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.
Co-incidentally, Chuka shares startling similarities
with the United States President, Barack Obama,
who is the first black President of the world's most
powerful nation.
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.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in comments are
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