of
that year, he was appointed to serve as a Parliamentary Private
Secretary and, in May 2011 rose to the position of Shadow Minister for
Small Business and Enterprise until his promotion to the Shadow Cabinet.
Helen Grant
Grant, born on September 28, 1961, is a Conservative Party politician
and solicitor who was first elected into the British parliament in 2010.
By that feat, she became the first black woman to be selected to defend
a Tory seat and the Conservatives’ first female black parliamentarian.
She has served as Minister for Sport, Tourism and Equalities.
In September 2012, Grant received her first government appointment when
she earned the dual roles of Under-Secretary of State for Justice and
Under-Secretary for Women and Equalities. She was born in Willesden,
North London to an English mother and Nigerian father but grew up with
her mother’s family after her parents separated. She lived with her
mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.
Chi Onwurah
Onwurah, born on April 12, 1965, is a Labour Party politician, who was
elected at the 2010 general election as the Member of Parliament for
Newcastle upon Tyne Central. Onwurah is Newcastle’s first black MP.
During the depression of the 1930s, her maternal grandfather was a sheet
metal worker in Tyneside shipyards. Her mother grew up in poverty in
Garth Heads on Newcastle’s quayside. Her father, from Nigeria, was
working as a dentist while he studied at Newcastle Medical School when
they met and married in the 1950s.
After Chi’s arrival in 1965, her family moved to Anambra State when she
was still a baby, only two years before the Nigerian Civil War. The
situation forced her mother to take the children back to England while
her father stayed back to fight for the Biafran army. She had been a
strong voice in the parliament and her victory this time around only
goes to confirm her rising reputation in British politics.
Kate Osamor
Osamor, a National Health Service manager, would be representing
Edmonton constituency in London on the platform of the Labour Party. A
respected trade union activist and women’s charity trustee, she made
funding the NHS and standing up to government cuts the main theme of her
campaign.
Emerging one of the Labour Party’s shining lights during a generally
poor election outing, Osamor was declared winner in the North London
seat with 25,388 votes. Her closest rival, Gonul Daniels of the
Conservative Party ended up with 9,969 votes, making it an overwhelming
victory for her.
The triumph of the four parliamentarians is seen as a major boost to
Nigeria’s international image especially at a time when leadership has
also changed hands at the centre in the oil-rich country. The victory is
also viewed as cheering news for Nigerians resident in the United
Kingdom who are often the subject of racism and segregation in the
highly conservative region.
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