Nigerian-Born Chinyelu Onwurah Makes History, Wins Seat In UK General Election

Nigerian-born Chinyelu Onwurah has made a mark in world politics. She won the first seat that was declared for Labour party in the United Kingdom election held on Thursday, December 12.

The Independent reports the Nigerian took Newcastle Central with whopping votes of 21,568 to beat her Conservative opponent’s 9,290.

Following her success, another Labour’s candidate, Bridget Phillipson, won seat in Houghton and Sunderland South.

It should be noted that Chinyelu was born on April 12, 1965. Her mother is from Newcastle who met her Nigerian father when he was a dentist and studied at the Newcastle University Medical School.

According to the information on her website, she recalled how her parents had to leave Nigeria after the infamous 1967 civil war.

“I was still a baby when my father took us to live in Awka, Nigeria. But two years later, the Biafran Civil War broke out, bringing famine with it and, as described vividly in an Evening Chronicle article in 1968, my mother, my brother and sister and I returned as refugees to Newcastle, whilst my father stayed on in the Biafran army,” she said.

Thank you to everyone in #NewcastleCentral for re-electing me as your Member of Parliament. Representing you is the best job in the world and it will be a privilege to continue stand up for you in Parliament. THANK YOU! pic.twitter.com/6m9JJrbID5

— chi onwurah (@ChiOnwurah) December 13, 2019

The Straits Times reports that Marin’s victory was a close margin, making her the replacement for the outgoing Antti Rinne who lost people’s confidence with the way he handled postal strike.

“We have a lot of work to do to rebuild trust,” Marin said as she spoke to newsmen, parrying questions that had to do with her age.