Final July, Nigeria’s third-most highly effective man gave a uncommon apology on the ground of the senate which he heads.
Godswill Akpabio had chastised his colleague Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for talking out of flip, saying: “We are not in a nightclub”. However after receiving what he mentioned was a deluge of insulting textual content messages from Nigerians, he apologised publicly a number of days later.
In latest weeks, the 2 have been on the centre of a political row that has gripped the nation, after an interview that Akpoti-Uduaghan gave to the broadcaster Come up TV in late February during which she accused Akpabio of sexual harassment.
She alleged that in a single incident Akpabio had advised her {that a} movement she was attempting to advance may very well be put to the senate if she “took care” of him. In one other, she mentioned that on a tour of his home he had advised her – whereas holding her hand – “I’m going to create time for us to come spend quality moments here. You will enjoy it.”
Akpabio has denied the allegations.
Akpoti-Uduaghan submitted a petition to the senate alleging sexual harassment, however on 6 March the ethics committee struck it out on procedural grounds. It additionally handed her a six-month suspension with out pay, citing her “unruly and disruptive” behaviour throughout an unrelated argument within the senate about seating preparations.
The accusations have dominated conversations and highlighted longstanding ladies’s rights points within the socially conservative nation, the place no lady has ever been elected governor, vice-president or president.
Solely 4 ladies serve within the 109-member senate, a drop from the seven feminine senators elected in 2015. The variety of ladies within the 360-member Home of Representatives has additionally declined, from 22 in 2015 to 17.
In a telephone interview from New York on Monday final week, hours earlier than talking on the matter at a joint session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Ladies, Akpoti-Uduaghan railed in opposition to her suspension. “This was orchestrated to silence my voice,” she mentioned. “That action is an assault on democracy … I am not apologising for speaking my truth.”
Ladies’s rights teams have condemned her suspension, and a whole lot of girls and women marched within the states of Lagos, Enugu, Edo and Kaduna on Wednesday throughout a “We are all Natasha” protest convened by the civil society coalition Womanifesto.
“Her suspension and the process that led to it was a shambolic show of shame,” mentioned Ireti Bakare-Yusuf, a radio broadcaster and founding father of the non-profit Purple Ladies Basis, which is a part of Womanifesto.
Ahmed Tijani Ibn Mustapha, a spokesperson for Akpabio, mentioned Akpoti-Uduaghan’s petition alleging sexual harassment had not adopted pointers as a result of she had authored and signed it herself slightly than asking one other senator to take action.
He additionally mentioned that after she had refiled the petition appropriately, the senate started a four-week investigation into the claims.
Akpoti-Uduaghan, an opposition Folks’s Democratic occasion (PDP) senator from the central state of Kogi, first tried to enter politics in 2019 with a run for Kogi governor. Thugs reportedly loyal to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) jeered her through the marketing campaign, calling her a intercourse employee, and on one event attacking her and her driver. “This is definitely not an election,” she advised reporters on the time. “This is almost like a war zone.”
4 years later, on the eve of the senate election she was contesting, parts of the principle roads resulting in her district have been excavated in a single day. She accused the APC of trying to stop her from campaigning. Authorities mentioned they have been defending residents in opposition to terrorist assaults, citing a December 2022 bomb blast by an Islamic State affiliate.
She misplaced the election, however in November 2023 a tribunal overturned the outcomes, paving the way in which for her to turn out to be one in all Nigeria’s youngest senators.
Akpabio, a political veteran, was the topic of one other sexual harassment allegation from a former public official in 2020. He denied the allegation on the time and not too long ago mentioned he would sue his accuser. He had beforehand made headlines in 2018 when he predicted an election victory for his APC occasion by drawing comparisons with Hitler’s invasion of Poland. Final 12 months, shortly after changing into senate president, he was concerned in one other controversy when a senator was suspended for saying there have been inconsistencies within the finances.
After Akpoti-Uduaghan’s suspension, different senators coalesced round Akpabio, a strong ally of the nation’s president, Bola Tinubu.
One male senator mentioned Akpoti-Uduaghan had fabricated the claims as a result of she was angered by her elimination as chair of a coveted senate committee in February. Present feminine senators dismissed her claims on nationwide TV, whereas one former senator mentioned Akpoti-Uduaghan’s claims have been “a sign of weakness” and that sexual harassment occurred solely in colleges.
“Male senators do not surprise me,” mentioned Bakare-Yusuf of the response. “They mansplain even the basic of black and white to justify their selfishness. As for the female senators, disappointed is an understatement [but] like all hegemonic structures, patriarchy also has gatekeepers.”
Within the aftermath of her accusation, a false declare that Akpoti-Uduaghan had borne six youngsters by six totally different males surfaced on social media. The senate spokesperson mentioned a kiss she shared together with her husband on the senate premises earlier than submitting her petition was “unspeakable” and an act of “content creation”. Over the past two weeks, crowds of pro-Akpabio protesters have turned up in public to abuse her in Abuja.
“Politicians sided with the senate president whom they believe has the power to grant them favours … and the poor were paid by those who have the most money to protest,” mentioned Glory Ehiremen, senior analyst at Lagos-based geopolitical threat advisory, SBM Intelligence.
Some opposition senators have visited Akpoti-Uduaghan to point out assist. She additionally mentioned she had acquired supportive emails from ladies throughout Nigeria, together with some who have been afraid to talk up about their very own experiences. “In Nigeria, most women who are sexually harassed in workplaces don’t even tell their husbands because they are afraid of being judged,” she mentioned.
Because the episode unfolds, extra ladies are praising her bravery, however few assume Nigeria’s #MeToo second has arrived.
Ehiremen mentioned an entrenched tradition of impunity was a barrier to justice. “The elite Nigerian cannot get justice unless they have alliances with the ‘powerful’,” she mentioned. “Never mind the ordinary Nigerian.”
