Long-standing Woolwich resident and Nigerian-born Abbey (Abideen) Akinoshun is having another go in his quest for a seat in the British parliament. He is the candidate of the Green Party for the Greenwich & Woolwich constituency in the May 7 General election. He joined the Green party nearly two years ago and in the past, was a member of the Labour Party for ten years. He ran for the parliamentary seat representing Erith and Thamesmead as an Independent in the 2010 elections and polled 438 votes.
He has lived in the Royal Borough of Greenwich for over 15 years with his family, and believes that "as a result, I have a good insight into the problems confronting our community. My children attend a local school, where I used to serve as a School Governor.
Abbey Akinoshun
Abbey (Abideen) Akinoshun
"I have been consulting in Employment Law and Regulatory Services in Woolwich for the past five years. Up till three years ago, I worked as a Clinical Service Manager with one of the NHS Foundation Trusts in London. In 2006, I was elected by the majority of the over 200,000 registered nurses in England to represent them, in the Nursing and Midwifery Council [NMC], where I used my position and knowledge to influence major changes in the nursing profession and to improve quality of care to the wider public. Having spent over fourteen years in the NHS, I am fully aware of the stresses that the NHS is suffering from.
"I also have a wealth of experience in politics, human rights, advocacy, race-relations, and community relations.
"In short, I am a resident with a lot of experience, common sense and a passion to serve my local community."
According to the prospective Member of Parliament (MP), "Having been a Labour Party member for over 10 years, I left the party about 5 years ago because, sadly, I no longer saw it as a party to build a fairer society. I then joined the Green Party, because I saw a fast-growing political party which has a fully developed range of policies addressing social, economic and political issues in our society."
Speaking of his attraction to the party, Akinoshun says "I was attracted to The Green Party because of its core values. It is the only party of social and environmental justice that supports a radical transformation of society for the benefit of all and for the planet as a whole. I was also inspired by what it stands for by its call to ensure that everyone has access to a secure job and a decent living wage; and its belief in the restoration of public services to public hands."
He said he is standing as candidate for the Green Party because "I would like to have the opportunity to give a political voice to the thousands of ordinary citizens like me, living in the Borough of Greenwich."
He says his three priorities for Greenwich and Woolwich Constituency will be to support the local community in their campaigns for “No to Silvertown Tunnel” and “No to IKEA” in order to reduce the risk of long-term exposure to air pollution and demolition of green space in Greenwich. He will also campaign for the building of more affordable social housing and the use of empty properties to address the problems of homelessness within the constituency of Woolwich and Greenwich.
Originally from Nigeria, Abbey spent six years in Bulgaria earning his Masters degree in Social Psychology from the University of Sofia. He speaks fluent Bulgarian as well as Yoruba. He later attended King’s College, London where he obtained his professional qualification in Mental Health Nursing in 1998.
Before starting his nursing career he worked for London Underground, cleaning the tracks and Tube stations at night. He later worked as a kitchen porter before moving to a rehabilitation home for people with mental health problems.
A former shop steward in the Transport and General Workers Union, in 1999 he was presented with an award by the Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police - Commander John Grieve, for fighting discrimination in the workplace. In 2000, he received an Our Heroes Community Champion award from the South London Press for his voluntary work to fight injustice and harassment in the workplace. He has represented hundreds of workers with no financial means of hiring lawyers, at employment tribunals and disciplinary hearings.
Jan King, Election Agent of Greenwich Green Party noted that "We are delighted to have such an able and charismatic local candidate who has
campaigned tirelessly for workers’ rights and has a proven record of fighting for the interests of people in Greenwich & Woolwich.
"We are also very proud that, in a constituency where 42 percent of residents are non-white, we are the only political party fielding a non-white candidate. Westminster politicians nowadays talk a lot about how much they
respect hard-working people. As someone who learned Bulgarian in order to put
himself through university and then spent nights cleaning the Underground so that Londoners could get to work, Abbey Akinoshun knows all about hard work. He already spends his working life sticking up for people who have been treated badly and he will be a passionate fighter against the austerity policies which all the other main parties support, as well as supporting local campaigns for more affordable social housing and against the Silvertown Tunnel and IKEA.”
Abbey hopes to do much better in the forthcoming elections than he did in 2010. The Greens came fifth in Greenwich & Woolwich in 2010 with just over 1,500 votes, but this year they hope to capitalise on a massive surge in membership in recent months. There are now nearly four times as many members of the Green Party in England and Wales as there were at the start of
2014, and the party has overtaken both the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and the Liberal Democrats to become the third largest in England and Wales. Greenwich Greens have experienced a similar surge in membership locally so there is every reason to expect a big boost in their vote share.