Four Nigerian-born Britons were yesterday elected as members of the British Parliament.
They are Chuka Harrison Umunna, Helen Grant, Chi Onwurah and Kate Osamor.
Umunna, the Labour Party Shadow Business Secretary was re-elected to represent Streatham .He is aged 36 and was first elected in 2010.
She is representing Maidstone and The Weald in Kent and the current Minister for Sport, Tourism & Equalities. Grant is the Conservatives’ first female black MP. Onwurah was re-elected by her constituents in Newcastle upon Tyne Central on the ticket of the Labour Party.
She was first elected in 2010 to replace Jim Cousins, who decided to step down .
Osamor is also of the Labour Party and she is representing Edmonton constituency in London.
Meanwhile, another Nigerian-born Dr.Benjamin Ola.Akande was yesterday named the 21st president of the 164-year-old Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri,USA. He will take office July 1, succeeding Dr. George B. Forsythe, president since 2008, who is retiring after 10 years at Westminster.
“We’re proud to introduce Dr. Akande as president of Westminster College,” said Wallace L. Head, chairman of the Westminster Board of Trustees. “We’ve achieved our year-long goal of finding the most qualified person to lead Westminster and to continue executing our strategic plan.
“It includes developing leaders for a global community by establishing one of the country’s most internationally diverse colleges, and maintaining a graduate placement rate that exceeds 95 percent,” he added.
Dr. Akande, who is an American citizen, serves as a professor of economics and Dean of the George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology at Webster University in St. Louis. He also leads Webster’s global Office of Corporate Partnerships.
Dr. Akande moved to the U.S. to attend Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas , where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Oklahoma, and completed his post-doctoral studies at Harvard and Oxford. Head said Dr. Akande was selected for his academic and administrative qualifications and because “he’s a results-oriented leader with strategic vision and proven experience in the areas of global strategy, marketing, and leadership.”
Akande said he proudly accepted this new challenge and looks forward to continuing Westminster’s mission.
“Westminster offers a distinctive destination for undergraduate education focused on student achievement and diversity, which are critically important,” he said. “We must prepare graduates to live and work in a world that is far more diverse and richer in new opportunities than ever before.”
