A Nigerian has made history in far away Italy after becoming the first black man to be elected as a Senator in the country.
Mr. Toni Iwobi is the first coloured senator elected in Italy and will be the only black parliamentarian in the next legislature.
According to Yahoo News, Iwobi from Nigeria is an IT Expert with a company that provides assistance on hardware and software for both private and public bodies.
He has been living in Italy since the ’70s, long after leaving the shores of Nigeria. He was elected in the industrial city of Brescia in northern Italy.
“Friends, it is with great emotion that I inform you that I was elected senator of the Republic!” he said in a statement.
“After over 25 years of battles in the great family of the league, it is about to start another great adventure! My thanks go to Matteo Salvini, a great leader who led the league to become the first centre-Centre force of the country!
“I have to thank then my National Secretary Paolo Grimoldi, my now former provincial secretary and new Congressman Daniele Belotti, the whole team of the department for work done over these years, the great league militants and all facebook friends for their support.
“I can’t forget my family, without them I wouldn’t have come here today because they never stopped supporting me and being close to me!
“Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’m ready, friends!”
He is a member of the anti-migrant League. He was also the Municipal councilor of Spirano in 1995, in 2013 he failed to be elected to the regional in Lombardy, but continued to do politics close to what had become the League of Matteo Salvini.
A long militancy that led the party to nominate him in Bergamo in proportion to the Senate. Third on the list, behind a historic leader like Roberto Calderoli and also Daisy Pirovano, daughter of the former Senator from Bergamo and former mayor of Caravaggio Ettore Pirovano. And it was Calderoli himself, last night, who first called to give him the news that he had been elected. “Hi Senator Iwobi” he told him.
But what does a black man do in the racist League? Toni Iwobi answers: “It’s an ancient question, which everyone makes me. And I reply with a question: but is there a “bible”, a “written code” that forbids a black person from staying in the League? No, it does not exist. And Italy is a democratic country? It is and I have the freedom to choose who to stay with whom to commit. Who claims that the League is racist is a net mistake: racism means feeling superior to others, while in the movement I find many strong positions, decided, but also a lot of respect, ” says Toni Iwobi.
Comments
