The curious case of Natasha and Akpabio, by Rotimi Fasan

“Senator Natasha you cannot speak without being asked or invited to speak in the Senate. This is not a night club,” Akpabio had said as a reprimand to Akpoti-Uduaghan’s interjection. Even though he was forced to apologise as a result of the outrage that followed his remark then, that exchange between the two senators foreshadowed all the fault lines in the latest altercation between them: the lady’s disregard/ignorance of legislative rules and the gentle man’s verbal ineptness.

Even if his comic garrulity is, quite understandably, being exclusively viewed in sexist terms, now he has again got into a head-on collision with the same woman, possibly his political nemesis, Godswill Akpabio’s verbal insouciance is for me an expression of innate frivolity, a natural but undisciplined bent to treat things too lightly and be unnecessarily flippant even in circumstances that demand grave earnestness. It was only in August 2023, that he reminded his colleagues following the ministerial screening of that year to check their account for a monetary token sent by the Clerk.

Alerted that he was on live television, he asked to withdraw his words and quickly changed the promise of a monetary token to ‘prayers’ sent by the President of the Senate to his colleagues’ emails in order for them to have a safe trip and enjoy their holiday. All of this at a time Nigerians were desperate for relief from the financial and economic burden that followed the implementation of some of the most enervating policies of the All Progressives Congress-led government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Before the backlash that followed his advice to his legislative colleagues about sending them prayers in their email accounts rather than money in their bank accounts, Akpabio just over a week earlier had been embroiled in a needless controversy with Labour Party stalwart, Professor Pat Utomi, over his statement after the Senate rejected a request for electricity tariff increment in July 2023. Senator Akpabio had been accused of turning a plebian cry on its head with the joke that Nigerians, already left humourless by lack and hunger, should be spared the increment. ‘The poor must be allowed to breathe,’ he had said and struck his gavel to a laugh shared by his colleagues in the chamber. This Utomi interpreted as mocking Nigerians.

Akpabio jokes a lot, a fact some of his colleagues like Senator Abiodun Olujimi have alluded to. Supporters of Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan view this as making light of her allegations. But Akpabio indeed jokes too much for his own good. He jokes with just about everything and anything. In the end, he comes across as unserious. Beneath these jokes, perhaps, lie a deadly earnestness that is trained to exact the shrewdest bargain, including perhaps in meeting the demands of those fleshly issues for which he is now being accused of misbehaving. Which is to say that Akpabio’s apparent lack of concern, a failing for a public officer in high office, makes him susceptible to the kind of attacks he has been exposed to with Nigerians, especially very assertive women who otherwise must have played along with him until things took a different turn.

All of this is evident in his ongoing messy fight with Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, an erstwhile friend and colleague whose family friendship with the Akpabios, predating their time at the Senate, probably coloured their relationship at the Senate and has now left that relationship in the same condition as a beached whale. The thing that held the relationship together came off on the floors of the Senate chamber on February 28 after the senator’s seating position was changed on the orders of the President of the Senate. This was a routine act that followed the defection of some members of the opposition into the ruling APC. She was not the only senator affected by it.

Apparently seething from bottled up anger and already spoiling for a fight with Akpabio for reasons not yet disclosed at that point, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan would have none of the new arrangement. She did not only disagree with the decision of the President of the Senate to relocate her seat, she was very disagreeable in voicing her rejection of the decision. Against the rules of the Senate, she insisted on speaking from her old position.

Whatever actions and allegations that may have followed since, this was the incident that triggered them. And in that very incident Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan was in the wrong in displaying the vexing ignorance of legislative procedure and rules as had overshadowed her previous disagreement with Senator Akpabio. This disregard of rules was where the latest trouble started from without prejudice to other underlying grievances that had not been publicly disclosed until Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan decided to speak about them first to Arise Television and later Berekete FM and subsequently other news media.

The Senate is a place of hierarchy and seniority prevails. Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, a first-time senator, wanted a front row seat that is typically reserved for officers of the Senate and ranking members and she appeared to be demanding this as a matter of right. She felt disrespected by the ‘corner’ position she was assigned which she claims would not allow her to be visible. ‘The nearer you sit positions you near the camera and gives you an added advantage to be called upon to contribute to debates,’ she says. As a trained lawyer and legislator, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan should be familiar with the expression Ignorantia juris non excusat (ignorance of the law excuses no one). It is her responsibility to be familiar with the rules and regulations that guide legislative procedure. Where that fails, it is one thing to make a mistake once and be forgiven but quite another to become a serial violator of legislative rules and procedures.

What justification does she have then for being a law maker if she cannot obey the few rules and conventions that regulate her conduct in the Senate? Institutional rules and regulations were made for a purpose and should not be randomly violated. Demanding that Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan respects them does not undermine her right to speak against gender discrimination or imply she is not the willful target of sexual harassment. But she can make that case without appearing to be abusing her privilege as a public officer or her right as a woman