Enyinna Nkem-Abonta is a

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

n-born South African retired politician who was elected to the

National Assembly of South Africa The National Assembly is the directly elected house of the Parliament of South Africa, located in Cape Town, Western Cape. It consists of four hundred members who are elected every five years using a party-list proportional representation syste ...

in the 2004 general election as a member of the Democratic Alliance. He resigned from the DA in 2005 and joined the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

. Nkem-Abonta left parliament at the 2009 general election.

Early life and education

Nkem-Abonta was born in

. He moved to South Africa in 1994 after receiving a doctorate in applied economics from the Paris Dauphine University in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. He worked as the policy and research head for Ntsika, the Financial and Fiscal Commission and the KwaZulu-Natal treasury department. Before he was elected to parliament, he taught economics at the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was ...

Political career

In the 2004 general election he was elected as a Democratic Alliance Member of Parliament to the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

. He was appointed the DA's shadow minister for trade and industry. During a debate on Black Economic Empowerment in September 2004, Deputy Minister Lulu Xingwana told Nkem-Abonta to go home where "millions of black people" needed him and that he "should not have run away" from his own country. Nkem-Abonta dismissed his xenophobic run-in with Xingwana as "just politics". After Raenette Taljaard resigned as a DA MP in late 2004, he took over as shadow finance minister. Nkem-Abonta

crossed the floor Crossed may refer to: * ''Crossed'' (comics), a 2008 comic book series by Garth Ennis * ''Crossed'' (novel), a 2010 young adult novel by Ally Condie * "Crossed" (''The Walking Dead''), an episode of the television series ''The Walking Dead'' S ...

during the 2005 floor-crossing window period and joined the

. Nkem-Abonta then served as an ANC MP until the 2009 general election when he left parliament. In 2013, Nkem-Abonta assisted with the creation of the Libertarian Party of South Africa.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nkem, Abonta Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century South African politicians Democratic Alliance (South Africa) politicians African National Congress politicians Members of the National Assembly of South Africa Libertarianism in Africa