Liz Truss, 47 has emerged as the new leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party and British Prime Minister after defeating her rival, Rishi Sunak in a Tory vote where she polled 81,326 votes over Sunak who polled 60,399 votes. With Truss emergence, she has replaced Boris Johnson who resigned early July following series of scandals. The new Prime Minister is the third female to occupy the plum office after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
Before she became the Tory leader and British PM, Liz Truss was UK’s Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs since 2021 and Minister for Women and Equalities since 2019.
Born on July 26, 1975 in Oxford, England to John Kenneth and Priscilla Mary Truss, the new Prime Minister attended West Primary School in Paisley, Scotland and Roundhay School in Leeds. She studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Merton College, Oxford from where she graduated 1996.
Considering the deep and long standing Britain’s relationship with Africa, Lizz Truss and her administration should pay more attention to its relationship with Africa and treat the continent as an important partner; otherwise Britain’s global role and influence might be weakened eventually.
With the world’s fastest growing population, Africa is potentially a huge market for Britain. Therefore, an enhanced British government policy on Africa will go a long way to improve relationship that will greatly add value and benefit both sides. Under the new Prime, Britain should pay more attention to Africa’s priorities rather than neglecting them or imposing its own. Britain should assist Africa in the area of: security and conflict prevention, free trade, promoting of good governance, human rights, technology, climate change, etc.
Nigeria should exploit its age long relationship and strong ties with Britain with an unambiguous goal of producing benefits that will propel the country to greater heights.
