Toni Iwobi, who has spent 38 years in Italy, on Sunday became the first black man to be elected senator in the European country.
Iwobi is an IT entrepreneur.
He was elected in the industrial city of Brescia in northern Italy.
The man who left Nigeria at age 22 with a student visa forty years ago announced his election via a statement.
The statement read, “Friends, it is with great emotion that I inform you that I was elected senator of the Republic!”
“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!”
A member of the anti-migrant League, Iwobi became a town councillor in 1995.