WE ARE ALL NATASHA: SENATOR’S SEXUAL HARASSMENT CLAIMS ROIL NIGERIA – THE GUARDIAN

Senator Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan and Akpabio 1024x512 15

WE ARE ALL NATASHA: SENATOR’S SEXUAL HARASSMENT CLAIMS ROIL NIGERIA – THE GUARDIAN

Treatment of Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who has been suspended from senate, shines light on women’s rights

Last July, Nigeria’s third-most powerful man gave a rare apology on the floor of the senate which he heads.

Godswill Akpabio had chastised his colleague Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for speaking out of turn, saying: “We are not in a nightclub”. But after receiving what he said was a deluge of insulting text messages from Nigerians, he apologised publicly a few days later.

In recent weeks, the two have been at the centre of a political row that has gripped the country, after an interview that Akpoti-Uduaghan gave to the broadcaster Arise TV in late February in which she accused Akpabio of sexual harassment.

She alleged that in one incident Akpabio had told her that a motion she was trying to advance could be put to the senate if she “took care” of him. In another, she said that on a tour of his house he had told her – while holding her hand – “I’m going to create time for us to come spend quality moments here. You will enjoy it.”

Akpabio has denied the allegations.

Akpoti-Uduaghan submitted a petition to the senate alleging sexual harassment, but on 6 March the ethics committee struck it out on procedural grounds. It also handed her a six-month suspension without pay, citing her “unruly and disruptive” behaviour during an unrelated argument in the senate about seating arrangements.

The accusations have dominated conversations and highlighted longstanding women’s rights issues in the socially conservative country, where no woman has ever been elected governor, vice-president or president.

Only four women serve in the 109-member senate, a drop from the seven female senators elected in 2015. The number of women in the 360-member House of Representatives has also declined, from 22 in 2015 to 17.

In a phone interview from New York on Monday last week, hours before speaking on the matter at a joint session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Women, Akpoti-Uduaghan railed against her suspension.

“This was orchestrated to silence my voice,” she said. “That action is an assault on democracy … I am not apologising for speaking my truth.”

Women’s rights groups have condemned her suspension, and hundreds of women and girls marched in the states of Lagos, Enugu, Edo and Kaduna on Wednesday during a “We are all Natasha” protest convened by the civil society coalition Womanifesto.

Women in a stadium crowd smile and sing
View image in fullscreen
Women take part in International Women’s Day celebrations in Lagos, in a country that remains socially conservative.

“Her suspension and the process that led to it was a shambolic show of shame,” said Ireti Bakare-Yusuf, a radio broadcaster and founder of the non-profit Purple Women Foundation, which is part of Womanifesto.

Ahmed Tijani Ibn Mustapha, a spokesperson for Akpabio, said Akpoti-Uduaghan’s petition alleging sexual harassment had not followed guidelines because she had authored and signed it herself rather than asking another senator to do so.

He also said that after she had refiled the petition correctly, the senate began a four-week investigation into the claims.

Akpoti-Uduaghan, an opposition People’s Democratic party (PDP) senator from the central state of Kogi, first tried to enter politics in 2019 with a run for Kogi governor. Thugs reportedly loyal to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) jeered her during the campaign, calling her a sex worker, and on one occasion attacking her and her driver. “This is definitely not an election,” she told reporters at the time. “This is almost like a war zone.”

Four years later, on the eve of the senate election she was contesting, portions of the main roads leading to her district were excavated overnight. She accused the APC of attempting to prevent her from campaigning.

Authorities said they were protecting residents against terrorist attacks, citing a December 2022 bomb blast by an Islamic State affiliate.

She lost the election, but in November 2023 a tribunal overturned the results, paving the way for her to become one of Nigeria’s youngest senators.

Akpabio, a political veteran, was the subject of another sexual harassment allegation from a former public official in 2020. He denied the allegation at the time and recently said he would sue his accuser. He had previously made headlines in 2018 when he predicted an election victory for his APC party by drawing comparisons with Hitler’s invasion of Poland. Last year, shortly after becoming senate president, he was involved in another controversy when a senator was suspended for saying there were inconsistencies in the budget.

After Akpoti-Uduaghan’s suspension, other senators coalesced around Akpabio, a powerful ally of the country’s president, Bola Tinubu.

One male senator said Akpoti-Uduaghan had fabricated the claims because she was angered by her removal as chair of a coveted senate committee in February. Current female senators dismissed her claims on national TV, while one former senator said Akpoti-Uduaghan’s claims were “a sign of weakness” and that sexual harassment happened only in schools.

“Male senators do not surprise me,” said Bakare-Yusuf of the reaction. “They mansplain even the basic of black and white to justify their selfishness. As for the female senators, disappointed is an understatement [but] like all hegemonic structures, patriarchy also has gatekeepers.”

In the aftermath of her accusation, a false claim that Akpoti-Uduaghan had borne six children by six different men surfaced on social media. The senate spokesperson said a kiss she shared with her husband on the senate premises before submitting her petition was “unspeakable” and an act of “content creation”. Over the last two weeks, crowds of pro-Akpabio protesters have turned up in public to abuse her in Abuja.

“Politicians sided with the senate president whom they believe has the power to grant them favours … and the poor were paid by those who have the most money to protest,” said Glory Ehiremen, senior analyst at Lagos-based geopolitical risk advisory, SBM Intelligence.

Some opposition senators have visited Akpoti-Uduaghan to show support. She also said she had received supportive emails from women across Nigeria, including some who were afraid to speak up about their own experiences. “In Nigeria, most women who are sexually harassed in workplaces don’t even tell their husbands because they are afraid of being judged,” she said.

As the episode unfolds, more women are praising her bravery, but few think Nigeria’s #MeToo moment has arrived.

Ehiremen said an entrenched culture of impunity was a barrier to justice. “The elite Nigerian cannot get justice unless they have alliances with the ‘powerful’,” she said. “Never mind the ordinary Nigerian.”

  • Dons Eze

    DONS EZE, PhD, Political Philosopher and Journalist of over four decades standing, worked in several newspaper houses across the country, and rose to the positions of Editor and General Manager. A UNESCO Fellow in Journalism, Dr. Dons Eze, a prolific writer and author of many books, attended several courses on Journalism and Communication in both Nigeria and overseas, including a Postgraduate Course on Journalism at Warsaw, Poland; Strategic Communication and Practical Communication Approach at RIPA International, London, the United Kingdom, among others.

    Related Posts

    GOVT SHOULD BE TOLERANT OF CRITICISMS – TUC DEFENDS VIRAL NYSC MEMBER

    GOVT SHOULD BE TOLERANT OF CRITICISMS – TUC DEFENDS VIRAL NYSC MEMBER The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has waded into the trending issue of a corps member who allegedly got threatened by officials of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) for criticising the President Bola Tinubu administration. TUC President, Festus Osifo, said that the corps member spoke out of frustration, advising the government not to go after her but to be tolerant of critics. The Lagos-based NYSC member, Ushie Uguamaye, had taken to TikTok to criticise Tinubu’s government over hardship Nigerians face as a result of the administration’s economic reforms. Her video went viral and got the attention on NYSC officials whom she later accused of calling her and issuing a threat to her to delete the video. NYSC is yet to release an official statement regarding the issue. But the TUC boss said, “They (government) have to develop this resilience to understand that people are frustrated, people are hungry, people are tired. So, if they decide to vent, I strongly believe that the government should not personalise it and come after such individuals“Imagine a young lady carrying out her NYSC function, what does she really have to do to bring down government? So, it is about personal frustration that she has aired. “So, I think that the government has to persevere much more, they have to be more tolerant, and they have to have this deep level of patient with Nigerians because people are passing through a lot as it stands today.” The TUC boss, however, advised critics to always criticise the government within the expected norm and with some level of decorum. In a statement released earlier on Sunday, Amnesty International also condemned the alleged threats and intimidation being faced by Lagos-based corps member. It said that the Federal Government must stop threatening individuals and groups who criticise the current administration. “The Nigerian authorities must stop responding with violence and threats to individuals and groups who express dissenting opinions — in utter disregard for Nigerian constitution and international law. Holding and voicing dissenting views is not a crime,” the organisation in a statement.

    CRIMINALS, DRUG ADDICTS, KIDNAPPERS BECOMING TRADITIONAL RULERS – OBASANJO

    CRIMINALS, DRUG ADDICTS, KIDNAPPERS BECOMING TRADITIONAL RULERS  —  OBASANJO Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has lamented the selection processes of traditional rulers in the country, saying that criminals, drug addicts, vagabonds, bandits, and kidnappers have infiltrated royal institutions. The former president said the rapid proliferation of traditional rulers, many of whom lack the required training and moral standing, has led to the deterioration of traditional institutions in the country. Obasanjo, who stated this in one of his newly released book, Nigeria: Past and Future, which was unveiled last week, bemoaned the abandonment of the traditional training and apprenticeship system that once upheld the dignity of royal offices, stressing that this neglect has contributed significantly to Nigeria’s socio-political challenges. He said, “Today, there are criminals, drug addicts, vagabonds, bandits and kidnappers as so-called traditional rulers.” He noted that instead of being custodians of culture and justice, some traditional rulers have engaged in disgraceful acts that further damage the country’s fragile system. He cited the example of a monarch involved in electoral malpractice. “This is a great pity, and it has greatly contributed to the problems of Nigeria by traditional rulers. How do we account for a traditional ruler snatching a ballot box at an election polling station and running away with it?” he queried. Obasanjo reflected on the past, when traditional rulers commanded honor and respect, particularly during the colonial and early post-independence periods, saying that such standards have now been lost. “The class of traditional rulers with their distinction, honour and dignity, as we knew them in the colonial days and early post-independence days, has been diluted and polluted.” While calling for urgent reforms, the former president stressed the need to restore traditional leadership’s lost dignity and value in Nigeria. He argued that traditional rulers should serve as key contributors to national development instead of being a burden. “That dignity, aura and respect should be brought back and traditional rulers should be an asset to Nigeria’s development and greatness and not a liability,” he declared. Obasanjo further emphasized the need for moral rejuvenation among traditional rulers, particularly those with deep historical significance. He insisted that if properly repositioned, they could be crucial in achieving Nigeria’s long-term aspirations. “There is a need for moral re-armament among the traditional rulers — the ancient and historic ones. And they can and should make meaningful contributions to the Nigeria of our dreams that will serve the purpose and interest of all.”

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    You Missed

    GOVT SHOULD BE TOLERANT OF CRITICISMS – TUC DEFENDS VIRAL NYSC MEMBER

    MORE APC TOP LEADERS, OTHERS DEFECTING SECRETLY

    LAGOS MEN SPENT N661BN ON ‘RUNS GIRLS’ IN 2024 – SURVEY

    CRIMINALS, DRUG ADDICTS, KIDNAPPERS BECOMING TRADITIONAL RULERS – OBASANJO

    NIGERIAN GOVT PLANNING TO ARREST ME – NATASHA RAISES ALARM

    WE ARE ALL NATASHA: SENATOR’S SEXUAL HARASSMENT CLAIMS ROIL NIGERIA – THE GUARDIAN