From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja
Chief Osita Izunazo, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is the senator representing Imo West Senatorial District in the National Assembly and chairs the Senate Committee on Capital Market.
In this interview, he speaks on the clamour for an additional state in the Southeast, the reason he is seeking expansion of Supreme Court justices, Nnamdi Kanu and other critical political and financial matters. Excerpt:
You were vocal in advocating for the recognition of Prof Humphrey Nwosu for his role in deepening democracy in Nigeria and co-sponsored a motion to that effect. Though it failed to scale through, on June 12, President Bola Tinubu finally did that by conferring a national honour on him. How did you feel when he made the announcement?
Yes, I was one of the sponsors of that motion. And I spoke vehemently against those who thought that Humphrey Nwosu should not be honoured. But today, we have been vindicated, thanks to Mr. President for taking the path of honour. So, I want to commend him, and also commend all the people who have fought for democracy. I also fought for democracy at that time when I was young. We were part of the struggle. If I were a little bit older then, maybe today I would have been given national honours. Anyway, I think it’s coming. So, Humphrey Nwosu deserves far better. I think Mr. President has taken the right step in the right direction. I must commend him for remembering Nwosu and the rest of the other people who played active roles in the struggle for June 12. But I also think that someone like Humphrey Nwosu, that a monument will be named after him. The present INEC headquarters should be named after him. And I believe that Mr. President will do that, because he has started. Because why didn’t Mr. President say because the Senate said he should not be honoured, I won’t do it? You know that was a way for him to have escaped if he didn’t want to do it, but he didn’t escape, because you know the motions we move do not have the force of law. So, he didn’t escape. He said, look, much as the Senate moved a motion that the man should not be honoured, I believe he should be honoured.
You also proposed a Bill seeking an additional state for the Southeast region. How far has the bill progressed?
Yes. We deserve an additional state. If all the regions in the country have six states, the Southeast should be given a state to balance the equilibrium. Forget about Northwest, they have seven. That’s not what we’re saying. We’re saying give us that state that we deserve. So, that’s why I’m proposing the ANIM State, which has passed through second reading in the Senate. It is now before the Constitution Review Committee. ANIM State is Anambra, and Imo. That A-N is Anambra, I-M is Imo. So, it is basically my senatorial district plus some other areas in Anambra State that have agreed to join. You know, it’s not something you do by fiat. It is something you do by referendum. People have agreed to join. So, I’m an advocate of one more state for the Southeast.
Still on the Southeast, you are advocating an additional state while insecurity is a serious problem in the region. How do you think security agencies can separate legitimate grievances from criminal elements?
I advocated through my motion here, when we first started, that the issue of Nnamdi Kanu should be given political consideration. I said so. I said much as it is in court, but it is something that I believe should be given political consideration because I also believe that if he is granted bail, that the insecurity in the Southeast will almost stop. It may not stop 100 per cent, but it will almost stop. Because some people who are criminals are now saying it is because we’re fighting for Nnamdi Kanu. Criminals have taken over the struggle. But if you say, okay, you get your freedom, we’re granting you bail, those criminals will have nothing to say again. Once they are caught, they are criminals. So, I moved that motion, supported by other senators here, and the motion was carried.
You are proposing a bill to increase the number of Supreme Court Justices from 21 to 30. What prompted this?
Yes, I’m sponsoring the bill that is calling for increase in the number of Supreme Court justices. The constitution says that Supreme Court justices should have 21 justices. This is the first time we’re actually having a full complement of Supreme Court, because we cleared 11 justices, making it complete 21. But I’m saying that it should increase to 30. So, they can have, you know, they sit in the panels of five on regular matters, but on constitutional matters they sit seven. If you have 30, it means that five panels can sit. And there are so many cases lying in the Supreme Court, that the Supreme Court is now giving dates 2028, 2027 dates. I am also sponsoring that amendment to increase the number of justices to 30. Now, I’m also of the opinion that there are certain things that should not go to the Supreme Court. There are certain things that should end either at the High Court or at the Court of Appeal. For example, what will a land matter in my village, land matter in my village, where I come from, be settled in Supreme Court? How? Certain things should terminate; you can even start from either customary courts and terminate it at High Court. In fact, those people will have better understanding and knowledge of that land that you are talking about. Some people are saying we can have Supreme Courts, as is done in America and other places, regional Supreme Courts. I’m not part of that. I don’t want regional Supreme Courts. I want one national Supreme Court. But cases going to Supreme Court should reduce. I’ll just give you an example. What will maybe paying taxes, something that bylaws can handle at local government level, maybe somebody didn’t pay what they were supposed to pay at local government level, they took it to High Court, Court of Appeal, and Supreme Court. How? What will marriage cases, marriage between the husband and wife, end up going to Supreme Court? There are some things that should stop at a certain level. Only serious matters like murder cases, crime, terrorism, and all the rest of them that should actually terminate in Supreme Court. So, Supreme Court should not entertain all cases in the land. It is not fair on those people there, and it is also not proper. That is why you can see that cases lie in Supreme Court for years. Even to get a date in Supreme Court, you will jubilate. It takes years to get ordinary date. The last time I went to Supreme Court as a lawyer, that was in 2023. The case we went for, the parties have already died. The two parties have died and have reached consent agreement with their children. So, it’s just for them to be adopted. That was 2023. Supreme Court gave them date in 2026. That time, they didn’t have full complement of the court. But even now that they have full complement of the court, I still believe it’s not enough. And I’ve listed some of those cases. There are so many of them. If you remove land cases going to Supreme Court, you may have reduced the number of Supreme Court cases by half. Only land cases. Do you know that tenancy dispute goes to Supreme Court? Tenancy. They didn’t pay rent. I paid rent. They didn’t pay rent. Landlord drove me away. How? How? There’s a case I know about. About somebody that wrongfully went into a house and they said it’s not his own, the owner has sold the house. The person he sold it to said no, no, no. Somebody else who bought the house, went and sold to another person. So, all manner of complications. The case is in Supreme Court now. What is the case doing in Supreme Court? About tenant and landlord and buying the house or not buying the house? Going to Supreme Court? Wasting the time of the justices and the time of dispensation of justice. So, it’s not right.
Can you speak more on the new Investments and Securities Bill signed into law by the president?
The Investment and Securities Bill was sponsored by me, which Mr. President has assented to. And that bill, now an Act, is the omnibus law governing everything about the capital market and investment. You know that it is through that law now that if you are caught doing Ponzi, you will be jailed for 20 years. It is through that law that cryptocurrency has been legalised, because SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) can now regulate crypto. In fact, digital assets have now become part of the instrument in our country. It wasn’t there before. So, that is an Act that has been able to address at least four of President Tinubu’s eight-point agenda. So, you can’t talk about $1 trillion economy without a vibrant capital market. Where are you going to get the money from? It can only come through the capital market. So, and that is a novel idea, I mean, a novel law. In fact, it has brought a new SEC. It’s not the SEC that you know before. So, we are planning to unveil the Act. We are already planning to unveil it to the public, because there are so many aspects of the law that people don’t know about. So many, it is a major achievement because if you are talking about economy, you only have money market and capital market. Money market headed by the CBN and capital market. So, and how do you do anything without a capital market? Even when the CBN tried to do the e-Naira, you remember the e-Naira? It couldn’t work because those are the attributes of capital market. You know, initially CBN said they cannot recognise crypto. How can you not recognise something that is already on its own? Nigeria is number two in the whole world about crypto. Our young men and women are feeding fat on it. And these monies are not coming to us. So, if you regulate it, the money will start coming here now. But if you don’t regulate it, you know, it’s blockchain technology. They don’t even need you to do it. Now, in terms of delivering at the constituency level, we’ve taken our time to choose some of the things that our people need. We are building international conference centre in virtually every local government in my senatorial district.
Let’s talk about constituency projects. Earlier, you mentioned that your senatorial district is one of the largest in Nigeria. What challenges does that pose in terms of project implementation?
I have the largest senatorial district in southern Nigeria. I have 12 local governments. In fact, in my state, the next senatorial district has six local governments. So, you can see that the burden is much. So now, whenever we want to have a town hall meeting in a particular local government, there will be no hall. We will be trying to move to the senatorial headquarters or to the state capital, which is a long distance. So, we are bringing communication nearer to the people by building conference centres so that people will have places to meet. We are also doing some roads projects. We are also embarking massively on agriculture projects. We are encouraging our people to have something to do in agriculture. I don’t believe that everybody will come and say, you don’t have a job. Why don’t you have a job? Go and do something. Go and do little farming. You’ll feed your family. So, we have done a lot of training. We have trained them on cassava production. We have trained them on piggery. We have trained them on poultry. We have done so many trainings in the last one year. This year now, we are concentrating on setting them up. We want to see how many we can set up for them. These are some of the things that we have done. And I have awarded scholarship. I strongly believe in education. I believe that it is better for one to be unemployed than to be unemployable. So last year, I awarded 200 tertiary scholarships, from year one to final year. This year, I awarded 100. It’s from year one. We’re not awarding scholarships to somebody in 300 level or 200 level. We’re awarding scholarships to year one so that we can take you to 500 to 600, depending on the course. Some are doing medicine, you know, it’s six years. And we believe that God will see us through because what I would want to be remembered for is maybe if I’m going somewhere, somebody will tap me and say, I was one of the people that enjoyed your scholarship. So, that will make me happy like somebody who won N100 million lottery. That’s what will make me happier. Like now, when I go for functions, some small children, girls and boys, will struggle to see me and they will say, ‘I want to thank you for the scholarship. I’m enjoying your scholarship.’ So, that’s what makes me happy. So, the point I’m making is that education makes me happy. And we’re training people on AI. We’re partnering with one company in Lagos, ALS, to train our people in AI. We’re training now about 1,000 persons in AI. AI is the future. Yes, it’s the future and you don’t need to go to formal school to do AI. Those who were in the first batch of people, I was told, have already gotten jobs. You know now people can stay in Nigeria and work for a company in America. Yes. And you are paid in dollars. Nobody actually knows where you are. There are some people who are working in Canada, but they live here. So, this is what Internet and AI can do these days. The AI training, I’m conscious about it, but most times our people are not serious. If we are training 1,000, we’ll be grateful to God if we have about 300 that are serious. We’ll be grateful to God because these young people don’t want to, you want to help people, but people don’t want to help themselves. So, it’s a problem. If somebody say, come, let’s train you on AI. We are giving you the laptop. We are giving you everything. Go for the training. The training is for you. It is not for me because it is something you are doing with your head. I’m not the one that will do the work. I’m the one that will pay. You are not the one that will pay. You are not paying me. The only thing I would get from it is if you say that it’s me training you on this AI, that’s the only benefit I have. So, we are doing that. And we are doing a lot of other things to promote our people. We want them to be properly educated. We are also building some hospitals, some cottage hospitals. You know, it’s difficult, we can do it, but how do they manage it? So, when we finish, we will certainly hand them over to government. Maybe the state government or the missionaries or whatever. But we are just building some cottage hospitals now. And we are also building some school blocks. These are the regular things that everybody is doing, but we are thinking outside the box on how to help our people. That is the reason we are talking about this issue of AI. That is the reason we are talking about scholarship to our people. We also lit up a lot of places. But you know, I’m seeing now some controversial statements that are talking about street lighting in Nigeria vis-a-vis the budget. I’m not sure if you saw it, but you know, those things that I’ve seen, they’re not correct. I’m not sure any pole, any streetlight, I’m not sure any one is more than 1.2 million or 1.3 million. I don’t think so. Some are even about 350,000. Some are 400,000. But they made it now look like one pole is about 200 million. We’re not serious. We’re not being fair to ourselves. xx