{"id":3751,"date":"2025-03-12T07:54:22","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T07:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/?p=3751"},"modified":"2025-03-12T17:19:46","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T17:19:46","slug":"ngo-committee-in-limbo-over-senator-natashas-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/ngo-committee-in-limbo-over-senator-natashas-suspension\/","title":{"rendered":"NGO COMMITTEE IN LIMBO OVER SENATOR NATASHA AKPOTI-UDUAGHAN’S SUSPENSION"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last week, the Senate in a unanimous vote suspended for 6months, the Senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial district for misconduct. Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, was recently appointed Chairman of the Committee on NGOs and Diaspora. The Committee has the responsibility of \u201cmonitoring Diaspora Networks, NGOs and organizations with a view to assisting them in realization of their agenda and promote institutional change, providing advice and services to Diaspora communities on home remittances, participating in dialogue with governments, regional and local authorities on Diaspora matters in their home and host countries; promoting the exchange of ideas between home country and Nigerians in the Diaspora; and Annual Budget Estimates.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senate had hinged her suspension\non what it called \u201cgross misconduct\u201d and according to the Senate,\nAkpoti-Uduaghan had brought the Senate into disrepute by her utterances and\nactions regarding her reallocation to another seat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the incident which was seen\nacross Television stations in the country, the Senator had refused to move to\nher new seat allocation and instead berated the Senate President with pointed\nfingers accusing him of inviting her to visit him later, during a guided tour\nof the senate\u2019s President\u2019s new country home last December 2024. She escalated\nher accusations on national television in an interview she gave the following\nday. It was later to emerge that the tour she referred to occurred in December\n2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also accused the Senate President of denying her of her privileges and entitlement and suppressing her motions and bills in the Senate. The Senate President has denied these allegations insisting that her allegations were false and arose from her visit to his country home 2 years earlier. According to the Senate President, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan chaired one of the most important committees of the Senate and had engaged in several other travels and official functions with him without any issues, after that visit to his country home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the Senate President has argued that the allegations are baseless and stem from her removal as Chairperson of the Local Content Committee, one of the Senate\u2019s most powerful committees. Her appointment to this Grade A Committee had initially sparked controversy, with many senior senators questioning why a rookie lawmaker had been given such a prestigious role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public\nreactions to her suspension have been sharply divided. While the Senate insists\nthat her suspension is strictly based on misconduct during the plenary session,\nmany critics argue that the real issue – her allegations of sexual harassment\nhave been ignored. The Senate\u2019s decision to focus solely on her behavior\nregarding seat reallocation, rather than investigating the allegations against\nthe Senate President, has fueled widespread backlash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, no\nSenator among the 109-member chamber has openly supported Akpoti-Uduaghan,\nreinforcing the Senate\u2019s stance that her suspension is purely disciplinary.\nHowever, the broader implications of her suspension extend beyond personal\nconsequences. Her six-month suspension translates to nearly a year of exclusion\nfrom legislative activities, as Senate sittings occur only on designated\nlegislative days, making up approximately 180 days in a full calendar year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsuspension also affects several stakeholders:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Her Constituency:<\/strong>\u00a0The people of Kogi Central who are temporarily left without representation in the Senate.<\/li>
  2. The NGO and Diaspora Committee:<\/strong>\u00a0The committee, which she recently began chairing, now faces uncertainty and stagnation.<\/li>
  3. Her Staff:<\/strong>\u00a0Although they may continue receiving salaries, they will remain largely inactive during the suspension period.<\/li>
  4. Women\u2019s Representation:<\/strong>\u00a0With only four female senators, constituting a mere 3.67% of the Senate, Akpoti-Uduaghan\u2019s absence further diminishes the already limited representation of women in Nigerian politics.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This situation underscores the urgent need for the\u00a0Special Seats Bill<\/strong> ( Bill for an Act to alter the provisions of the Constitution, to provide for seat reservation for women in the National and State Houses of Assembly (HB 1349) <\/em>which seeks to increase female representation in the National Assembly. Without deliberate action, the already dismal number of women in governance will continue to decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It remains\nunclear how this saga will unfold. Historically, suspended lawmakers in both\nthe Senate and the House of Representatives have either challenged their\nsuspensions in court or issued formal apologies to secure an early return. For\nnow, Nigerians wait and watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (Click here for the report as presented by the Senate Committee) <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Last week, the Senate in a unanimous vote suspended for 6months, the Senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial district for misconduct. Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, was recently appointed Chairman of the Committee on NGOs and Diaspora. The Committee has the responsibility of \u201cmonitoring Diaspora Networks, NGOs and organizations with a view to assisting them in realization of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3751"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3768,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751\/revisions\/3768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}