Osama al-Nujaifi | |
|---|---|
أسامة النجيفي | |
.jpg) Al-Nujaifi in 2011 | |
| Vice President of Iraq[2][3] | |
| In office 10 October 2016[1] – 2 October 2018 Serving with Nouri al-Maliki andAyad Allawi | |
| President | Fuad Masum |
| Preceded by | Himself |
| Succeeded by | Vacant |
| In office 9 September 2014 – 11 August 2015 Serving with Nouri al-Maliki andAyad Allawi | |
| President | Fuad Masum |
| Preceded by | Khodair al-Khozaei |
| Succeeded by | Himself |
| Speaker of the Council of Representatives | |
| In office 11 November 2010 – 15 July 2014 | |
| Prime Minister | Nouri al-Maliki |
| Preceded by | Fuad Masum(Acting) |
| Succeeded by | Salim al-Jabouri |
| Minister of Industry | |
| In office 3 May 2005 – 20 May 2006 | |
| Prime Minister | Ibrahim al-Jaafari |
| Preceded by | Hajim al-Hassani(Interim) |
| Succeeded by | Fawzi Hariri |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Usama Abdu'l Aziz al-Nujayfi 1956 (age 68–69) |
| Political party | al-Hadba (in theMuttahidoon coalition) |
| Relations | Atheel al-Nujaifi(Brother) |
| Residence | Baghdad, Iraq |
| Profession | Engineer, politician |
Osama Abdul Aziz al-Nujaifi[4] (Arabic:أسامة النجيفي; born c. 1956) is anIraqi politician and served as one of the threevice presidents of the country, from 2014 to 2015 and 2016 to 2018. As thespeaker of the Council of Representatives, the informal leader of the moderate Sunnial-Hadba party was the highest rankingSunni politician of Iraq.
An engineer by profession, al-Nujaifi served as Minister of Industry in the 2005–06Iraqi Transitional Government. He later won the2010 parliamentary election and was elected the Speaker of theCouncil of Representatives. During this time, he built up a reputation asprime ministeral-Maliki staunchest adversary, whom as a Sunni he could defy but not challenge. After leaving offices together with al-Maliki in 2014, he was rewarded the ceremonial post of a Vice President of Iraq, which he held until 2015. The positions of all three Vice Presidents was restored in October 2016.
al-Nujaifi was born 1956 inMosul to an aristocraticSunniArab family of landowners and politicians. Both his grandfatherMuhammad and his father served as members of parliament during themonarchist era. He grew up racingArabian horses for his family.[5]
In 1978, al-Nujaifi earned a degree inelectrical engineering, from theUniversity of Mosul. Shortly after graduation, he worked in the Iraqi government'selectricity ministry for 12 years,[6] involved in building power plants.
Together with his brotherAtheel, the later governor ofNineveh, in the early 1990s he took over his family's agricultural company, and particularly started out in the Arabian horse trade.[7]
During the rule ofSaddam Hussein, the al-Nujaifi family largely remained out of politics, returning to the public scene following histoppling in 2003.[7] They were however accused of harboring sympathies for Saddam'sBaath Party,[5] and were indeed involved inhorse trades with Saddam's sonsUday andQusai.[8]
In theIraqi Transitional Government, al-Nujaifi was appointedMinister of Industry. During his one-year tenure, heprivatized most of the state-owned companies which included firms working in sectors from petrochemical and cement to sugar, silk and heavy industry. He campaigned against the ratification of theConstitution of Iraq.[9]
Following theIraqi legislative election of December 2005, he was nominated by theIraqi National List to become a member of theCouncil of Representatives. On 26 January 2006, he survived an assassination attempt, when a roadside bomb detonated close to his convoy near the town ofBalad, killing three of his bodyguards.[10] Heading a parliamentary committee to assess the humanitarian situation inNineveh Governorate, he criticized the conduct of governorDuraid Kashmoula: "We have seen no trace of the huge sums of money said to have been appropriated for the province and could gather no idea on how they were spent."[11]
In September 2006 al-Nujaifi's bodyguard was assassinated.[12] Later that month, al-Nujaifi sparked a walkout by the 55 MPSs of theKurdistan Alliance when in a parliamentary speech he belittled the historical and current role ofKurds in Mosul area. His speech was seenchauvinist by the Kurds, urging even fellow members of the Iraqi National List to distance themselves from al-Nujaifi's words.[13] al-Nujaifi claimed in October 2008 that the2008 attacks on Christians in Mosul were carried out by Kurdishpeshmerga andintelligence operatives.[14]
The al-Nujaifi brothers'al-Hadba party contested the2010 parliamentary election as part of the cross-sectarianIraqiyya bloc, which became the largest parliamentary force.Iraqiyya, however, didn't manage to secure a clear majority to elect its Shiite leaderAyad Allawi to replace currentprime ministerNouri al-Maliki. On 11 November 2010, after three days of pressure talk, al-Nujaifi was elected theSpeaker of the Council of Representatives, obtaining 227 votes out of 295, with 30 MPs not attending the session. In turn, the power-sharing deal brokered by Kurdish politicianMassoud Barzani secured al-Maliki and PresidentJalal Talabani's posts.[6] In his first parliamentary speech, Nujafi however held al-Maliki's government responsible for the country's "fear, hunger, poverty and corruption," adding that Iraq was considered today "the most corrupt country in the world."[5]
In his first visit to the US as Iraqi parliament speaker, al-Nujaifi refused following protocol, denying to place a wreath on theArlingtonTomb of the Unknowns on the basis that he considered the Americans "an occupying force rather than liberators".[7] When he revisited Washington in early 2014 to discuss the ongoingSunni insurgency inAl Anbar Governorate, he took a different stance, stressing the importance of the US role in Iraq "to support the political process developed in Iraq." He criticized the treatment of the SunniSahwa forces, who foughtal-Qaeda in Iraq, though refused to join theIraqi Army, until they were massively prosecuted by the al-Maliki government. "This policy of exclusion and marginalization of Sunnis and the arrest of thousands of them for illegal reasons provided a suitable ground for the rise ofISIS."[15]
Named "the inner circle's new face", Nujaifi by then was the highest-ranking Sunni politician of Iraq,[5] Within the increasingly fragmentedIraqiyya national bloc, al-Nujaifi'sal-Hadba party shaped the new moderately SunniMuttahidoon coalition, advocating a Sunni federal region in Iraq to contest the2013 governorate elections. Seen by many as a future presidential prospect,[7] his new coalition however didn't succeed in playing a central role neither in the governorate elections nor in the2014 parliamentary election. After a weeklong deadlock situation, al-Nujaifi agreed not to seek another term as parliamentary speaker, if al-Maliki also drops his premiership bid.[16] As the prime minister cleared the path,Salim al-Jabouri from theMuttahidoon-alliedDiyala is Our Identity coalition became the new parliamentary speaker.
al-Nujaifi was assigned the post of one of the threeVice Presidents of Iraq, along with the former prime ministersal-Maliki andAllawi on 8 September 2014.[17] On 11 August 2015, these largely ceremonial posts were however altogether abolished as part of prime ministerHaider al-Abadi's reform plans.[18] Later, he filed a complaint against the decision, considering it to be against the Constitution.[19] AlsoNouri al-Maliki promised to cling to his post.[20] On 10 October 2016, the three posts of Vice Presidents were restored by theSupreme Court of Iraq which termed their abolition as unconstitutional.[1] On 12 May 2017, he announced the establishment of a political party dubbed "United for Iraq" inErbil.[21]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Vice President of Iraq 2014–2015 2016–2018 | Succeeded by Vacant |
