Mustapha Ihejirika

Mustapha Ihejirika
مصطفى إهجيريكا
File:Mustapha Ihejirika 2.png
12th President of Onza
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 January 2018
Vice President	Rahim Pretorius
Preceded by	Xolani Kojo
Senator
In office 1 January 2014 – 1 January 2018
Preceded by	Walid Waheed
Succeeded by	Saleem Jibril
National Assemblyman
In office 1 January 2010 – 1 January 2014
Preceded by	Takondwa Ayo
Succeeded by	Iniobong Okoro
Personal details
Born	27 January 1977 Kunta, Onza
Nationality	Onzaian
Political party	Democratic Socialist Party
Alma mater	University of Kunta
Occupation	Lawyer
Signature	Mustapha Ihejirika's signature

Mustapha Zuberi Ihejirika (born 27 January 1977) is the 12th President of Onza as well as a former Senator and National Assemblyman.

Ihejirika was born in Kunta to an impoverished family. The oldest of three siblings, Ihejirika was the first member of his family to pursue higher education, and he graduated with his Juris Doctor from the University of Kunta School of Law in 2002. Ihejirika was hired out of law school to work as a criminal prosecutor for the 7th District Courts of Onza.

In 2009, Ihejirika was recruited by the Democratic Socialist Party as part of a program to gather young, impassioned candidates to run for ambitious political offices. Ihejirika successfully won the campaign and became a National Assemblyman in 2010, where he worked on a sprawling variety of legislation relating to numerous different topics. After a single term in the National Assembly, Ihejirika was tapped to run to fill the vacancy left behind by the resignation of Liberal Senator Walid Waheed. Ihejirika won the seat and assumed the office in 2014, where he continued to establish a reputation for being willing to learn about and legislate on a wide variety of issues in the nation.

Following the death of President-Elect Akbar Saab in the 2017 Presidential Elections, Ihejirika was among the four individuals considered to be appointed in the vacancy after Saab's running mate declined to assume the office.

Ihejirika was ceremonially inaugurated on 13 December 2017 and officially assumed office on 1 January 2018.

Early life and career

Ihejirika was born on 27 January 1977 to Taj Ihejirika -- a carpenter -- and Zahira Ihejirika -- an administrative assistant. The family faced several financial issues throughout the years, particularly when Ihejirika's mother ended up being pregnant with twins in 1984. As a result, Ihejirika often missed weeks of school and at one point was expelled for fighting another student in middle school. He attributes his tumultuous background as being inspiration to prevent others from having to endure similar conditions, hence his fierce opinions on poverty and social class. "If it wasn't for the experiences I endured growing up, I probably wouldn't have a modicum of understanding for what people in poverty go through," he said later of the experience.

In high school, one of Ihejirika's teachers, Mukami Maryamu, was a retired lawyer. Maryamu mentored Ihejirika, and he credits her as his inspiration for pursuing a career in law. Around this time, the household also grew wealthier thanks to heightened business for his father and his mother moving to another company. Ihejirika graduated high school in 1995 as Salutatorian and was accepted into the University of Kunta the same year. Ihejirika has written about his struggles to find a niche social group to fit himself into during his early years, but ultimately ended up joining a few student organizations, including a social advocacy group, and making connections that later aided him in his ascent into politics. He earned his Bachelors of Arts in Political Science alongside a Minor in Social Work in 1999 and enrolled into the University's law school. There he studied the fundamentals of law in addition to taking specialized classes in tax law, criminal law, and social advocacy. Ihejirika was granted his Juris Doctor in 2002 and was immediately picked up by the Solicitor's Office of the 7th Circuit to serve as a junior criminal prosecutor.

Although Ihejirika initially struggled as a prosecutor, he was take under the wing of famous prosecutor Sekani Sizwe, who worked extensively on the Saraibian plane hijacking case of 1985 and was a primary contributor to legislative efforts to establish counterterrorism laws in response. In the years following, Ihejirika's case win rate improved several marks, leading him to become one of the top lawyers within the 7th Circuit and ultimately the nation. He was known for his warmth in all interactions, even with the accused, that often won him gravitas in the courtroom. "Some later thought that was deceptive," Bassam Ghalib, a colleague lawyer, later remarked about his demeanor, "because when he stood up and started prosecuting, he was remarkably sharp-tongued."

Ihejirika's most famous case was in 2008, when he successfully prosecuted former National Assemblyman 'Isam Tafadzwa on charges of obstructing justice and corruption. Tafadzwa, a Dem Soc MoC, resigned after an OCNA report revealed that he had misused campaign donor funds and used his influence as an Assemblyman to get out of a police citation for a public altercation.

Political career

National Assemblyman

Ihejirika had a fairly successful career as a lawyer up until 2010, when a friend of his connected to the Democratic Socialist Party referred Ihejirika's name to a committee the party created to locate and identify young individuals with a passion for politics to run for various political offices. The party's committee ultimately referred Ihejirika to the opening National Assembly seat of Takondwa Ayo. He won the election and assumed the office in 2010.

File:Mustapha Ihejirika 3.png

Ihejirika is known to skip formal dress in favor of plain clothes for political events.

During his tenure in the National Assembly, Ihejirika sponsored a number of bills pertaining to a large variety of issues. This led to him being dubbed by the media as the "Legislator-in-Chief." Ihejirika was also a noted diplomat, and his ability to reconcile party differences in favor of passing major legislation was often sought after by party leaders.

Still, Ihejirika has taken hard-line positions on a few issues, particularly those pertaining to welfare and poverty. For example, a clip of Ihejirika passionately disparaging a 2012 bill that was being considered that would enforce mandatory drug tests for welfare recipients made rounds across social media and garnered quite a bit of attention to the issue. Ihejirika is also a staunch protector of minority rights, and opposed legislation in his tenure in the National Assembly that aimed to repeal various parliamentary rules in favor of enabling the rapid passage of legislation via simple majorities.

Senator

Ihejirika won gravitas with the Dem Socs with his successful election to the Senate in 2014, where he took a predominantly-Liberal seat from the retiring Walid Waheed. He was noted for his impassioned speeches and his exceptional candor on the campaign trail -- all of which allowed him to net a large chunk of consistently-Liberal voters, a task many within the Dem Socs deemed virtually impossible before.

Ihejirika continued his broad approach to legislating in the Senate, and was a major underwriter for a few pieces of landmark legislation. Ihejirika also played an instrumental role in engineering the Kojo Doctrine, and was one of the first Dem Socs to publicly embrace the shift in foreign policy -- a maneuver that won him even more public attention and cemented his role as an emerging party leader.

By this point, Ihejirika had another unique advantage that elevated his status within the party: he was one of the only Dem Socs serving in the Senate that had served earlier in the National Assembly. Ihejirika used his connections in both chambers to reconcile differences between bills and in at least one case enabled a bill to pass without the need for conference committees.

Ihejirika had been approached by party officials to possibly serve as nominee-Akbar Saab's running mate, or even a potential run for the office himself, but he declined. Following Saab's death, however, Ihejirika consented to being considered as a candidate and ultimately accepted the offer to assume the office.

President

Ihejirika was ceremonially inaugurated to the Presidency on 13 December 2017, and officially assumed the office on 1 January 2018. He was inaugurated with a 93% approval rating -- the highest ever recorded for an Onzaian President at any point in history. Ihejirika outlined a number of legislative goals just after assuming office, including a plan to modernize the military in response to increased Saraibian aggression and to crack down on corporate abuses of tax expenditures. Government ethics reforms were also listed on the agenda.

Ihejirika sharply rebuked the government of Veleaz following reports in the Midrasian press that the nation had shot refugees attempting to flee to the Republic. This marked one of the first times an Onzaian president publicly criticized a nation other than Saraibia for human rights abuses -- an extension to the Kojo Doctrine that Ihejirika is expected to continue furthering.

Ihejirika announced in February 2018 that he would not seek to dismantle the OVI, but instead issued a series of executive orders granting oversight of the agency to both houses of Congress rather than allowing said responsibility to rest solely on the President.

He has been a vocal president insofar, in contrast to his predecessor, and has emphasized public appearances as being important to the transparency of a democratic government. Thus, he regularly attends public ceremonies and is more visible in the public eye than some of his predecessors.

Personal life

Ihejirika has remained unmarried his entire life. In interviews, he is notorious for dodging questions about his personal romances, or anything related to affairs he considers private. When asked about his family, he generally points to his brothers, parents, and nephews. Up until his inauguration, Ihejirika continued to practice law during his tenures in the National Assembly and the Senate, albeit to a much more minimal degree than when it was his full-time job. Ihejirika has also dodged questions of religion, but at one point indicated that he did not intend to specify a particular faith as he does not subscribe to one. Nevertheless, he rejects being classified as an atheist.

He is an avid tennis fan and pushed legislation during his time as a Congressman that aimed to promote the sport. He is also a fan of basketball and golf, though not nearly to the same extent. "I definitely am not the type to play sports other than golf, but watching and discussing them has always been something I can do to the point of annoying those around me," Ihejirika said in a 2013 interview.

Ihejirika does not drink and has said that he's never consumed tobacco or other illicit drugs. "Not drinking is one that really gets people's attention -- I find it easier just to fill my cup with water and play along," he told Scope Magazine in 2010. He is an avid fan of hip-hop and R&B, but he also listens to a few Asuran artists, joking that it's a "guilty pleasure." Ihejirika owned a dog, Blitz, up until 2016, when he gave it to one his nephews. He is a lover of cars, and has jokingly expressed disappointment at the rise in prominence of electric vehicles. In spite of this, he purchased a Chiraq Kalahar in 2017. He has expressed a love for cinema in the pasts and expressed an interest in screenwriting before, but has joked that he is "by no means an aficionado."