MEET THE FOUR NIGERIAN MP'S IN THE UK PARLIAMENT

Three Nigerian women and one man won seats in the UK parliament during recent UK election. They represent both major rival British parties – Labour and Conservatives.

Four Nigerians won seats in British parliament
Collage: Naij.com

Three women and one man of Nigerian descent enter the UK parliament, winning four seats in the British House of Commons. The interesting fact is that they represent two major rival political forces of Great Britain. While Chuka Harrison Umunna, Chi Onwurah and Kate Osamor represent Labour Party, Helen Grant is the sole representative of Nigerian descent in the Conservative Party.

Helen Grant

In 2010 Helen Grant became the first black woman to be ever elected in the UK as Conservatives’ MP. She was re-elected in the recent parliament election. Besides that now she occupies post of Minister for Sport, Tourism & Equalities. Grant was born in 1961 in London to an English mother and Nigerian father. She was raised by her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother as her father left family to immigrate to the US.

Chuka Umunna

Chuka Harrison Umunna is another British politician of Nigerian descent to be re-elected to the parliament. He already served one term as Labour Party MP since 2010. His politic credo and values take their roots in Christianity though he has claimed to be “not majorly religious”. He is an ethnic descendant of Igbos. His father died in a car crash in Nigeria in 1992. Besides career in law he also plays cello and used to be a chorister at Southwark Cathedral.

Chi Onwurah

Chi Onwurah was also re-elected as the Member of Parliament representing Labour Party. Her father’s from Nigeria. Soon after she was born in 1965, her family moved to Awka. Two years later Biafran Civil War has made her mother to bring her children back to the UK, whilst her father served in the Biafran army.

Kate Osamor

Kate Osamor is one of the few fresh faces in British parliament who managed to be elected representing Labour party, which didn’t do good generally at the election race. Her Nigerian-born mother, Martha Osamor, was a left-wing activist and a member of Labour’s Black Sections, fighting for fair representation in British parliament. Her daughter Kate, now 46, joined Labour party to fulfill mother’s dream for equality in the British House of Commons.

Although there were at least two others candidates of Nigerian descent seeking parliamentary seats on the platform of smaller parties like the Green Party, they didn’t have any realistic chances of making it to the parliament.

“Some are just running for the sake of it,” one politician of Nigerian parentage commented on that7