UK MP Jo Cox - the woman whose death may save the EU, condemn Africa

By Sam Akaki

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them" wrote William Shakespeare in ‘Twelfth Night'. The pre-eminent British poet and dramatist could have been referring to the Member of Parliament for Batley and Spend, Ms Jo Cox, who was brutally murdered last Thursday, exactly a week to the landmark referendum on the UK membership of the European Union.

Although she was born to poor working class parents, Ms Cox achieved greatness when won a scholarship and went to the elite Cambridge University. She became even greater, in the public eye, when she shunned the well-trodden career path that often takes other Cambridge luminary to high-profile, well paid jobs in the media, finance and advertising. Instead, Ms Cox became a humanitarian aid worker with Oxfam where she spent a decade supporting some of the most desperate people on earth including child soldiers in northern Uganda.

Her one year as an MP also saw her standing head above shoulders with her colleagues when she chose not to live in an expensive London apartment, as other MPs do at taxpayer's expense and went to live in a floating boat moored on the River Thames near the House of Commons.

Now, Ms Cox's untimely death is thrusting on her the utimata greatness and historians may one day study how she changed not only the tone of British politics, but also the course of European history.  Why?

Had Ms Cox been a Ugandan public figure, her death would have presented a priceless opportunity for political point-scoring with some politicians barred from speaking at her "state funeral" during which some people would have been introduced as "chief mourners".

As a British MP, however, Jo Cox's death has only had one effect - the unification of the country in collective grief. This has been demonstrated in several ways.

Posthumously inspired by Ms Cox, who had told parliament that "we are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us", both the ‘remain' in and ‘leave' EU leaders unanimously agreed to suspend the campaign for two days following the MP's death.

Prime Minister Cameron and the opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, who had refused to appear on the same platform to argue the public to vote to remain in the EU uncharacteristically made a show of unity when stood side-by-side as lay flowers in honour of Jo Cox.

Moreover, in an extraordinary show of respect for Ms Cox, the Conservative party have decided not to contest the by-election for her replacement.

Then on Monday, June 20, Parliament was recalled from summer holiday recess to give MPs their opportunity to pay tribute to their fallen colleague. MPs were allowed to sit anywhere to demonstrate unity on this one occasion.

Meanwhile, several opinion polls, which had consistently put the leave campaign in the lead with up to 10% margin suddenly, gave the remain a slight lead following Joe Cox's murder.

This is an extraordinary feat, which even President Obama, the IMF managing director, Christine Lagarde, and other world leaders, who urged the British to vote to remain, had failed to achieve.

If, as expected, Ms Cox's death generates enough sympathy votes for the remain campaign, which was supporting, it would be due not only to the timing of her death, so close to the referendum, but more importantly what her suspected killer told the court.

Asked to confirm his name, Thomas stunned the judge and the journalists when he said his name was "Death to traitors, freedom for Britain".

This is a highly poisonous statement, which is being interpreted, wrongly, to mean that Ms Cox and other pro-EU campaigners "traitors" and some of us supporting British exit are "freedom fighters".  

In other words, to the ‘remain' campaigners leaders, who had failed to use the fear to win the referendum, may have found in it a silver bullet, which is the emotion raised by Joe Cox' brutal death to annihilate their opponents. It is being insinuated that Ms Cox's killer somehow spoke for former London Mayor Boris Johnson, the Justice Secretary Michael Gove and other cabinet ministers, heads of industries and former army officers, who are leading the leave campaign.

That said, politics is a ruthless game in which there is only enough room for self-interest and no space for sentimentality. There are those voters who are giving Ms Cox and her family the sympathy and respect, which they deserve, but they may vote today, Thursday, 23 June 2016 to leave the EU.

An African-British voter is bearing such a double burden. Our common humanity compels us to weep for Jo Cox. The plight of our mother Africa compels us to vote to leave the EU because a vote to remain is a vote for holding up a sign post screaming the words "African imports and African visitors keep out!"

The writer is the former Reform Agenda/FDC international envoy to the UK and European Union, also former independent parliamentary candidate in the UK's 2010 general election, now director Africa-EU relations.