By OLA AWONIYI
Thursday, 6th March 2025, started like any other day in the Nigerian Senate. But before the day ran out, some events that would not be easily forgotten had unfolded. First: a woman Senator was sanctioned for misconduct after flouting the rules of the Senate. Second: Women Legislative Aides in the Office of the Senate President hosted a huge gathering of women for a global event.
Ironically, while the women were waiting in a big conference room in the Senate wing of the Assembly for the gender-related event to kick off, a fellow woman was being escorted out of the hallowed Chamber by the Sergeant-At-Arms, having been suspended from the Senate for six months. What a coincidence!
The assembly of women was led by the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim, and included some former women Senators, representatives of women groups and women activists. The gathering was to mark International Women’s Day, commemorated worldwide yearly on the 8th of March.
The United Nation’s purpose for the Women’s Day celebrations is to boost global awareness on women’s rights, gender inclusivity in the economy and polity, gender equality and campaign against abuse and violence against women. The President of the Senate, Godswill Obot Akpabio, attended the event in company with some other Senators, including the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, and Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele. They left the Chamber after the day’s proceedings to participate in the event. The platform offered the Senate President an opportunity to showcase his record of commitment to women’s rights despite the negative commentaries portraying him differently.
Akpabio recalled an event decades ago, when, as a Student Union Leader, he walked into the office of a Professor to fight for a female student who had complained of victimisation by the lecturer. The confrontation with the lecturer saved the student from being willfully failed.
Akpabio also proudly exhibited his record as the Governor of Akwa Ibom State when he had a woman as his Deputy Governor and appointed three women as Chief Judges and two as Head of Service. He also appointed many women to his cabinet and as chairpersons of many local governments. During his tenure, the Deputy Speaker and Chief Whip of the State House of Assembly were women. And when Akpabio had the privilege to nominate for a ministerial appointment, his nominee was a woman. The record earned him the award of The Most Gender-Friendly Governor in Nigeria.
Since his emergence as Senate President, Akpabio has continued to demonstrate the same commitment to gender inclusivity. He directed the management of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) to create a Gender Inclusivity Unit. He also caused the Institute to convoke a Conference of Women in Governance in August 2023.
Reflecting on all of the above and many more that Thursday, Akpabio emphatically remarked: “So, l have been a great advocate for the rights of women and I will remain so till I die.”
However, the Senate President challenged the gathering to ponder why, despite the increasing advocacy, the level of women’s inclusion keeps falling in Nigeria. He cited the case of the National Assembly which had nine women Senators in the Ninth Senate but only four in the Tenth Senate.
For Akpabio, one way to change the narrative is for women to look inward and avoid certain things. They should not always weaponise their gender. “We can increase the number of women in Parliament by our own attitude, by preventing the idea of weaponising gender.”
Then the case of Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the Kogi Senator suspended a couple of hours earlier, as expected, came up at the event. It is an episode the Senate President was reluctant to comment on in the public or outside the Chamber. But Akpabio was compelled to make some remarks on it by the comments made earlier by some speakers.
For instance, a woman activist, Ene Obi, who spoke ahead of the Senate President, said if she had not brought the issue up that day, “then I’m not worthy of living.” She said for 10 days, she and her colleagues hardly slept because of Natasha’s case. She narrated how they, at different times, engaged the Senate President and Senator Natasha in an attempt to find a solution to the matter. “We told the Senate President that we have only four women in the Senate and we need them to be protected. We need them to have an environment that they can serve. And so we are really worried.” Obi concluded that the decision of the Senate earlier that day to suspend Senator Natasha “shows that we have failed,” in our mediation role. She nonetheless appealed again to the Senate President for a resolution of the matter and that they wanted more women representation in parliament.
Responding, Akpabio, who Natasha accused of sexual harassment, made it clear that he had no idea anything happened between them on 8th December 2023, a day before his birthday celebration in Uyo. “So from 8th December 2023, I never heard. My wife never heard. No Nigerian ever heard. Even the husband never heard of this issue of sexual harassment until her committee was changed, and then her seat was changed.
“Have you ever wondered about the trauma caused by that same woman on the other people she has accused in the past? None has been proven so far. You even wonder about the trauma caused to the 10th Senate and the image of the Senate with all these useless allegations.”
To highlight the character of the Senator in question, Akpabio recalled an incident involving her and the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim, at the National Assembly. The Minister had spoken ahead of Akpabio but only about a favourable disposition of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Assembly to women, which was demonstrated in the increase of the budget of the Ministry of Women Affairs by 1000 percent.
But Akpabio said the Minister failed to mention the experience that made her cry when she appeared before the Senate to defend the 2025 budget of her Ministry. According to Akpabio, a female senator walked her out, remarking that the minister had not come prepared. Other Senators pleaded to allow her to defend the budget because she had another function with Mr President in Lagos. However, the female Senator insisted that the way she started was disrespectful to the Senate. All pleas and entreaties fell on the Senator’s deaf ears and the minister left the Senate in tears that day. “I had to call her (Minister) to tell her, that does not represent us. And the woman that walked her out of that committee was Distinguished Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan. Here we are talking of character,” Akpabio told his women audience.
“Your attitude determines your altitude. Our women must rise above pettiness. We must go back to where we see an upward movement of women in all spheres of life. That is the only way I will have hope and fulfilment that I have left a solid legacy behind in politics.
“We must condemn all issues of sexual harassment that are not fake. We must tell women not to use tears to look for sentiments when they are making false accusations. We must also let women know that governance is not about vanity. If a common seat can cause a kind of hullabaloo and then you asked why don’t you want to move from the seat and somebody sits on Television and said that is the only place camera catches me well. Are we doing a beauty contest in the Senate? It is a serious place. It is not a place you look for the camera to come and catch you. But we have left room for reconciliation. The debt I owe Nigerian women, through my late mother, is so deep in me that I will, throughout my life, continue to work for the upliftment of the women in this country.”
On low women representation in governance, Akpabio said: “Let us talk to ourselves. Listen to the minister. The minister just suffered from a fellow woman. Put up a woman in any senatorial district today for Senate, women will vote for the men. You will never vote for yourselves. So let us start by questioning you. How come you don’t elect your own? When the minister was speaking, the minister said women constitute 51 percent of the voting population in Nigeria. So why, again, are you taking the backstage in terms of political representation? Women will never vote for themselves. Ask me, if a woman does not want to vote for a woman, am I the one that will force the woman to vote?”
However, Akpabio offers a solution to the complex problem. He cited the measures adopted in some countries he has visited, like Tanzania, South Africa and Malawi, where a certain percentage of seats are constitutionally reserved for women. In countries like the United Arab Emirates and Somalia, he said it is done by appointment of a number of women into the Parliament.
“We are discussing that in the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. If it means tinkering with the Electoral Act to enable women have a say in the Parliament, we will do so. Women are better managers but sometimes women can be harder than men. When they take decisions, they take decisions, but they are very prudent in all aspects of life,” Akpabio said.
***Ola Awoniyi writes from Abuja
