KOGI Central senator, Ms Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has penned a satirical letter mocking Senate President Godswill Akpabio for wrongfully suspending her for six months.
The embattled Ms Akpoti-Uduaghan was suspended for “misconduct” and the violation of the Senate rules, according to the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges. She had challenged Mr Akpabio in the chambers for changing her seat arrangement and preventing her from pushing her motions. She later accused Mr Akpabio of sexual harassment.
Popularly called Natsha, the senator, on Sunday, wrote a satirical letter mocking the Senate and the man at the helm of affairs at the chambers.
“Dear Distinguished Senate President Godswill Akpabio,” she wrote, “it is with the deepest sarcasm and utmost theatrical regret that I tender this apology for the grievous crime of possessing dignity and self-respect.
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“In your most exalted presence. I have reflected extensively on my unforgivable failure to recognize that legislative success in certain quarters is apparently not earned through merit, but through the ancient art of compliance – of the very personal kind.
” I understand that my refusal to indulge your… ‘requests’ was not merely a personal choice, but a constitutional violation of the unwritten laws of certain men’s entitlement. Truly, I must apologize for prioritizing competence over capitulation, vision over vanity, and the people’s mandate over private dinners behind closed doors. I now realize the catastrophic consequences of my actions: legislation delayed, tempers flared, and the tragic bruising of egos so large they require their own postcodes.
“For this disruption to the natural order of ‘quid pro quo,’ I bow my head in fictional shame. Please find it in your magnanimous heart — somewhere buried deep beneath layers of entitlement — to forgive this stubborn woman who mistakenly believed that her seat in the Senate was earned through elections, not erections. I remain, Yours in eternal resistance, Senator Natasha H Akpoti Unafraid, Unbought, and Unbroken.”
Natasha’s suspension
THE Nigerian Senate stood democracy on its head in March by suspending Ms Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months over “misconduct.” However, it ignored Ms Akpoti-Uduaghan’s sexual harassment allegation against its president, Mr Godswill Akpabio.
Natasha had accused Mr Akpabio of making sexual advances at her.
“My issue with Akpabio started on the 8th of December, 2023, when my husband and I attended a pre-birthday invitation extended by the Senate President at his residence in Uyo. We had earlier gone to his house at Ikot-Ekpene, and he held my hand and said he wanted to show me around his house. Just the three of us, my husband and him. I noticed he hastened his pace while still holding my hand, and he got to this particular sitting room,” she told Arise TV in February.
“He asked ‘do you like my house?’ and I replied ‘of course yes,’ and he said, ‘now that you are a Senator, you are going to create time for us to spend quality time here and you will enjoy it.’
“Later, on the floor of the Senate, I attempted to raise a motion regarding corrupt practices at the Ajaokuta Steel Company. I listed this motion five times, and it was only on the sixth occasion that it appeared on the order paper. When I approached the Senate President to enquire why my motion had been repeatedly stepped down, he told me ‘Natasha, I am the Chief Presiding officer of the Senate. You can enjoy a whole lot if you take care of me and make me happy.’ At that point, I told him that I would pretend I didn’t hear that.”
Following the development, the Senate ethics committee invited Natasha to its sitting, for which Natasha did not attend.
The Senate later suspended Ms Akpoti-Uduaghan. Surprisingly, the verdict was read by Senate President, Mr Akpabio, who is the principal accuser in the sexual harassment allegation. This, according to Document Women, should never be so. In other nations, legislators accused of sexual harassment stepped down to avoid interfering with the cases.
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“We are therefore calling for Senate President Akpabio to step down to allow for an independent investigation. Our legislative processes should not be used as tools to silence those seeking justice. We stand in solidarity with Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan and all women who bravely come forward with similar allegations,” the Document Women said.
Why Akpabio should have stepped down
History is replete with male lawmakers who were accused of sexually harassing women. They did the honourable thing and stepped down or they were suspended by their parties. In 2017, the United Kingdom’s Labour Party suspended Luton North MP, Mr Kelvin Hopkins, after an allegation of sexual harassment against a party activist two years earlier.
In March 2024, Arizona lawmaker, Mr Jevin Hodge, a 30-year-old Democrat, was accused of sexual harassment. He initially denied the allegation published in the Arizona Republic but later resigned honourably.
Co-founder of BudgIT, Mr Olúṣeun Onígbindé, said the Senate president should step down, noting that “that’s the least expected from a decent group of people.”
Senate violates court order
In all of the coversation, no one seemed to have spoken about an earlier court order by Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in Abuja restraining the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions from conducting disciplinary proceedings against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
Justice Egwuatu had issued the order after an ex parte application filed by counsel for Ms Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, Mr Victor Giwa.
Ms Akpoti-Uduaghan’s lawyer, Mr Giwa, told The Punch that the Senate resolution was a violation of a court order.
“The suspension is void, it cannot even take any effect. The suspension is illegal because there is a court order that restrained the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges from taking further action.
“The committee disobeyed a valid court order that was served on them, making a mockery of the chamber that is supposed to uphold the law,” Giwa said, as reported by The Punch.
Lawyers agree with him on this, noting that the Senate, being an important democratic institution, should never have violated the court order.
“This is just how low we have dragged our institution,” said a lawyer, Ms Bisola Akintola
Failure to investigate Natasha’s allegation
Several Nigerians are still worried that a chamber like the Senate sidestepped a serious allegation as sexual misconduct, making the complainant seem like an aggressor or respondent.
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A former minister of education, Ms Obiageli Ezekwesili, had said instead of probing the sexual harassment allegations levelled by Natasha against Senate president, the Senate chose the ignoble path of vicious abuse of power and desecration of our public institution.
“Investigate the accusation of sexual harassment is all that sensible Nigerians have collectively asked the @NGRSenate to do, but no, they have decided to choose the ignoble path of vicious a refkection of hof power and desecration of our Public Institution @nassnigeria,” she had said on her X.
Apart from the Senate’s inability to investigate the matter, political analysts say that members of the chamber spoke publicly in a manner that absolved Mr Akpabio from the sexual harassment allegation even without an investigation into the matter.
For instance, political watchers told Economy Post that Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges, Mr Neda Imaseun, absolved Mr Akpabio of the allegation on Arise TV.
“He said openly that the Senate president has never been accused of that. Has he tried to investigate this particular allegation? It smacks of bias and injustice against Natasha,” said a lawyer and human rights activist, Ms Nnenna Iguruonye.
