Chuka Umunna: A coming of age

Chuka Harrison Umunna is a British Member of Parliament who has been in the news lately. He is the presumed leader of a group of seven members of Parliament who resigned from the Labour Party to form a body known as ‘The Independent Group’.

Chuka is a young man from whom much has been expected by many – not only in the British establishment, but in the Nigerian Diaspora, for many years now. He has been a fast-rising start in the Labour Party since he joined the Party in 1997 at the age of 19. He was elected to Parliament in 2010. He joined the Shadow Cabinet of Ed Miliband and sat on the Treasury Select Committee.

When Ed Miliband resigned after the Labour loss in 2015 and there was going to be a contest for Labour leadership, many eyes turned to Chuka. He was a poster boy for many who longed for a young new leader with bright ideas who would be ready to take the party into the future.

For several days, the focus of the British press and public zoomed in on Chuka.

He found himself bathed suddenly in the glare of such publicity and scrutiny as he had never encountered in his life. The reason was obvious. He was gunning for leadership of one of the two major parties. He was suave and marketable, and stood a good chance of appealing to a cross section of the British society, high and low. Many Britons, black and white, saw themselves and their aspirations reflected in him – smart expensive suits, good looks, good locution, a love of life, all shot through with a strong sense of social concern. He could, so to say, dine with the high and mighty and mix it up on the streets. It was conceivable that he could, indeed, go on to win a General Election, and become the first black Prime Minister.

Just as the momentum was gathering around this dream prospect, Chuka caved in. He was, he announced, withdrawing from the race.

There was a sigh of disappointment, as well as despair and bemusement around the circles who had been looking forward to seeing Chuka on the big stage. Speculation went rife as to why he had withdrawn. There were hints at some dark business or family secret that might be unearthed by the increased scrutiny he was attracting. Some said he was not aware of how intense the press interest in all nooks and crannies of his life was going to be and had simply balked as it began to hit him.

Chuka, in his statement of withdrawal would simply say ‘… I’ve been subject to the added level of pressure that comes with being a leadership candidate…I have not found it to be a comfortable experience’

Leadership of a major political party, with the prospect of becoming Prime Minister, was not a task for the faint-hearted.

Chuka has continued life as a back bencher in Parliament. He is no great friend of the ideas or person of Jeremy Corbyn, whose leadership he clearly abhors.

The current defining issue in British politics and national life is, of course, ‘BREXIT’, the movement to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union.

In 2016 Chuka campaigned against BREXIT.

After the ‘Brexiteers’ won a national referendum, and confusion ensued over its cost and implementation, Chuka started campaigning for a second referendum to reverse the earlier decision. He, just like many in the ranks of Labour, is disaffected by the flim-flam of the Labour leadership in the ongoing crisis.

And so, we have arrived at a point where, four years after Chuka slunk away from the scary prospect of glory, he is ready now to take his future, and possibly the future of the United Kingdom, in his hands. He has dramatically announced his exit from the Labour Party, at the head of the Independent Group.

But is he making the right move? Is he heading into glory, or oblivion?

The strategy is risky. Clearly the group are expecting to be joined by an avalanche of other defectors – from Labour and the Conservatives, and perhaps even from the Liberal-Democrats. It is a big gamble. Several days after Chuka’s group’s dramatic emergence, the avalanche is yet to form.

Forming a new party in the UK is an extremely difficult affair. Shirley Williams and her group of four high-flyers who broke away from the Labour Party and formed the Social Democratic Party several years ago found that the going on the ground was much less smooth than the intellectual arguments they propounded in the safety of their hallways. They eventually merged with the longer-established Liberal Party to become the current ‘Liberal-Democrats’.

What will happen to our Chuka and his ‘Independents’? Will the young Nigerian be Prime Minister some day? He certainly feels he has come of age and is ready to take a leap of faith. His life is more settled. He is less scared of intrusive scrutiny. He is comfortable with his partner – Alice. The two other most important people in his life – his mother Patricia, and his sister Chichi, are reconciled to the life he has chosen, and its possible impact on their privacy.

Chuka Umunna, by his own description, is ‘half Nigerian, quarter Irish, quarter English’. His father Bennett hailed from Anambra state. He arrived in the UK at the age of 33 virtually penniless. While working at sundry jobs, he studied Business Administration at night school. He started a successful import and export business and became prosperous. In 1976, he married Patricia Milmo, daughter of Sir Helenus Milmo, QC, one of the most distinguished lawyers of his day, who had been a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials. Chuka was born two years into the marriage. He grew up in a large family home in Streatham, South London, attending first a State school, and then a Public school.

In his early youth, he served as a chorister at Southwark Cathedral.

Years later, Bennett Umunna, now a wealthy businessman, would get into the murky world of Nigerian politics. In 1992, at the age of 51, under the ‘a little to the left, a little to the right’ political experiment of the military regime of President Ibrahim Babangida, he contested for Governorship of Anambra State. He lost. A few weeks later, he was killed in a car accident that set tongues wagging about the possibility of his having been targeted because of his anti-corruption campaign.

Back in the UK Chuka’s family were devastated. He and his mum and sister have stuck together as a close-knit unit since then.

Chuka claims that his father’s experience of poverty first hand and his strong anti-corruption stance were the founding principles of his public life.

And so – wither Chuka, and what hope for the captaincy of the British Centre-Left, and ultimately for Number 10, Downing Street?

The answer, as they say, is blowing in the wind.

Femi Olugbile