Senator Natasha: The Nigeria Senate, a Bully’s Playground

Imagine working hard to serve your people, only for your colleagues to sabotage you because you dared to speak out. That is what is happening to Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan. The Nigerian Senate, led by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, has turned into a bully’s playground, and Natasha’s story is the latest additional proof.

They suspended her, locked her office, and took away her security, all because she accused Akpabio, the Senate president, of sexual harassment and refused to stay quiet. However, this is not new. The Senate has a long history of acting like a club that punishes anyone who does not obey.

Speaking from the eyes of the public, it all began on February 20, 2025, when Natasha complained about her seat being changed without notice. However, subsequent actions showed something triggered that reaction. Instead of listening, Akpabio told security to remove her from the chambers. Then, on February 28, she told Arise TV that Akpabio had been harassing her since 2023, saying she had to “please him” to do her job. She said no, and he made her life a living hell, blocking her bills and motions for Kogi Central.

On March 5, 2025, Senator Natasha formally submitted a petition to the Senate alleging sexual harassment by Akpabio. The Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions rejected it on procedural grounds, citing violations of Senate rules. At the same time, Akpabio denied the allegations in a plenary session, claiming no such advances occurred. On March 6, the Senate hit back hard. They suspended her for six months without pay, office, or voice. They called it “misconduct” over the seat fight, but everyone knows it is because she exposed Akpabio.

Historically, seating disputes have caused friction in the Senate but rarely led to suspensions. For instance, on October 17, 2018, then-Senator Akpabio, now the Senate President, in a similar situation with Senator Natasha, clashed with Senate President Bukola Saraki over using a microphone from an unassigned seat, sparking a rowdy session, but he faced no suspension.

Natasha’s case is the most prominent, where a seating disagreement directly triggered severe disciplinary action, though the Senate framed it as broader misconduct. Since Nigeria’s fourth republic began in 1999, no other senator has been suspended for a seating arrangement disagreement, making her situation a notable exception. Has there been a change in the Senate standing order that a seat arrangement disagreement could get Senator Natasha suspended?

The Senate claims they are fair, but their actions stink of cover-up. On March 5, Natasha wrote a petition about the harassment. They threw it out, saying it broke the rules. She tried again on March 26, and they trashed that one, hiding behind a court case Akpabio’s wife filed. They will not even investigate her claims!

Now, Natasha is fighting in court, suing for ₦100 billion, while the Senate pretends nothing is wrong. Those who claimed she squeezed in the sexual harassment after the suspension are not informed about the sequence of actions; others claimed she was bittered after being removed as senate committee chairman on local content, which logically correlated to her claim of falling out with the senate president after turning down his sexual advances. Those with this claim think they are trying to counter her, but are they not solidifying her point?

This is not the first time the Senate has acted like this. Remember 2016? Senator Dino Melaye accused his colleagues of forgery over the Senate rules. Instead of checking the truth, they ganged up on him, threatened suspension, and made his life tough until he left in 2019. A recall process was carried out on him but failed in an attempt to silence him.

Or take 2018, when Senator Shehu Sani spoke against bad governance. The Senate did not suspend him, but they sidelined him, ignored his ideas, and let his enemies attack him politically. That was his last time in the Senate, and he never returned in 2019. History has shown the Senate does not like ‘troublemakers’ who shine a light on their dirt.

Natasha’s case is worse because she is a woman, one of only four in a 109-seat Senate. She told Sky News UK on March 20 that it is a “cult” up there, with Akpabio as the cult boss, an El Chapo who punishes anyone who disagrees.

Women’s groups are angry, saying it is a slap to every Nigerian woman. Meanwhile, a recall process was initiated to remove Natasha from the Senate, which also flopped, and sadly, a woman was used as the face of her recall, and others whose names and signatures appeared on her suspension letter, which called to question, are women supporting women?

Back in 2007, Senator Patricia Etteh faced something similar in the House. When she questioned shady deals, the men turned on her, forced her out, and painted her as the bad ‘guy’. The Senate is doing the same to Natasha, now punishing her for being bold. Will she be dealt with like the others by not returning?

Natasha is not backing down. She has taken her fight global, speaking at the Women in Parliament meeting in New York on March 11. She has sued the Senate and Akpabio. Even with no office or security, she has promised to serve Kogi Central at her last homecoming event. That is courage the Senate cannot crush, but it leaves a serious message.

For the record, the 10th Senate has never disapproved any request from the presidency. Are they not supposed to be the checks and balances of the executive? Oh! How did I forget they keep singing “On Your Mandate”, showing they are available for any use by the president whom most of them see as their mentor and lord or how the president already declared an automatic return for them to the 11th National Assembly irrespective of what they vote will be. Are we not supposed to be afraid that an election in the future of 2027 will already have winners declared by a sitting president?

Let us call it what it is: the Senate is rotten. They have suspended a senator without a fair hearing, ignored serious allegations, and repeated their old tricks of silencing dissent from Dino to Shehu to Patricia and now Natasha. The pattern is clear: they care more about power than justice. Nigerians deserve better than a Senate that acts like a dictator’s club. Natasha’s ordeal is not just her fight; it is a wake-up call for all of us. What else can they not do? After all, the president asked them to approve a suspension of a democratically elected governor, and they did. Having such a senate as we do now is very DANGEROUS.

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Johnson Akor

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