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Akpabio to Natasha: I’m sorry! My ‘night-club’ comment not sexist
Godswill Akpabio, on Tuesday explained that his comment with which he chided Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, Senator representing Kogi Central, that the Senate is not a night-club did not contain any sexist connotation, even while offering an unreserved apology.
Akpabio, who made the apology against the backdrop of the backlash the comment had been attracting since last week, with some women group directly attacking him, said he was greatly misunderstood, while many deliberately twisted the comment to serve their purpose.
Rebuking the female Senator from Kogi State, whom he accused of speaking without permission, Akpabio had told her pointedly that the Senate chambers was not a night-club, where people could speak anyhow, a statement interpreted to be directed at the female personality of the Senator.
Akpoti-Uduaghan, was making her contribution in a bill for an Act to establish National Road Transport Council, sponsored by the Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Oyelola Ashiru (APC Kwara South), titled, National Road Transportation Council (Establishment) Bill, 2024, aimed at regulating the road transport industry and the transport profession and other related matters in Nigeria.
While many senators supported the bill, others including Senators Victor Umeh and Adams Oshiomhole (APC, Edo North), kicked against it, on the ground that creating the Council would be a duplication of the functions of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and Vehicles Inspection Office (VIO), and should not sail through especially at a time the government was trying to implement the Oronsanye report by merging some of the agencies with similar functions.
After the bill was put to vote for a second time, and many senators said ‘aye’ and many others said ‘nay,’ the Senate President, was still considering the next option, when the Kogi Senator spoke, saying: “Mr President, we don’t want the bill to be killed, we just want a bit of clarification. We don’t want the bill killed, but it should be slightly modified.”
But, Akpabio after sounding the gavel to call her to order, responded: “Distinguished Senator Natasha, in the chamber, you have to be recognised before you speak. We are not in a night club,” after which the Senator herself responded, :“Oh, pardon me,” before resuming her seat, after which the debate continued before the bill was eventually rejected by senators.
On Tuesday, Akpabio, while pushing back against the barrage of criticisms, said: “We are still learning, even those of us who have been in the Senate for 16 years, we are still learning. But in the cause of speaking with one of my distinguished sisters on not speaking when not recognised, I made reference to the fact that we are not in a nightclub where people have to shout above the noise of the music.
“The social media went agog, my wife called me that they published her number and she received around 2,000 to 3,000 calls per day. I’m happy with the interest generated by Nigerians with what goes on in this chamber because we are here for their interest.
“The communication was totally misunderstood, instead of making meaning with what we said, they went into private abuse; I don’t want to say what they did to me. I will not intentionally denigrate any woman, I have a wife and four daughters and I always pray that God will lift a girl to the highest zenith in Nigeria politically and in business. So Senator Natasha I want to apologise to you if you felt offended. There is nothing I will say that would not be misrepresented, I felt I should tender a public apology to you.”
Chidi Odinkalu, Nigeria’s fiery lawyer, law teacher and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), is emphatic that President Bola Tinubu is pushing to perpetuate himself in office, beginning with gaming the electoral process in 2027.
Odinkalu, Professor of Practice in International Human Rights Law at the Fletcher School, told his host Naija Unfiltered, a popular Nigerian podcast programme, that he was as sure as death that the President would not exit office in 2031, if he succeeded with his current gambit to remain in power beyond next year.
Hear him: “Yes. But as I said, let me repeat myself. There’ll be a third term. President Tinubu has not done all of this just for another four years. There will be a third term. And anybody who is doing, ‘it is not our portion,’ is not reading the evidence.”
To achieve this aim, the activist, who was also emphatic that the National Assembly, would play a role, added: “The current National Assembly is anything but national or an assembly. And if it’s an assembly, it’s not a parliamentary one. Many people have called it a rubber stamp, but I think that is actually abusive of rubber stamps. I think this National Assembly is a disgrace.
Citing how bizarre and completely compliant the national legislature had become to Tinubu, the ex-NHRC’s boss, stated: “If you can change your national anthem in less than 24 hours with no public hearing, no public consultation, no public involvement, it tells you you don’t have a country because a national anthem is fundamental to the construction of a national identity.”
Also referring to the current move by the President to introduce state police, Odinkalu, wondered how the Nigerian Senate would introduce the bill to that effect and proceed towards the first and second readings, as well as committee stage and passage in less than two hours, questioning how that was possible in normal clime.
Hear him: “Once we finish our elections, we’re going to amend our Constitution, introduce a single six-year presidential term. The current incumbent will be elected until 2031. In 2031, what will happen? The question will be, will he be entitled to run on the six-year term or will he not?
“You will then get the best Senior Advocates in Nigeria telling you the law is not retrospective. That is why the administration is supporting the litigation over President Jonathan’s tenure—not because the Constitution is not clear, but because they will say there is precedent. There will be a third term, and I’m prepared to bet on it.”
“If we continue to pay ransom, we are encouraging these criminals to kidnap more people. The cycle will only continue unless we stop rewarding criminality,” were the words of Dauda Lawal, Governor of Zamfara State, with which he blamed those in the habit of paying ransoms as the major factor fuelling the current wave of kidnapping incidents across the country.
Lawal, on Thursday at the ARISE News/THISDAY Town Hall Conference on State Police and National Security in Abuja, told his audience how he flatly refused to pay a ₦300 million ransom demanded by kidnappers who abducted his brothers in 2019.
Reiterating his opposition to negotiating with bandits and renewed his support for the establishment of state police, Lawal, while recounting the incident, said: “My own brothers were kidnapped in 2019, and the kidnappers demanded about ₦300 million. I told them I was not going to pay a dime. If they wanted to kill them, they could go ahead.”
Stating that his brothers were eventually released without any ransom being paid, he argued that paying ransom usually emboldened criminal groups by providing financial incentives for further kidnappings.
He added: “My position on ransom payments remains unchanged. I will not negotiate, and I will not pay ransom to any criminal, no matter what happens.”
Endorsing the move for the establishment of state police, to enable governors have greater operational authority over security within their states, he regretted that the current constitutional arrangement left governors with responsibility for security without corresponding powers to direct security agencies.
His words: “In as much as I am called the chief security officer of the state, I do not have the command-and-control authority to direct the operations of the security agencies. I’m prepared to support the funding of state police if the proposed policing structure is established. I’m confident that decentralised policing will improve intelligence gathering, response time and the overall fight against insecurity.”
Exactly seven years, two months and four days after he forced Walter Onnoghen, the 16th Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) out of office, Danladi Umar, former Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), on Thursday, found himself in Kuje prison.
Justice Peter Kekemeke, of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting in Maitama, handed the ex-CCT boss the unwelcome package on Thursday, following his arraignment by the Federal Government on a four-count corruption charge.
Umar’s ordeal began after an investigations revealed that he abused his official position by conferring an undue advantage on himself while serving as head of the tribunal, having in 2021, reportedly using his wife’s bank account to collect the sum of N5.5 million from a contractor engaged to paint the headquarters of the CCT in Abuja.
He was also accuse of using the same account to collect another N6million on January 25, 2024, from a contractor who handled the digitisation of the CCT’s records and yet another N2.43 million a contractor paid as tuition fee of his daughter at Baze University, Abuja.
After pleading not guilty to offences, said to be punishable under section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, Christopher Mshelia, lawyer to the FG, prosecuting the matter, applied for his remand in a correctional facility, while urging the court to set a date for the commencement of trial.
His pleas to be freed on bail pending the determination of the case, was opposed by the prosecution, which drew the court’s attention to the fact that it had just been served with the bail application, saying it needed time to respond to it, forcing Kekemeke to adjourn the case till July 15 for hearing while the former CCT boss remained behind bars.
Umar, had as CCT Chairman, on January 23, 2019, issued a controversial ex parte order that led to the removal of a serving Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.
Following the ex parte order, the late President Muhammadu Buhari, on January 25, swore in the next most senior jurist of the Supreme Court, Justice Tanko Muhammad, to take over the leadership of the judiciary as Acting CJN.
Even though Onnoghen later voluntarily resigned his position as CJN on April 4, Umar went ahead and convicted him on April 18, 2019, on the federal government’s allegation that he had failed to properly declare his assets as required by law.
He gave the federal government the go-ahead to confiscate all monies in five accounts belonging to the former CJN, and also removed him as Chairman of both the NJC and the Federal Judiciary Service Commission (FJSC).
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