Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan has paid the price for being bold and daring where others cower, bend the knee and kiss the ring. It is time to let her be.
There is no denying the fact that misogyny and sexism are deeply rooted in Nigerian culture and they manifest in many ways and forms. You see it in academia and the feisty silent battles that characterise the power play in the boardroom of many corporate entities. However, there is no place or profession in Nigeria where they are more pronounced than in Nigerian politics. The nation’s political landscape is a perilous and treacherous terrain, where only men can flex their political muscles. The system is designed to shut out women. Any woman who wants to reach the pinnacle of Nigerian politics is expected to work harder than her male counterpart. And this is the case of Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan Natasha.
Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s political rise is not an easy and smooth adventure. It is a story of tears, blood and sweat. She had to surmount challenges and brave odds that would have sunk many men and ended their political careers even before they began. Many obstacles and impediments were designed and placed in her path to ensure that her senatorial ambition is not realised. She was barred from campaigning, and her posters and billboards were destroyed by her political opponents, who controlled the state’s government machinery. A few days before the election day a massive trench was dug on the road that led to her senatorial district to stop the needed sensitive materials from getting to the area where they would be used for voting. A dogged and tenacious Natasha mobilised his supporters and fixed the road before the next morning which was election day.
Early this year, she was suspended from the Senate after a public spat with the Senate president, Godswill Akpabio, over seat reallocation. She would later go on TV to disclose that the Senate president is victimising her because she rejected his amorous advances. She subsequently challenged her suspension in court. In September, after six months of suspension and political ostracism, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, representing Kogi Central, returned to the Nigerian Senate. Her return is the climax of months of persecution, intimidation and victimisation. The events and occurrences that characterised her suspension from the Red Chamber highlight the struggle of women and underscore the unpleasant and abhorrent treatment that women, especially those who defy the male-dominated establishment, are subjected to.
But her return to the red chamber did not automatically end her predicament. If anything, the persecution and appalling treatment have intensified and become more brazen. On Tuesday, a video of the senator in a distressful and forlorn state went viral. In the video, a visibly disconcerted and troubled Akpoti-Uduaghan, bemoaned the inappropriate and unacceptable treatment meted out to her by the Nigerian Immigration Service. According to her, her passport was withheld by the immigration officers at the airport who were acting on the orders of the Senate president, Akpabio. She disclosed that it was not the first time she had been subjected to such humiliation and indignity, adding that the last time something similar happened, it took the intervention of someone powerful for her passport to be released so that she could travel out of the country.
This, certainly, is not the first time and definitely won’t be the last time a Nigerian of whatever social status will be oppressed, treated with disdain and contempt by those who are seemingly more influential and powerful. What, however, makes Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s situation troubling and worrisome is the fact that she is not just any Nigerian, and there is definitely no huge gap in the balance of power between her and those behind her persecution. She is, like the people intimidating and oppressing her, a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. A position that should ordinarily shield her from such dangerous and reckless abuse of power by her contemporaries.
The question to ask here is, why would a fellow senator order the seizure of another senator to block her from leaving the country? This kind of action not only deepens impunity and tyranny, but also undermines our democracy and weakens the institutions that undergird it. To order the seizure of Akpoti-Uduaghan’s passport is to arrogate to oneself the power of the judiciary, which is the only arm of government that can confiscate the passport of any Nigerian, who has committed a serious crime and is deemed a flight risk, and bar them from travelling. But in this case, there is no court order stopping the embattled senator from travelling. This is not an ideal situation for a country that wants the world to see it as a democratic nation.
We cannot afford to normalise invidious abnormality where the rule of law is supplanted by the rule of men who act with impunity, allowing such a situation to thrive and become a convention is tantamount to dousing our democracy with petrol and setting it ablaze. Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan has paid the price for being bold and daring where others cower, bend the knee and kiss the ring. It is time to let her be.