By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Thirty years ago, women made a bold global declaration in what came to be known as the Beijing Conference. The 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which was adopted at the Conference, stressed the need to uphold all human rights and fundamental freedoms for every woman without exception.
Since then, most governments have adopted by consensus a political declaration to respect, protect, and champion the rights, equality and empowerment of women, a fact which Sima Bahous, Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of UN Women, reiterated at the ongoing 69th session of the Commission in New York, when she said: “Rising to the challenges and opportunities of gender equality requires collective, decisive action across member states, now more than ever. At a time when hard-fought gains for gender equality are under attack, the global community has come together in a show of unity for all women and girls, everywhere.”
Sadly, going by what is happening in the Senate, Nigeria seems not to be part of that global community. Instead, the country has decided to play rogue on the fundamental issue of giving the rights of women a shot in the arm. Presently, there are only four women in the 109-member upper chamber of the National Assembly. That is a gross underrepresentation. But more scandalous is the fact that one of the four, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, is presently in the crosshairs of Senate President Godswill Akpabio, because she spurned his sexual advances.
Matters came to a head last Thursday when the Senate rather than investigating the allegation suspended Natasha. To be sure, Akpabio has denied the allegations, but in doing so, he also made it impossible for Natasha to prove her case, if, indeed, she has any. And that raises another question: how can a man claim innocence, yet refuse to take the moral high ground by proving same beyond any reasonable doubt even when he seemingly had all the aces? Rather, he resorted to sundry acts of mischief, railroading the Senate into an encoded course of action.
In any other clime, a petition of sexual harassment against the president of the highest law making body would lead to a fair and transparent investigation. The reverse was the case in this instance. It earned the petitioner instant suspension for an unprecedented six months. Not only that, the suspension came with severe conditions: her security was withdrawn, official vehicles and other entitlements were taken away, her salary was cut off, and she was barred from appearing near the National Assembly. For the six months the suspension will last, she is barred from presenting herself as a senator, either locally or internationally. But if she submits a written apology, the leadership of the Senate may consider lifting the suspension before the six-month period expires.
Akpabio, the accused, presided over the sitting, thereby being a judge in his own case. It was brazen. But, I am not surprised. The Senate is a cult where the golden rule is that nothing must be done to rock the boat. In her book, Bold Leap, Senator Chris Anyanwu wrote, “… fear of the leadership is the beginning of wisdom.” It is a house of conspiracies where “a senator may come with the best proposals for legislation, can be the brightest and hardest working in putting together ideas, but if the leadership does not care about that senator’s ideas, they will sit on them. They can also “can” them and they will become part of the archive of unrealized dreams in the legislature. That archive is mountain high and it is stained with the sweat and tears and frustrations of many enthusiastic, ambitious new legislators.”
That is what has happened to Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan. Riding on the crest of public acclaim, she thought she could make a difference. But she is in an institution where making a positive difference for public good is an anathema. To make matters worse, she refused to “take care” of the boss, who happens to be her husband’s friend. In the underworld that is Nigeria’s politics where women are viewed primarily as objects of heteronormative male sexual desires, such considerations are of no moment.
So, Natasha’s real crime is the audacity to spurn the big and entitled man’s sexual advances. For refusing to be objectified, she had to be taught a bitter lesson by men who kill, literally, rather than take prisoners. In any case, her alleged acts of gross misconduct and unruly behaviour were reactions to the subtle acts of victimization by the Senate President after refusing to sleep with him. As she pointedly said in an interview on Arise TV: “My case is a case of a student being punished by a lecturer for refusing to sleep with him.”
On February 4, Akpabio reassigned her from the Local Content Committee, which oversees lucrative oil agencies, to the Committee on Diaspora and Non-Governmental Organisations. Then on February 20, her seat was relocated without her knowledge. Though a prerogative of the Senate President, she interpreted the relocation as an act of vindictiveness by Akpabio, hence her outburst. Even her subsequent refusal to stand up whenever the Senate President was coming into the Chambers was an act of protest.
But in trying to punish her, the Senate broke its own rules and flouted the 1999 Constitution. For instance, the Senate Rule Book Order 67 says a senator cannot be suspended for more than two weeks and the Court of Appeal ruled in the same vein when Senator Ali Ndume was suspended. In fact, a High Court went a step further by ruling in the Senator Ovie Omo-Agege case in 2017 that suspending a senator not only violates the Constitution, but amounts to an unacceptable intimidation. In suspending Natasha for six months with all the concomitant punitive measures, the Akpabio-led Senate overreached itself. A former female senator called it cruel. It is simply beyond the pale.
Nobody is saying Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan is right. She may or may not be. But it is left for Akpabio to prove her wrong with his own facts, not alternative truths. Exhibiting a misogynist attitude as he is doing right now does not cut it. It is tantamount to hiding behind a finger.
But is anyone really surprised at how low the country has sunk when Senator Imasuen, chairman of the Senate Ethics committee, who tried and convicted a fellow senator, blatantly ignoring the principle of fair hearing, and in violation of an extant court order, is man debarred from practicing law in the U.S.
But the truth remains that it does not matter how steep the sanction against Natasha is and how hard the misogynists try to shame her into silence, in the Kogi-born female senator, they have met their match and the joke is on Akpabio, the man who is hiding behind his finger, and the hapless Senate he leads.
Everything is wrong with what Akpabio and the Senate are doing. Shamelessly, the Senate President is playing the ethnic card. Backed into a corner by Natasha’s tenacity, he is now claiming that certain individuals want him shoved off his high perch because he is from the Niger Delta region. What valley of deceit and infamy will Nigerian leaders not descend into if only to ensure that their fingers remain dipped into the national cookie jar?
Right now, Akpabio is suborning all manner of groups to cast aspersion on the integrity of his quarry instead of doing the needful, which is: avoid treating the allegations against him in a manner that will create the impression that the Senate, as an institution, is trying to cover up issues bothering on sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and abuse of office. And the only way to salvage the already stained image of the Senate is by instituting an honest, sincere, open, transparent, and unbiased investigation, as former Senate President Bukola Saraki advised.
The charade going on right now is a disservice to Nigerians. It is even worse now that Natasha has internationalized the struggle. On Tuesday, she escalated the matter by presenting her case at a UN forum. Speaking at the Women in Parliament session during the Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting at the United Nations in New York, Akpoti-Uduaghan called for international intervention.
Asserting that she was facing political victimisation for demanding an open and transparent investigation into her sexual harassment allegations against Akpabio, she said: “My call to the international community is that the world must not stay silent as democracy and women’s rights are rolled back in Nigeria. I call on human rights organisations, women’s movements, and democratic institutions to hold the Nigerian Senate accountable. Nigeria needs global partners to push for women’s political inclusion, safety, and protection from political harassment.”
I agree! But I am even more enamored of her defiance. “I will resist political intimidation. In the past few days, several male colleagues have urged me to apologise and retract my statements, but I told them I would not apologise for my truth. I will serve the six-month suspension, and on the very first day of my return, I will re-present my petition on sexual harassment. I will continue to do so until there is a fair and transparent investigation.”
This is an amplification of her vow on the day of her suspension before her microphone was muted and security personnel led her out of the Senate Chambers that, “This injustice will not be sustained.” The weak men that populate the national political space may have their way. But right now, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has her say where it matters most – the global stage – exposing the men of straw who straddle our polluted political space with their odious and ineffectual swagger.
