THE Nigerian Senate gave Nigerians something to talk about in the last few days, thereby dousing tensions from the harsh economic environment and the harsh weather combined. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the Senator representing Kogi Central, and the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, were the two dramatis-personae that chose to entertain Nigerians.
To those who may not really understand what has so far transpired in the hollow chambers of the Senate, they got a glimpse of the ‘Tom and Jerry’ show when Akpabio who got tired of seeing the beautiful face of Natasha, ordered that she be moved to one obscure corner in the chamber.
A woman that is used to the limelight and feels at home to the flashes of cameras would not allow that manner of ‘insult’. With the combined fury of a Kogi worrier and the hot Ukrainian blood flowing through her veins, Natasha refused to move. The Chief whip, Tahir Monguno, had called the attention of Akpabio to the fact that a new seat allocated to Natasha had remained unoccupied and that she should not be allowed to make any contribution from a wrong seat in the Senate chambers. When she rose to defend herself, she was told that she won’t be recognized until she moved to her new seat.
Hell was literally let loose on the floor of the Senate following the rue, as Natasha looked everyone in the face and told Akpabio pointedly that she was not afraid of him, and that she was simply being unduly punished by the Senate President by such an order.
The question that agitated the minds of many onlookers was that at what point did the chummy relationship between the duo go south? When the going was good, Emmanuel Uduaghan, Natasha’s husband and Akpabio, were bosom friends. In fact, Akpabio was a prominent figure at the lavish wedding ceremony between Natasha and Emmanuel on March 5, 2022, in Ihima, in Kogi State. That was even before Natasha was elected into the Senate.
When she was elected into the upper chamber of the Nigeria legislative house, Akpabio bent the Senate’s standing rules backwards to take care of Natasha by appointing her as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Content. A rooky first-time Senator does not normally enjoy such a privilege. Not long after, the duo and some other Senators travelled out of the country to a conference in Geneva, Switzerland, where she reportedly sat beside the Senate President throughout the duration.
Indeed, when the going was good, Akpabio gave her a pet name – The Princess of the Niger Delta, as she was married to a Prince. Her husband, Uduaghan, is the Alema of Warri Kingdom.
However, the beautiful relationship went south after Natasha was removed as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Content and moved to head the Senate Committee on the Diaspora. That was the genesis of the present Tom and Jerry show that has been on display since last week. That was how a woman that is used to having her way became infuriated and promised to teach the Senate President a lesson.
Now, there are accusations by Natasha that she was being unduly punished for not ‘playing ball’ with the Senate President. Her removal from a juicy committee chair to an obscure one as well as the changing of her seat are parts of an orchestrated plan to frustrate and silence her.
Going by the Senate’s standing rules, the President of the Senate has the power to allocate seats to his/her colleagues on the floor of the Senate. The allocation, based on the extant rules made by the Senators themselves gave preferences to principal officers of the Senate and those that have been in the Senate for several years. But Natasha, a first-time Senator and member of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) felt that she must enjoy certain privileges. However, when she insisted on being recognized and openly confronted Akapbio, the Senate President had to direct the Sergeant-at-arms to walk her out of the chamber.
Heaven hath no fury like a woman scorned. Natasha appeared on a Television programme to allege that she was receiving such treatment from Akpabio due to her rejection of his sexual overtures.
The Senators at that stage seemed to have had enough, and simply processed her suspension order for six months. This is in spite of a court order barring the Senate Ethics Committee from investigating her. But a court order that is not favourable to Nigerian lawmakers can be shoved under the rug.
To the coven at the Senate, Natasha had stepped out of line and must be disciplined. Whether the process that led to her suspension is fair and just does not matter. A former senator, Shehu Sani, recently revealed what he went through when he publicly disclosed the salaries and allowances of Senators. He escaped suspension by the whiskers. According to him, if you are there and turn yourself in to a whistle blower, you are on your own.
Indeed, not one Senator out of 109, including three other women in the Senate spoke in favour of Natasha. Perhaps being a young woman and a new Senator, Natasha did not play her cards well. It was wrong for her to have refused to move when her seat was changed, moreso when speaking from an unrecognized seat is not allowed on the floor of the Senate, according to the rule book. What she should have done was to approach any of the principal officers to plead her case.
Again, her experience in politics should have been enough to guide her on how to navigate such a terrain as sexual harassment. While I won’t say much on the sex-for-favour allegation as the case is in court, Natasha, could have handled the situation better.
At 44 and at the height of her prime and beauty, Natasha is easy bait for advances from the opposite gender. Born of a Nigerian father from Kogi State and a mother from Ukraine, Natasha hated her skin colour while growing up in her father’s home tome, Obeiba-ihima in Kogi State. While she expected other young girls to play with her, she always became the subject of their play, as they would chant ‘Oyinbo pepper’ wherever she went. Her skin colour also became an issue when her father died in 1998, and she gained admission into the University of Abuja to study Law a year later. Although she became pregnant at the age of 19 in her first year, her determination did not waver.
It was the late Apala Music Maestro, Ayinla Omowura, who sang in one of his songs in Yoruba that “Enife Iyawo Arewa, to gba fun peki Oma ta Oti”, loosely translates in meaning: “A man who marries a beautiful woman and opens a beer parlor shop for her should be ready for stiff competition”. Natasha should know that she is an attractive woman who would always attract men and should have devised a means of wading them off without appearing antagonistic.
Again, there is a thin line between ‘toasting’ or wooing a woman and harassing her for attention, in which case it becomes an assault. God created men to woo and toast women. In actual fact, she should count herself lucky that men are still toasting her at the age 44. There are thousands of women on the streets who are looking for men to even look in their direction, but who are not as lucky. The fact that she is a married woman, again, does not stop a man from approaching her. She should simply stand her ground and move on.
So far, one of the epic movies that has been made on the subject is ‘Indecent Proposal’, a 1993 American erotic drama film directed by Adrian Lyne and written by Amy Holden Jones. It is based on the 1988 novel by Jack Engelhard, in which a couple’s marriage is disrupted by a stranger’s offer of a million dollars for the wife to spend a night with him. It stars Robert Redford, Demi Moore, and Woody Harrelson. Although it was the husband that pleaded with his wife to accept the proposal as they were broke, he could no longer live with the conscience of whether his wife actually slept with the man who offered the largesse or not. In spite of the $1million, trust issues eventually led to the end of the marriage.
What I am driving at is that both genders will continue to be attracted to each other. There are men now who go after beautiful women only, they are not bothered whether she is married or not. This is where Omoruwa’s admonition should come in handy – Don’t marry a beautiful woman if you are not ready for competition.
With the sexual harassment suit now hanging on Akpabio’s neck, his brothers and sisters in the Senate are battle-ready with tarnishing the image of Natasha. Despite being a proud mother of four children, some have alluded to her sexual harassment claim against Reno Omokri in 2012, Dino Melaye, as well as the former Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, to paint a picture of a woman crying wolf where there is none. While Natasha could be described as a woman who is aware of her beauty and is used to getting her way, Akpabio’s hand has also been caught in the cookie’s jar in the past.
In 2020, Ms. Joy Nunieh, former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), accused Akpabio of sexual harassment. Speaking with Arise TV on July 13, 2020, following a probe of the NDDC by the National Assembly during which Akpabio was the Minister of the Niger Delta Ministry, Ms. Nunieh said she slapped Akpabio for sexually harassing her at his guest house in Abuja. Akpabio only got her sacked as the NDDC Managing Director on the allegation of “insubordination.” In his response to sexual harassment claim, Akpabio had simply said: “…No matter the allegation, I wish that she will go to the hospital, see a doctor, take some injections and relax. I’m not saying there is something wrong with her, I’m saying there is something wrong with her temperament.”
As stated earlier, the Tom and Jerry show between Akpabio and Natasha would soon be resolved when tempers die down and Nigerians would be told that it was another family affair that has been resolved. What has however been brought to the fore is the calibre of people we elect as leaders in the country. Our leadership recruitment process is faulty, and the earlier we realise this, the better for us as a nation. For now, let us sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
See you next week.
- Akintunde is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Glittersonline newspaper. His syndicated column, Monday Discourse, appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Mondays.