By: Amb. Anthony Akalugo
100 DAYS IN OFFICE, DIST. SEN. OSITA IZUNASO SHINES LIKE A MILLION STARS
By: Amb. Anthony Akalugo
Nigeria practices presidential system of democracy, having earlier jettisoned the parliamentary system that is the form of democracy practiced by her colonial Masters, the Great Britain. The presidential structure we practice in Nigeria provides the latitude to compare notes between Nigerian actors and their American counterparts. However, while America has practiced democracy consistently for over 200 years unbroken, Nigeria is still struggling to experience 24 years of unbroken democratic rule. That means that the teething challenges of Nigerian democratic system could be evident.
It was Franklin.D. Roosevelt, the former president of the United States of America, who first celebrated first 100 days in office, at the Pentagon. That marked a milestone and introduced a measurable duration for calibration and assement of his journey in the Governance of his people. From that historic initiative, democracies across the world.began to practice celebrating milestones.
In Nigeria, we can vividly say that it has become somewhat an unwritten law, a code of conduct for an elected official, be it executive or legislative, to mark his or her first 100 days in office and to subsequently celebrate other milestones, presenting report cards such as first one year performance scorecard and so on, until the end of the tenure.
The advantage of this celebration is to continuously remind the public official to be on toes to realise that the duration of office looks long but without conscious commitment to daily and periodic review, the duration could end without any tangible accomplishments.
Dist. Sen. Osita Izunaso, Kpakpando Orlu, is the man of the moment. He was elected to represent Imo West otherwise called Orlu Senatorial zone in the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
His election as a ranking member of the Senate, having been in the Senate in 2007 – 2011, was greeted with joy, as Orlu and ndi Igbo acknowledged that his experience, networth, erudition, relational acumen and Legislative dexterity, brilliance, in addition to his deep knowledge of the blend of law and legislation will ultimately give him the needed competence to excel in the red Chambers, and he has not disappointed.
Recall that Sen. Izunaso made it clear ab initio that he is going to the Senate to aspire for the highest position. He did his bid to express and concretize his willingness and to demonstrate his understanding of the system but other factors that determine eventual emergence played out and like a team player he is, he tagged along with the position of the party and has been providing the needed stabilizing acumen in the 10th Senate. He is proving to be an erudite, detailed, intelligent and experienced legislator.
As a man who has learnt from experience that immediately after the election, the clock of performance begins to tick, he is in haste to make historic mark. He said that he needed to begin to give back to the people immediately without waiting to be inaugurated. That is the urgency with which he embraced the office of the senator representing Orlu in the red Chambers.
Distinguished Senator Osita Bonaventure Izunaso, like a flight on laser Technology, given the momentum and speed, is racing in the space with every determination to make a difference, on jet speed. In his first 100 days in office, we make bold to provide his report card as follows:
- Economic Direction : Distinguished Senator Osita Izunaso, shortly after his election and return as the senator elect, invited a team of agricultural mentors from South Africa to come to introduce to Orlu Senatorial constituents Agricultural value chain that could be practiced to revolutionalize Agricultural practice and create wealth. It was an amazing initiative such that he set up a working structure to ensure that the structural set up to support the establishment of the initiative garners momentum. With that fully put in place, wealth creation and right deployment of resources will be achieved and Agriculture will become attractive to the people and assume wealth creation opportunity, once again.
1b. Barr. Osita Izunaso realised that access to funds has been a.major source of worry to rural people, especially women. To promote entrepreneurship and thriving of business ecosystem needs to unlock the doors of accessing funds. He partnered with a microfinance institution to provide and guarantee soft loan for women and youth to prosecute their trade. Hundreds of people accessed the facility at the first phase and he intends to sustain the trend to ensure that economic activities is spurred by his intervention. This is ingenious as it compels them to imbibe the financial discipline required for business mentorship.
- Legislative Engagement : Lawmaking is one of the three arms of the roles of a legislator. Lawmaking involves sponsoring bills to enact laws, motions to persuade the Executive to carry out prescribed intervention activities, and to intelligently contribute to discussions in order to make deliberations robust, beneficial and to present the perspective representative of one’s background and Constituency. These perspectives have all been deduced from the engagement of the distinguished Senator so far in his first 100 days in office.
Significant was his intelligent contributions during Senate debate to screen ministerial nominees and other statutory nominees of the government. He demonstrated brilliance and creative Inquisition to expose intrinsic competence.
Sen. Osita Izunaso, as a result of his ingenious activities in the Senate, was listed among the visible legislators of the 10th Senate. This is significant because he showed that his presence is not a fluke but a thing to make his constituents proud.
No doubt the country is passing through a tough time as the new administration of the government of Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu is grappling with the socioeconomic and sociopolitical realities on ground, efforts in the right direction will be recognised. He is knowledgeable in the system and has shown he is a groomed change agent.
He hit the ground running by sponsoring a number of motions for urgent national importance. The motions include:
- Remedial works for Ideato nation : a motion to urge the Federal government to urgently carry out remedial works on Obodoukwu, Urualla, Akokwa, Umumaisiaku, Umuchima, and Umuesi gully erosion. This motion was successfully sponsored and it led to the government’s sending a team of inspectors to access the level of environmental degradation and risk posed to habitation. This is a bold step that launched Orlu zone into the national limelight and the platform to seek for ecological intervention.
- Call to declare emergency on safety matters : Dist. Senator Osita Izunaso drew the attention of the government through a motion to seek more ways to commit to the safety of Nigerians both in terms of environmental safety consciousness and in the design of policies and programs to stem down rancour and acrimony to promote cohesion. Safety of Nigerians onshore and offshore calls for thorough design of policy and the distinguished Senator made it a national call to action.
3.. Move to Rescue South East: the concept of representation from a Constituency presents a priority concept in representation. It means that though one is in the red Chambers for the nation, he has an implicit role to be the voice of his constituents. South East has been wrecked by a wave of volatility and insecurity and the true situation was not before now spoken to the Federal authority. Sen. Izunaso demonstrated boldness, courage, intelligence and sensitivity by presenting the posture of the entire South East senators on the issue of the debilitating effect of the seat at home order rocking the economy of the South East. His presentation was delibrate, real, captured the true position, compelling and able to place on record the true situation, thereby dispelling all wrong narratives peddled against the region. He summed it up by calling for political solution, release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, which is known to be the only way to achieve peace and to resolve the impasse.
- Call to investigate the recovered $5b Abacha Loot : the international community has been skeptical repatriating stolen funds because of prospect of relooting same. The learned senator called for transparency and for accountability to demonstrate how the recovered Abacha loot was utilised. This is in the interest of public confidence and optimization, a focus on public finance oversight.
- Relocation of Federal University of Agriculture, Mubi : As a Federal Lawmaker, he has an implicit role to listen to and reason with people from every part of the country. He sponsored a motion for urgent need to investigate the report of the relocation of the Federal University of Agriculture Mubi,
Adamawa State, carried out by alleged compromised officials. This move seeks to establish justice, fairness and to condemn irrational conduct in the public space, restoring sanity in public institutions. - Motion for Government to Bring Oil Cartel to book : realising that the nation is grappling with the consequences of poor management of petroleum resources, including the emergence of cartels in the downstream sector, the distinguished Senator urged the government to urgently consider cautioning the oil majors so that the downstream petroleum sector will be optimized. Significantly, Sen. Izunaso demonstrated uncommon boldness in querying why companies and organisations that did not construct our refineries, have no intricate knowledge of the design and functionality, were considered and awarded turn around refinery contracts. He emphasized that the country needs to begin to do things right by considering integrative competence instead of political correctness or favouring cronies at the expense of national interest. He called on the Federal government to provide palliative for Nigerians in the light of hardships occasioned by the removal of petroleum subsidy.
Barr. Osita Bonaventure Izunaso refered to the Turnaround Maintenance midwifed by NNPCL as ambiguous and does not have the intrinsic competence to fundamentally address the inoperability of the refineries in Nigeria thereby plunging the country into more complex economic morass.
Any journey or life not worth examining is not worth embarking on or living. The journey of service to the people of Orlu Senatorial District in the 10th Senate where Dist. Sen. Osita Bonaventure Izunaso is on the saddle shows the beauty of competence, capacity and erudition. He is doing excellently well as an old war horse in the space. And as the Senate chairman on capital market, he has shown that being distinguished also goes with being trendy and in tune with the current world economic order. He is showing a known fact that he is a round peg in a round hole, back to the terrain where he has the panache, sagacity and intellectual prowess to excel.
The celebration of first 100 days in office of Dist. Senator Barr. Osita Bonaventure Izunaso gives an uncommon show of readiness, competence, capacity and passion. He has taken the nation by storm and he is no doubt one of the standout senators performing excellently at the red Chambers for the good of his constituents, Imo West, and for the South East and the nation at large.
Weldon Distinguished learned Senator of the Federal Republic for your exploits in the hallowed Chambers as a ranking senator.
Written By:
Amb. Anthony Akalugo
Leadership Sustainability Coach, 22/9/2023
