After the rain and thunder that rent Nigeria’s political air at the wake of the clash between Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Natasha has returned to her legislative job, having served a six-month suspension slammed on her by the Senate.
Although it was the opinion of the court, and that of quite a notable number of Nigerians, that the measure taken against the top charismatic female legislator was harsh, time took over the case and presented a resolution.
Her travails began when she threw a bombshell on national television, alleging that Akpabio was making advances at her. In other words, the change of her sitting position and other allegations of marginalization in the Senate were because, to put it succinctly, a Loverboy was angry that he had been unable to get a 50-50 love. On the one hand, a virile man having a deep feeling for such a goodlooking legislator could be seen as complementary and a purely natural development. But, when principles of morality and faith are applied, the glimpses of scandal appear on the horizon.
The nation has not been privileged to know the truth of the matter, regardless of court cases that popped up as soon as the matter came into limelight. The Senate insisted that she was being punished because she breached the Red Chamber’s law when she refused to obey Senate rules on sitting positions. The Senator, however, invoked an order of the house that covered her action, insisting that she was being victimized for not compromising.
Interestingly, fiery Natasha remained in full public glare throughout her suspension, throwing tantrums in protest against the suspension that denied the Kogi Central Senatorial district a voice in the Senate for as long as it lasted. Right or wrong, Natasha’s suspension opened a can of worms for the nation, even as it sufficiently entertained members of the public who held diverse views on the issue.
The rumblings in the Senate chambers that centred on the brawl between Natasha and her family friend Senate President Akpabio may have died down with the return of the Senator to her duties. A nagging question, however, is whether the nation had heard the last of the case. Like Nigeria happened to various other unresolved cases in the polity, this also may have died down and the ashes of its ruins swept into the trash can of history.
Besides accusations of concupiscence levied on the Senate rulership, the entire episode widely exposed the primeval place of women in the view of a base African male. In summary, to the African man, the woman should be seen and not heard. At best, she is a toy for men. That explains the dismal number of female legislators and practically no female governor in the whole federation that assented to the 1995 Beijing Declaration made at the Fourth World Conference on Women in China.
Let’s not get concerned about the righteousness of that viewpoint at the moment as we analyze one of the offshoots of the imbroglio – the shouting match between former Minister Oby Ezekwesili and Senator Onyekachi Peter Nwaebonyi, when the Senate body gathered to hear Natasha’s petitions against Akpabio in her struggle to regain her job.
Clips of the chaotic scene revealed that as Senator Nwebonyi began to address the committee on whether he could begin his own evidence on oath, being a representative of the Senate President, Ezekwesili retorted with an acrid “shut up!” And hell was let loose. Apparently, the lion in Nwebonyi sprang up and the Senator, who voiced out that he could not take such an insult, gave it back to Aunty Oby, describing her as a disgrace to womanhood and telling her that she can never change character.
Okay. Was it actually right to snap at anyone whatsoever to shut up in the midst of a conversation? How would we feel if we were on the receiving end, regardless of our gender or whether we were right or wrong? How courteous is it to address someone in that manner, let alone a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?
Even when we tend to conclude that it was crude and un-African for a female to address a man in that manner, we would not be quick to lose sight of the circumstances that brought about the scene, especially the annoying impunity surrounding the Natasha-Akpabio case. In which case, we might fault Oby for not using better expressions such as “excuse me, please” to silence the Senator at that moment. We might as well explain her attitude with the fact that she appeared to have been pissed off on that occasion.
Senator Nwebonyi, a stout and unrepentant defender of Akpabio, might have deserved the treatment as he tried to dominate the scene in the usual swagger typical of him and his cronies. In the final analysis, the seriousness of Oby’s unruly behaviour was drowned by the popularity of the cause she was championing and, conversely, the ignoble nature of the alleged action Senator Nwebonyi sought to defend.
Facing the brilliance of Channels Television’s Seun Okinbaloye, Senator Nwebonyi displayed his naivety in defence of Akpabio. He was ready to swear to it that the Senate President did not hold Natasha’s hands on that day in question. Here again, we begin to wonder why the senator was much willing to stake his reputation in defence of Akpabio. He was not Akpabio’s shadow that follows him everywhere to hold such a claim. It was a matter of the heart and, between the two individuals concerned, who feels it knows it.
Most appalling is the willingness of the Senate leadership to go to any length, including thwarting the constitution, to silence Natasha, a female specie, making it look like the Red Chamber was a cauldron of misogyny.
Some felt the episode was about to ignite a war of the Amazons. Surprisingly, many of the women, even those in the Senate, distanced themselves from the brawl. Much likely, they were observing table manners, never talk aloud while eating. Or were they overwhelmed by the share preponderance of patriarchal instincts in the socio-political circle they found themselves?
We may never get to know the truth, whether the Senate President really sought to have an inappropriate relationship with Natasha as alleged. Very honestly, though, it is easy for an ordinary mind to think that an overfed National Assembly such as ours could be susceptible to such pass times since there is too much money stuffed on them while they handle too little assignments for the nation. This perceived underutilization of manpower in the legislature is evidenced by the clamour to have them do part-time instead of the full-time legislation that gulps the nation’s resources like water on a sandy soil. And to maintain them, the government has to be demonic about tax drive.
Besides, there were many other issues Natasha raised, such as budgetary issues and the reckless use of funds at committee levels. The senator had disclosed how a NASS staff had advised her to share, among the Local Content Committee members that she was head of, money that was voted for particular purposes but was not eventually used.
The senator had said that each committee in the National Assembly receives a monthly allocation of ₦950,000 for running costs. However, the committee clerk told her that the usual practice was to share the funds among committee members and staff instead of using them for official purposes.
The senator, however, said she declined to partake in the misuse of taxpayers’ money, opting to build up the committee funds with unused money.
As soon as she was removed, the more than ₦13million that she built up from zero suddenly reduced to ₦123,000 in less than a week. Could it be another clue to the source of her many problems in the Senate?
Perhaps, no one would hear a whisper on this anymore. And there lies the bane of our nation – permissiveness.
Dr. Odu can be reached through [email protected] or SMS 07016722929
“The rumblings in the Senate chambers that centred on the brawl between Natasha and her family friend Senate President Akpabio may have died down with the return of the Senator to her duties. A nagging question, however, is whether the nation had heard the last of the case. Like Nigeria happened to various other unresolved cases in the polity, this also may have died down and the ashes of its ruins swept into the trash can of history”
