Mayor of London, Boris Johnson calls Obama “part-Kenyan president” and
British MP Chuka Umunna, an Igbo- Nigerian condemns Johnson remarks as
“beyond the pale.”
The mayor of London, Boris Johnson has taken insensitivity to an extreme
and apogee level by demeaning President Obama with racial and unpleasant
statement by labeling him a “part Kenyan president” of United States.
President Obama was on official visit in Britain with the first lady
Mitchell Obama. Johnson the Mayor of London was supporting the campaign
against British membership in European Union (EU) and the disconnection
from EU found Obama support for British membership in EU as interference
from a “part Kenyan president”.
British Labour Party MP Chuka Umunna, whose father was from Anambra State,
Nigeria defended President Obama and tweeted “These Tory Mayoral types
are beyond the pale… Boris plays on @BarackObama’s Kenyan ancestry.”
Writing on The Sun newspaper, Boris Johnson accused Obama of being
anti-British and for removing the bust of Winston Churchill from White
House which he replaced with Civil right icon Martin Lurther King when he
was elected president in 2008.
Boris Johnson wrote:
“Something mysterious happened when Barack Obama entered the Oval Office
in 2009.
Something vanished from that room, and no one could quite explain why.
It was a bust of Winston Churchill – the great British war time leader. It
was a fine goggle-eyed object, done by the brilliant sculptor Jacob
Epstein, and it had sat there for almost ten years.
But on day one of the Obama administration it was returned, without
ceremony, to the British embassy in Washington. No one was sure whether
the President had himself been involved in the decision.
Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the
part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire – of which
Churchill had been such a fervent defender.
Some said that perhaps Churchill was seen as less important than he once
was. Perhaps his ideas were old-fashioned and out of date.
Well, if that’s why Churchill was banished from the Oval Office, they
could not have been more wrong.”
Chuka Umunna is a British member of parliament (MP) of Nigerian heritage.
He was born 17 October 1978 in London to Nigerian father of the Igbo
ethnic group and Irish mother. In 2010 Umunna was elected
parliamentarian, representing Streatham constituency on the platform of
the Labour Party.
Umunna who is popularly known as “UK Obama,” schooled at Hitherfield
Primary School inStreatham, South London, and Christ Church Primary School
in Brixton Hill. Umunna attended University of Manchester; where he
received an upper second class LLB in English and French Law. He later
received MA at Nottingham Law School, University of Burgundy in Dijon.
Before his political career, he wrote articles for Financial Times,
Tribune, The Voice, The Guardian and the New Statesman, and later lunched
the online political magazine, The Multicultural Politic.
He made frequent commentary on British televisions and radios. In 2015,
Umunna made history by moving an inch in becoming the first black prime
minister of Britain. He put forward his name to contest for leadership of
Labour Party, Britain. He later rescinded the move but at the tender age
of 38 years he has many more years to try again.
