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.”
These Tory Mayoral types are beyond the pale.Zac plays on @SadiqKhan's Muslim heritage, while Boris plays on @BarackObama's Kenyan ancestry
— ChukaUmunna (@ChukaUmunna) April 22, 2016
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 rights icon Martin Luther 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 Perhaps his ideas were old-fashioned and out of date.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 in Streatham, 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 launched 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.
