Friday Lines (51) With

Dr Abubakar Alkali

7/3/25

(1) There is the Urgent Need for the U.S, U.K and France to Impose Visa Restrictions on the Entire Leadership of the 10th Senate for Promoting Undemocratic Tenets’
(2) The major problem with Nigeria is not ethnicity or religious divides but the ‘truth-averse syndrome’ where a person will see the truth and willingly shy away from it for personal gains.
(3) The mishandling of the Natasha V Akpabio sexual harassment matter by the 10th senate again reminds us to look for an answer to the opt-repeated question initially posed by PW Botha, the former Prime Minister of Apartheid South Africa.

‘Can the Blackman Rule Over Himself?

In Friday lines 50 published last week on this subject, i emphasised on the fact that Sen Godswill Akpabio needs to resign urgently as President of the senate to allow for an independent, forensic and unbiased investigation into the sexual harassment allegations levelled against him by Sen Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
The basis of my argument and that of several other pro-people thinkers was that Sen Akpabio cannot be a judge in his own case. The law is clear:

Nemo debet esse judex in propria causa.

In fact, no person should judge a case in which he has an interest to avoid a conflict of interest.

What we saw yesterday on the floor of the senate during the purported suspension of Sen Natasha was the exact same anomaly we spoke against: Sen Akpabio sitting as the judge, jury and determinant in his own case. This is Nigeria! Who cares?

Knowingly or unknowingly to the senate, they are a shade too late to suspend Sen Natasha because a federal high court sitting in Abuja has ruled for the maintenance of status quo ante bellum.
To this end, Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the federal high court in his ruling on the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/384/25; between Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan v. The Clerk of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria & 3 Ors.” has restrained the senate committee on ethics, privileges and public petitions or any committee for that matter from conducting any disciplinary proceedings against Sen Natasha.
The learned judge also asked the senate to justify its probe of Natasha within 72 hours.
The senate in clear contravention of this court order went ahead to suspend Sen Natasha and never bothered to revert to the court to justify its trial of Natasha as required by the court.

In this regard, the purported recommendation by the senate committee on ethics to the committee of the whole senate to suspend Sen Natasha is null, void and of no effect whatsoever.

Since the senate acted on that purported recommendation by the ethics committee to suspend Sen Natasha, the action of the senate has no basis in law and is therefore null, void and of no effect whatsoever. The matter is subjudice since it is already in court and thus cannot be a subject of public discourse elsewhere. Clearly the senate, a supposed law making body has erred in law.

In the light of this ruling, the chairman of the senate committee on ethics, privileges and public petitions Sen Neda Imasuen should be sued by Sen Natasha for contempt of court and libel having arranged an illegal commitee sitting and prepared a so-called ‘report’ in defiance of the court order. The court has ruled that any action taken within the subsistence of the court ruling is null, void and of no effect whatsoever. The court also adjourned hearing to March 10 2025.

In reality, the game plan of Akpabio for suspending Natasha is to get her to apologise so that she would technically clear him of her sexual allegations and he will use it against her in a court of law for defamation of character and libel.
If for any reason, Sen Natasha apologises to Sen Akpabio and/or the senate, she would have made a huge mistake and thrown herself open for further litigation and gagging by senator Akpabio or the senate itself.

Sen Akpabio knows full well that the sexual allegations by Sen Natasha will be hanging on his neck in the court of public opinion forever. He also knows full well that no court will clear him of these damning allegations over sexual harassment and abuse of office to curry sexual favours by force. Hence he (Akpabio) desperately wants an apology from Natasha to clear himself of the sexual allegations and use it to finally silence Sen Natasha once and for all. She might even do his bidding eventually as he will keep hoping.

Sen Natasha must never succumb to pressure to apologise. It is Akpabio who should apologise not Natasha. It is Akpabio who brought the senate to disrepute not Natasha.

These sexual harassment allegations by Natasha added to the earlier sex-related allegations by Ms Joy Nunieh have cast a shadow of doubt on Sen Akpabio’s career, character and reputation as a public servant. Is he fit to hold a public office in the face of all these allegations by multiple women over sexual harassment?

The man Akpabio is alleged to have an insatiable carvenous appetite for women and will not lift his eye at the sight of beauty. A woman can destroy your career in a flash but not the other way round. Akpabio should seek interpretation to the story of prophet Yusuf and Zulaikha in Qur’an Surah 12:25.

The fact is that the 10th senate which has actually assumed the status of a cult, does not really suspend any senator but they flag a fake red light to silence and intimidate the senator for saying the truth. After a few weeks and having put fear into that senator, they will ‘reconsider’ the suspension and recall the senator. Recall the purported suspensions of Sen Ali Ndume and Sen Abdul Ningi both of which were shortlived and turned out to be mere efforts at silencing them from saying the truth. The method worked anyway as both senators Ndume and Ningi shied away from making further revelations about the unfortunate happenings in the 10th senate including corruption, budget padding, abuse of office etc. We didn’t see Ndume and Ningi queuing behind Natasha in this matter.

Sen Ali Ndume is the most suspended senator in the 10th senate having been suspended in 2017 and 2024. Sen Abdul Ningi was suspended last year for exposing the padding of the 2024 budget by N3 trillion. To silence him, the same ethics and privileges committee chaired by Sen Neda Imasuen hurriedly recommended his suspension simply for saying that he has reviewed the 2024 appropriation and identified a budget padding of N3 trillion. Padding has been a pastime in Nigerian budgets since records began.

The 10th senate broke its own rules by suspending Sen Natasha for six months while the senate order 67(4) says a senator can only be suspended for a period not exceeding 14 days. The Sen Neda Imasuen led ethics committee hurriedly suspended Natasha without any fair hearing even as the federal high court in Abuja had stopped all actions by the senate on the matter until the determination of the motion on notice. You will wonder at the action of our senators especially if you are mixed race like Natasha.

You have to give it to the lower chamber House of Representatives because this injustice and bandwagon suspension will never have happened in the lower chamber which obviously comprises of younger, more vibrant and digitally-compliant legislators as against the worn-out analogue upper chamber. If a young man goes to the senate, he gets his mentality corrupted from digital to analogue.

There is hardly any debate in the senate. Everything is one direction. Any senator who argues against motions which are normally predetermined at the so-called ‘executive sessions’ is presenting himself or herself for suspension. Also, Any senator who tries to play the sincere guy will not be assigned chairmanship or even membership of any ‘juicy’ committee where he/she can extort money from MDAs. This is the reason why Akpabio’s first kite against Natasha was to remove her from the ‘juicy’ local content committee where she served as the chairperson all in a bid to break her back.
By and large, the senate has weaponised suspension which it uses to silence dissenting members.

Even Natasha’s fellow female senators notably Sen Ireti Kingibe have all distanced themselves from Natasha for fear of being removed from the ‘juicy’ FCT committee (which Sen Kingibe chairs) by Akpabio. Sen Kingibe thought that as the chair of the senate commiteee on FCT, she could grab plots of land left right and centre for free. Alas she didn’t get it as the FCT minister Wike will have none of that. He has stopped her in her tracks.

Sen Cyril Fasuyi representing Ekiti North is eulogising Sen Akpabio, calling him a good man not minding the sexual harassment allegations as he hopes all his proposals and lobbies will be approved by Akpabio while senator Onyekachi Onwaebonyi representing Ebonyi North is
happy to voice a well-scripted lie on live TV about being in the ‘same car’ with Natasha and her husband on Akpabio’s birthday just because he wants to retain his position as the deputy chief whip.

Some of the unimaginably incomprehensible and undemocratic tendencies in the 10th senate are what prompts several well meaning Nigeria’s to persistently call for the closure of the entire senate and retaining only the house of representatives under a unicameral legislature.

In fact, the U.S, U.K and the rest of the international community can help Nigeria’s democracy further by imposing visa ban on Sen Akpabio and any senator who promotes these undemocratic tendencies including Sen Natasha’s suspension.

The Natasha/Akpabio episode also reverberates the need to scrap the senate and retain only the house of representatives under a unicameral legislature. The senate has for long been a liability rather than an asset to the people of Nigeria. What does Nigerians really gain from this senate? Nothing. Only a drain on the nation’s resources, consuming almost N500 billion annually. How many factories can be built using this amount to create jobs for young Nigerians?

In the U.S where Nigeria copied the Presidential system, there is no office of the senate President. The vice President acts as the senate President to provide a link between the executive and legislative arms. This makes a lot of sense. There is no need for the office of the senate President in Nigeria which has turned out to be only a liability to the nation’s resources and a tool for abuse of power.
Let’s adopt the U.S model, scrap the office of the senate President and make the VP, the senate President.

I feel and strongly too that the senate is only out to silence Sen Natasha by intimidating her with a so-called ‘suspension’ so that she will apologise and keep quite. Even the so-called comrade Oshiomhole is asking Sen Natasha to apologise. Presumably, you will think that Oshiomhole by his background in unionism and activism would have been the lone voice in support of Natasha. Alas, he chose to join the bandwagon.
What is it that she did which warrants an apology?

Sen Natasha should stay the course and never apologise to anybody over her sexual allegations against Akpabio. She should continue pursue her rights in a court of competent jurisdiction. This so-called suspension cannot stand. Sen Akpabio must step down and allow for a forensic investigation into the matter. Sen Natasha should continue to remain strong because her travails and struggles in the 10th senate may be the turning point in making the senate what it ought to be: a chamber for lawmaking NOT what it is today: a theatre for absurdity, corruption, abuse of power and grandstanding.