Why Izunaso wants to lead 10th National Assembly

The just concluded general election in Nigeria produced a unique political outcome at the national level with a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket that was thought impossible.

That was the repeat since the first attempt in 1993, when the late MKO Abiola of Social Democratic Party (SDP) and his running mate, Baba Gana Kingibe were elected in an election that was later annulled by the Military Junta of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.

With the victory of Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25 poll, and considering that vice president, Kassim Shettima hails from the North East, there have been clamour for the position of the Senate president in the 10th National Assembly to be zoned to the South East geopolitical zone of the country, for political expediency, national stability and cohesion.

Historically, the Nigeria federation has always rested on the tripod of three dominant ethnic groups of Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo. Under the current political dispensation, the Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani which now include Kanuri have produced the president and the vice president.

The imperative of political inclusiveness and arresting the agitation for Biafra in the South East especially among the young people who have been misled into the nefarious activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra and Eastern Security Network (IPOB/ESN), support the zoning of the Senate Presidency to the South East.

Having not produced the president of Nigeria since independence except for the six months of Aguiyi Ironsi as military Head of State in 1966, observers say that the intense Igbo sentiment against political exclusion and marginalisation in Nigeria is justified.

Currently, the South-East has two APC governors in Imo and Ebonyi States while South-South has only one APC governor. The status will remain the same post-May 29 with APC retaining the governorship seat in Cross-River. In the 10th National Assembly, South-East will have six senators and six will also come from the South-South too.

In recent weeks, the battle for the Senate president ahead of the June inauguration has intensified among key politicians in Nigeria with interested Senators campaigning toward realising their ambition, especially those from South-Eastern Nigeria extraction, but one man that is eminent qualified to lead the senate is Osita Isunazo, the current senator representing Imo West Senatorial District.

Izunazo is an experienced politician, who was at the centre of the political gamesmanship that birthed the APC when the then opposition parties, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress of Progressive Change (CPC), and a faction of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) led by Rochas Okorocha came together to form what is today the ruling party in Nigeria.

The Imo senator has paid his dues in APC as a core party man. He was in the merger committee that midwived APC and became the founding National Organising Secretary, a position he held for about five years.

As the Organising Secretary, he managed the 2014 National Convention of the party at Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos where the current President Muhammadu Buhari emerged as the presidential candidate of APC.

The convention had Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Rochas Okorocha as the main challengers of Muhamamdu Buhari for the party’s presidential ticket. The 2014 APC presidential convention has been adjudged as the most transparent party primary ever conducted in the history of Nigeria and Senator Izunaso always beat his chest for doing a great job as the organising secretary under whose purview the responsibility rests.

He was first elected into the House of Representatives in 2003 and elected into the Senate in 2007, where he was Chairman of Senate Committee on Gas and member of other standing committees. As things stand today, Senator Izunaso who is returning to the Senate for the second time, is the most ranking Senator from the South-East and South-South and considers himself the most prepared and most experienced and most qualified to be the next Senate President and lead the 10th National Assembly.

Speaking on his ambition, Izunaso noted that he was the most qualified among those in the Senate presidency race, especially among those aspiring from the South-East.

According to Izunaso, “Among those vying for the Senate presidency, especially from the South, I am the most qualified in terms of service to the party, loyalty and commitment. I was there at the beginning of APC; I am one of the people that were there at the foundation of the party.

“I was in the merger committee put together by the opposition parties that formed the APC. I have laboured hard for the party as the founding National Organising Secretary. In all party assignments, I have discharged them with commitment and unwavering loyalty.”

While Senator Izunaso contends that other aspirants like Senators Orji Uzor Kalu, Godswill Akpabio, Senator-elect David Umahi, current Governor of Ebonyi who is touted to be an aspirant, have the right to their aspirations, he feels his credentials as a party loyalist are stronger.

“The other people you mentioned came to our party as joiners after we have won the 2015 presidential election against all odds. They actually worked vigorously for the PDP, their party then to win the election.

“If we didn’t fight to win the election in 2015, will APC be the ruling party today? Will they be in our party today to seek to lead the National Assembly? If the office of the Senate President is about who has served and worked faithfully for the party, I am the most qualified,” the Senator-elect said.