By
Boluwatife Adedokun
Every human has a pathway to greatness but some humans are more deliberate than others. BlackBox Nigeria dives into the background story of the newly elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak and his rise to become one of the World’s most powerful leaders.
Born on May 12, 1980, in Southampton to Hindu parents of Punjabi Indian descent, Rishi is UK’s first British Asia Prime Minister. His family is from Kenya but of Indian roots and moved to the UK looking for greener pastures. The only previous ethnic-minority PM was 19th-century Tory Benjamin Disraeli, who was Jewish but baptised into the Church of England.
Rishi Sunak grew up in a middle-class home; his father, Yashvir was a General practitioner (GPs) who treats all common medical conditions while his mother, Usha operates a pharmacy. He attended Winchester College, a boys’ independent boarding school, where he was head boy. During summer holidays, he serves as a waiter at Brasserie curry house even though not paid for the job, the owner of the restaurant, Kuti Miah, now 62-year-old said Sunak is “hard-working and a great person, who he believes will lead the country better.
Sunak enrolled at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), graduating with a first class in 2001. During his time at the university, he tried to hone his political view by undertaking an internship at Conservative Campaign Headquarters. Afterwards, in 2006, he got a Fulbright scholarship to undertake his MBA from Stanford University, United States of America.
It was during his student days that he met his wife, Akshata Murty, the daughter of India’s Top Tech millionaire – Mr Murty of Infosys.
The No. 1 top man at No. 10 Downing Street, owes much of his fortune to his wife who has a £430 million stake in her billionaire dad Narayana Murty’s IT empire Infosys making him one of the richest politicians to occupy the seat. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, Mr Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, are worth £730 million.
Sunak was first elected to parliament seven years ago in 2015 to represent Richmond (Yorkshire), and rose quickly, serving as parliamentary undersecretary at the now-defunct Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government under Boris Johnson in 2019. A year later he got another promotion to Chief Secretary of the Treasury and was then made Chancellor of the Exchequer by former PM Boris Johnson in 2020.
At the height of the pandemic, Rishi Sunak was in charge of the government’s furlough scheme and drew up plans for the cost of living payments being given to people to help them cover sky-high energy, fuel and food prices. No doubt, he is well experienced in managing the economy and the UK cannot wait for his magic wand in lifting England back to its glory days.
