Since February, when Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan (SDP, Kogi Central) accused the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio (APC, Akwa Ibom North-West), of sexual harassment, the Senate has channelled its energies into bringing down one of the few female senators in the 109-member assembly.
A crisis engulfed the Red Chamber early this year over its sitting arrangement. Akpabio moved Akpoti-Uduaghan to another seat, which the Kogi lawmaker deemed unjust. The Senate President said it was a normal parliamentary procedure.
But Akpoti-Uduaghan accused Akpabio of sexual harassment, after which she was suspended when she refused to appear before a Senate panel.
A ranking senator has been commenting about the lady’s “chocolate colour” and asking if “she is the most beautiful woman on earth”.
These distractions come at a cost. The parliament of the world’s sixth most populous country and the highest paid in the world is seen as lacking priority and a sense of its constitutional duty.
On March 28, terrorists struck again in Plateau State, killing over 50 people. Elsewhere, soldiers and civilians are slaughtered by non-state actors, but the lawmakers do not see the carnage as a legislative priority. This is distressing.
As the prohibitive cost of living triggered nationwide protests last year, the Senate President countered: “Keep protesting while we are here eating.”
The electoral reform bill that should tidy up the country’s messy voting system is idling. The federal parliament must concern itself with the welfare of the people.
Akpoti-Uduaghan was promptly suspended for six months despite court orders. Her security was withdrawn, and she was ordered not to come near the Senate. This is bizarre.
Since 1789, only 15 United States senators have been expelled, and 14 of them for joining the Confederacy during the American Civil War.
Since 1999, the Nigerian Senate has suspended seven senators, one of them for embarrassing the Senate President. Ruling parties cannot stomach opposition criticism.
The world has heard Akpoti-Uduaghan’s story of repression and subjugation of women. On Sunday, The New York Times ran an article titled “A female senator faces down a ‘classic abuse of power’ in Nigeria”. The Senate and the country do not need this negative melodrama or the patriarchal and misogynistic perception that it cannot accommodate women and give them a fair hearing.
Nigeria’s record in women’s inclusion is appalling. Of the 109 seats in the Senate, only four are occupied by women. In the House of Representatives, men are 343, women a mere 17.
In Kenya, a quarter of the lawmakers are women. In Senegal, 40 per cent are women. Nearly 50 per cent of South Africa’s parliamentarians are women. Rwanda takes the cake, with women making up 61 per cent of the parliament, the world’s highest.
Nigeria’s four female senators could still be reduced to three if Akpoti-Uduaghan’s controversial recall succeeds. INEC says the recall signatures did not meet the requirement. But in Nigeria, anything can happen. There are rumours that Yahaya Bello, who is being tried for allegedly embezzling billions of naira, could replace Akpoti-Uduaghan.
In 2023, while Bello was still Kogi’s governor, the state sent tractors to destroy the roads leading to Akpoti-Uduaghan’s district on the eve of an election to hinder access to the area. Recently, her local government (Okehi) declared a curfew to scuttle her visit.
No one is speaking up for her, not even her fellow opposition colleagues in the parliament. But this could be because of concerns that dissenting voices are punished. When a senator stood to make a point of order at the height of the contentious declaration of emergency in Rivers State, Akpabio told him that his views did not tally with the position of the Senate. This is the stuff of a cult, not a democracy.
This must change, as bullying and suppressing a female senator could discourage other women from coming forward.
