Special to USAfricaonline.com, first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the Internet, and USAfrica magazine, Houston.
By Chudi Okoye, PhD. This is his first commentary as a contributor of public policy and political issues to the platforms of USAfrica.
Whatever residual grievances we may (rightly) hold against Britain for its colonial era imperial crimes, and while no one should imagine there’s now a new dawn of post-racial Britain, we should take a moment to applaud what is unraveling with regard to the constitution of British government. Surprisingly it is not the supposedly progressive Labour Party but the Conservative Party that is championing diversity in the British government.
Having already given the UK its only female prime ministers to date (Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May and Liz Truss), the Conservative Party is now widening the aperture of racial diversity in the hierarchy of government.
We have all, I am sure, been following news that the British Conservative Party has selected as its leader a 42-year old colored person, Rishi Sunak, a British-Indian of Punjabi ancestry and East African passage whose grandparents immigrated to the United Kingdom only in the 1960s.
Mr Sunak is now selecting his team, and here again we find laudable examples of a seemingly newly ‘Open Britain’. James Cleverly, a Black man appointed by Sunak’s predecessor as Foreign Secretary, retains his position. He’ll be the global face of the British government.
Suella Braverman, an Indian with parents who emigrated to the UK from Mauritius and Kenya, returns as Home Secretary, having also been earlier appointed to that post by Sunak’s predecessor.
Iraqi-born Nadhim Zahawi is now Chairman of the Conservative Party, an extremely important position for managing the nationwide party structure.
Our own Nigerian sister, 42-year old Kemi Badenoch, had been appointed as the Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade by Mr Sunak’s predecessor, Truss. She had backed Sunak in the latest leadership contest, herself refraining from running, and she too has been retained in her position.
Oh, there is also Dominic Raab, a Briton of Jewish ancestry whose father migrated to the UK from the former Czechoslovakia, fleeing the menace of Nazi Germany. He’s the deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice.
In Britain, the four great ‘offices of state’ (i.e. the most senior Cabinet positions) are the offices of the Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary.
As it is, three of those – Prime Minister, Chancellor and Foreign Secretary – are occupied by colored persons, two of them with noted foreign lineage. The only exception is Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, who traces his roots to a family of landed gentry from the village of Baschurch in the Midlands civil parish of Shropshire.
With this extensive diversity at the very top of the British government, it is easy to anticipate what may unfold at the lower levels of the hierarchy.
I mentioned in an earlier post that Britain is acting like American corporations – Microsoft, Google, FedEx, IBM, etc. – that sought out Indian CEOs to initiate a turnaround or drive growth. ‘UK Plc’ is clearly following the path of technocratic pragmatism.
We have seen approving reactions from across the world as Britain appears to open up, with congratulatory messages heard from Washington, India and elsewhere in Europe.
One amusing – or shall I say ironic – message came from our very own Muhammadu Buhari. The man who has presided over the most extensive and most venal Fulanisation of the Nigerian government has sent the UK a warm message congratulating that country for its openness and diversity. He said:
“As the first Prime Minister of British-Asian descent and the youngest in about 200 years, these milestones will be especially inspiring for young people across our 2.4 billion-population, 56-nation Commonwealth.”
It is par for course for the Fulani revanchist in Aso Rock. We all remember, don’t we, Buhari’s stout defense of the principle of self-determination in a speech he gave at the United Nations even whilst he has sought to eliminate that very principle at home, seen especially in his vicious mangling of Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB.
But of course no one should expect a sense of irony from this man who it has been our great misfortune to have as president.
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