16 hours Ago By Tunde Asaju
By Tunde Asaju Over 40 years ago, my school principal decided to suspend me for two weeks for attending a party in which the legend, King Sunny Ade played in an open-air event that took place outside school hours. There was no disciplinary committee hearing. Back then, teachers didn’t practice the law and pupils had no rights, teachers were the law, and I was sent home for two weeks.
I could only return with a letter of apology signed by one parent while a parent or guardian was mandated to accompany me back to school. Those were the days when the eyes were located at the back of the head. It is doubtful that teachers have such sweeping powers over their pupils today because there would be parents raising hell.
This is why in 2025, the events leading to the suspension of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan deserves revisiting. In a disturbing and arrogant display of absolute despotism, Godswill Akpabio, the president of the red chamber exercised the powers of a post-colonial village principal with uncommon disdain. Since the return to legislative business in 1999, the business of shuffling committee positions has been cantankerous.
The late Chuba Okadigbo described the phenomenon as banana peels, alluding to its penchant to torpedo leaders. The Akpoti-Uduaghan – Akpabio saga introduced an uncommon dimension to the conundrum – sexual harassment. It is a new one that apparently had nothing to do with the accuser’s dissatisfaction with committee shuffling.
Her grouse, she would later tell a television station, is that since she refused sexual overtures from the president of the senate, she had noticed a silent treatment from her principal. To wit, being denied her right to move or contribute to debates germane to fulfilling her legislative assignment and relegating her to the status of a seat warmer. The incident in question happened in Uyo during Akpabio’s birthday celebration and with her husband within earshot.
Akpabio denied the allegation and could have taken steps to clearly prove his innocence, especially as he had once been accused of a similar offence by Ms. Joy Nunieh, former head of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC that Akpabio supervised. Ms.
Nunieh explained how she rebuffed the sexual overtures with a brain-resetting slap. That matter died down with the investigation. Sexual harassment is a serious matter.
In the international realm, it has no status of limitation, meaning a victim could bring out the accusation whenever they felt safe and secure enough to do so. Unfortunately, this offence is hardly taken seriously in Nigerian circles. Our society victimises the accuser, making excuses for why it might have happened.
If Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s allegations are to be taken as seriously as they should, it would make sense why her predator would want to send her to a remote corner of the chambers. This sidelining could seriously impact her capacity to contribute to debates thereby defeating the purpose of her membership of the legislative chamber. Our society prefers this type of accusations to be made a huit clos where it could be doused before it had spread to tarnish the image of an institution.
Making it on national television breaks ranks. It is sad that women refuse to believe their own in a case of this nature. Using the media, at least three notable women have doubted the allegations of the Kogi Central senator.
Yet, sexual predators are unlikely to leave behind, clues that could easily implicate them. While the president of the Senate remains innocent until the crime has been proved, a few issues about this case are worth reconsidering. One is the Senate rules which prevent members from being signatories to petitions involving them.
Courts tend to examine the original intent of a law. In this case the rule appears to prevent red tape, a situation where the senate is dealing with petitions for an issue that members could have brought to their plenary or committee. It would likely have foreseen a situation in which members harass their female peers.
The other issue is whether the legal principle of nemo judet in causa sua, which prevents people from being judges in their own cause, applies to the senate. Once an allegation is made against a principal officer or peer, this rule prevents that officer from presiding over their own case. It would then be logical to step aside for ‘unbiased’ adjudication on the matter until it is determined.
It is not sufficient to plead innocence, stepping aside gives the impression that innocence is proved. In this case, Akpabio failed to step aside, constituted a disciplinary committee, single-handedly chose its leader and members and apparently gave them a short term within which to conclude their assignments and make recommendations. In the sight of the public, such a committee is no better than a kangaroo court.
From all indications, it went into action immediately, with its chairperson declaring the petition illegal, null and void ab initio. When the senator complied with Senate rules by getting a constituent to sign the petition, she was invited within 24 hours to defend her allegation. This might be justiciable in other cases, but sexual harassment by its very nature is not an issue to be treated with such levity.
In other climes, the accuser, suffering from the trauma of the offence is granted time to seek psychological counseling and be led by counsel of her own choosing before she gives evidence. This is not something that should be done within a day, doing so is making light of a serious issue. Finally, when the committee has completed its report, if the presiding officer was presiding as an accused, logic, justice and fairness require that they step aside again for a neutral officer to preside.
It is also trite to read out the recommendations of the committee and take a vote. The proper procedure is to let the head of the committee read the summary if the findings are long or the recommendations. It is mockery of justice that in this case, Akpabio refused to recuse himself from this process.
The president of the Senate presided over the outcome of the committee set up to investigate an allegation made against him. He read the recommendations and put it to vote, again confirming that this was a sham trial – a kind of show to get the charges off his neck. For a weighty allegation as this, for justice to be seen to be done, the recommendations would be subject to rigorous debate.
The senate is a committee of peers. Principal officers are not like my secondary school principal operating on a teacher-pupil level. Principal officers are primus inter pares.
They cannot arrogate themselves to be all and end all in matters affecting their peers. Doing so trivialises the process and makes what should be a hallowed chamber a gathering of clowns. The last misnomer to any curious observer is how the senate fails to acknowledge court decisions that a member cannot be suspended for more than 14 days.
The committee, if it could be so-called, overreached its limits by recommending six months, withdrawal of salary and emoluments to the senator and her aides, locking them out of The Dome and attempting to prevent her from answering the title of senator within or outside the assembly complex. It even further stipulates an apology letter before re-admittance. The Nigerian Senate is not an appointive but an elective office.
An elected mandate cannot be withdrawn by people who did not constitute the majority in the vote that made a member. These issues need to be addressed if the present senate is to regain its integrity. Discover the latest trends on Temu! Shop mobile phones, fashion, beauty, home essentials & more.
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