The Senator representing Imo West Senatorial District, Osita Izunaso, has said he wants to be the next 10th Senate Presidency in the best interest of the nation to give the National Assembly “a clean and fresh breath”.
OsunDaily News reports that Izunaso, who is one of the leading contenders for the Senate Presidency in the 10th National Assembly, stated this in a statement on Thursday signed by his media aide, Kehinde Olaosebikan.
The lawmaker said he is not worried about the choice of Senator Godswill Akpabio as the consensus Senate Presidency candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Izunaso expressed the optimism that he would eventually become the next Senate President and make the nation proud of an Assembly administered by competence, experience, capacity and integrity, comparable, if not better than any in the advanced world.
The statement reads in part, “I’m the highest ranking Senator from the South-south and South-east with a robust and outstanding legislative and National Assembly experience spanning from 1992 when I served as the Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker of House of Representatives to 1999 when I was appointed as the Chief Press Secretary to the President of the Senate.
“In all of these periods, I was one of the most outstanding committee Chairmen in both the Green and Red chambers. As a consummate party man, I joined the nation’s best of eggheads like Babatunde Raji Fashola, and our erudite Baba, Chief Bisi Akande in the formation of the APC in 2014. After the birth of the party, I served meritoriously as the National Organising Secretary of the party.
“It would also interest you to know that during the five years of my tenure as the National Organising Secretary of APC, there was no single litigation over our congresses both for party primaries and party executives. I was fair, just, adroit and meticulous in all my activities.
“Looking for a complete and loyal party man, I am the best. If competence, as in what our father, the President-elect desires in his planned Government of National Competence is the criterion, I am not just the most competent, I am the most capable, creative and organised senator among the contestants.
“If you want to go with the mood of the nation, requiring a government of National Unity, I am an Igbo man from the South-east, the most marginalised zone in Nigeria, I am the most qualified.
“I am the person that can give the Senate a clean and fresh image needed to give us a new Nigeria promised to Nigerians by the greatest democrat of our time, the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I am the most suitable for the Senate President of the 10th National Assembly.
“The President-elect, Bola Tinubu, President Muhammadu Buhari, and the APC hierarchy under the chairmanship of Senator Adamu Abdullahi, should as a matter of importance, come up with a new zoning arrangement that would not only produce the best among the Senators and House of Representatives members-elect as their presiding officers, but be seen by Nigerians and the world at large as meeting the best practices in legislative norms and satisfying the political exigencies of the country.
“The expectations of Nigerians and the entire world were high on the incoming administration, as such, no efforts should be spared by the present political leaders of the country in meeting the yearnings of the people.
“I agree with the position of the National Working Committee on the need for further and better consultations by all the necessary stakeholders of the party in reaching a workable zoning formula for the principal offices of the National Assembly.
“The APC-NWC had on Tuesday noted with respect the outcome of the meetings held between the President-elect and the leadership of the NWC and called for further and better consultation with necessary stakeholders in order to assure the support of the aspirants to the National Assembly leadership positions and members of the party nationwide.
“The expectant ascendance of Tinubu to the Presidency of the most populous black nation in the world has already raised the hope of a better and greater Nigeria in all aspects, particularly in the enhancement of democracy and good governance, across the globe.
“I, therefore, call on the leaders of the APC to douse the tension generated by the controversial zoning formula already heating the political atmosphere of the country by coming up with a zoning arrangement that would guarantee unity and national cohesion.”
