Nigerian Man, Toni Iwobi, Elected As First Black Senator In Italy

A Nigerian IT entrepreneur who has spent 38 years in Italy, Toni Iwobi has been elected as the first black senator in the European country.He was elected on the platform of Matteo Salvini. Iwobi was elected in the industrial city of Brescia in northern Italy.

“It is with great excitement that I can tell you I have been elected senator,” he said in a brief statement.


Toni Iwobi, of Spirano in Lombardy, announced “with great emotion” on his Facebook page that he had been elected to the senate in Italy’s general election.

“After more than 25 years of fighting as part of the League’s big family, I’m about to start another great adventure,” Iwobi wrote, going on to thank leader Matteo Salvini and his other fellow party members.

“I’m ready, friends,” Iwobi said.

Iwobi, 62, was born in Nigeria and came to Italy on a student visa some 40 years ago, before going on to marry an Italian woman and start his own IT company here.

Before running for senator he represented the League as a municipal councillor in Spirano back in the 1990s, and more recently headed Salvini’s national committee on immigration.