Editorial
Akpabio-gate: Making sense of the Senate drama!
A few hours ago, the curtain finally fell at the Senate. It signified the end to one of the acts in the long scene of the drama Nigerians had been regaled with in the last one week. It came with the gavel sounding on the fate of Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the Senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District.
Of course, the end of this particular scene would only surprise the non-initiates. A passive observer, a fresh inductee or even a complete political imbecile would have predicted what would be the eventual fate of the Senator, one of the four female lawmakers in 10th Senate.
In the afternoon of Thursday, March 6, the Senate handed her a set of unsalvoury package, relying on the recommendations reached earlier in the day and provided by the members by the Nada Imesuen Committee on Ethics, Privileges, Code of Conducts and Public Relations.
The package: She would be stripped totally of her status as Senator for six months, including being suspended from plenary, her office being fastened, loss of all salaries and allowances for her and her aides, not getting close anywhere within the precincts of the National Assembly and barring her from embarking on foreign trips as a Senator.
Nobody would have predicted otherwise, except for the totally bereft in the politics of the land. At least, there were about five previous cases within the chambers since 1999 when Nigeria returned to civilian rule to guide anyone. It was obvious that Natasha would suffer the fate of Joseph Waku, Arthur Nzeribe, Ovie Omo-Agege, Ali Ndume, and Abdul Ningi, who had all tasted the same bitter pill.
What was probably left to conjecture was not predicting beforehand the scenes in-between that would garnish the drama side of the entire saga. That came with Natasha stretching the show beyond the confines of the Senate Chambers.
On Friday, February 28, 2025, she used her appearance on The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on ARISE NEWS, a popular Nigerian television network to regale the whole world with some salacious tales of how Godswill Akpabio, President of the Senate of Nigeria and Chairman of the National Assembly, had been labouring strenuously to lure her into his bed.
Now, any ear that heard such an earth-shaking accusation, especially the full details of the various attempts of sex-baiting as narrated by the Kogi Senator, would expect that the political firmament in Nigeria would come to an instant halt. All over the saner climes, everything else in government circle is supposed to take the backstage from that moment.
But that is the difference – most certainly – the tragedy. In those climes, yes! But certainly not here! Nigeria, is in a class of its own in terms of exhibiting behaviours expected of a modern society. Here, officials are usually never shirking in calling for the highest level of adulation even while constantly fouling the air with stinking farts from the putrefying genre of Nigerian politics.
For them, citizens are supposed not only to open their mouths and nostrils to gulp and inhale the odiferous stench constantly being released from their posteriors, but are supposed to be smiling doing so. Any other reaction is indefensible, unpatriotic and in most cases punishable to as much as high treason.
That was at the core of the imbroglio in the Natasha case, some people have since dubbed – the Akpabiogate! So, while the entire world would have expected that the issue of Nigeria’s number three citizen being bespattered with the paintbrush of shame as a molester of women, to take the front burner of both political and governmental activities, it has conveniently been relegated to the backstage just like in virtually every other cases.
Yes! For every Senator, who spoke on that Thursday, while Natasha’s political neck lay on the slaughter slab, it was all about the integrity of the Senate. Never bother about the meaning of that expression. It simple assumes a difference in Nigeria. Its only interpretation is the protection of the Senate President at any given time – simplicita!
Now, picture the contradiction between a female Senator, who committed the sin of refusing to move to an assigned seat before speaking and a possibly serial sexual predator sitting at the helm of the highest lawmaking body of the country. What is likely to happen, say in the UK parliament or the US Congress?
Which is more important and which should have come first? But trying to unravel the contradiction or attempting to understand why the reverse should be the case, is akin to the hard labour of struggling to comprehending Nigeria. That is the uphill task. Is it not the reason for the assumption that only an insane mind could actually achieve such a feat?
Yes! To make sense of Nigeria, requires putting a meaning to a Senate President thinking of, let alone, celebrating his birthday in stadium in the first place. It also requires grasping the mindset of the gaily-dressed citizens in various colourful attires, in the crowd-filled seats with each singing and dancing at that occasion without asking the basic questions – where are all these coming from – the funding and all – and why such lavish fund to promote it could not be channelled into production of nets for the immediate fishing communities. You would be trying to understand Nigeria, if you did as much as raise such a question. You could even get a slap from the man sitting behind you eavesdropping into your thoughts.
Knowing Nigeria would explain the private jets that took over every space in the local airport like locusts in a green vegetable farm during the birthday event. It would even explain the tour of the said mansion with ornamental furniture and all – one of the crime-scenes for the supposed expression of the sexual desires.
Now, in which other country of the world has it been heard that a Senate President celebrated his birthday in a stadium and what mindset would have led to it? Julius Ceasar, one of the most celebrated noblemen in world history was never recorded to engage in such monumental displays even with all his regal splendour.
Again, attempting to give a meaning to why the Senate saw Natasha’s behaviour as more crucial and urgent than addressing the sex-for-favour allegation against Akpabio, would involve trying to fathom the situation where lawmakers in a hunger-ravaged country would be the highest paid in the world, far beyond their counterparts in the most buoyant countries like the United States, Europe and Asia.
It would explain why the 469 lawmakers at the Nigerian National Assembly would be gifted Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) costing N160million each from funds borrowed from rich countries while lawmakers from the same rich countries went to work using car-pooling arrangements, because they could not afford riding in expensive cars.
It would explain why Nigerian Senators would be entitled to new houses each four years while Senators of the United States would share hostel-like apartments because they could hardly afford the rents in Washington and still make good laws that benefit their societies and make them sought-after in the world.
Imagine what SOTUS like Joe Biden would have collected in cars and housing allowances for the 36 years he spent in congress, were he a Nigerian Senator. Yet, he would probably be still paying mortgage as his own housing arrangements if he did not sort himself out through other means.
These are the contradictions that must be settled for those attempting to grasp what happened in the Senate on Thursday. Yes! It is all about the integrity of the Senate. But that integrity must not include inquiring into the foolishness of acquiring a N160million SUV to navigate – wait for it – the bad roads in Nigeria – instead of employing the huge amount used in buying the exotic automobiles in fixing the roads so that citizens with bicycles could also access them with ease. That, certainly is the thinking in other climes, not Nigeria.
No! Integrity of the Senate must not include appropriating funds borrowed from global financial institutions for the executive to buy a presidential yacht, purchase exotic cars for the office of the first lady or build a N21billion house for the Vice President in a country where more than 100 million citizens go to bed on empty stomach daily. By the way, has it not been said that the N21billion VP mansion is currently unoccupied and could now be home to rodents, serpents and scorpions?
Nobody will understand the Senate brand of integrity without first fathoming a Nigeria where the President and or his handlers, not only desiring, but actually going ahead to acquire a mimic of The Beast, the US presidential limousine in addition to a model of Air Force One, and lining hundreds of other state-of-the-art automobiles each time he travelled in the streets amid deafening cries of ebi kpa wa – we are hungry from citizens.
Yes! To understand what happened in the Senate on Thursday, means fathoming a country whose successive leaders over the years borrow hard currencies from lending institutions, steal the entire funds, return same to the countries they were borrowed from, borrow again and return, in an endless circle of official graft.
Come to think of it, is it not surprising that till date, not a single Senator has raised a voice to speak against the hunger in the land or made any whimper against official shenanigans in the executive – not even the opposition – not even members of the fire-eating Labour Party (LP) members, who had sworn to mimic the public display of austerity of Peter Obi, the man they rode on his back to office? Why have they all suddenly gone silent? That is the Senate that is talking about integrity!
In fact, is it not even more surprising that the two principal actors – Ireti Kingibe, the Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Neda Imesuen, Edo South, who led the indictment without hearing of Natasha are from the same LP? Has anyone heard the voices of other female Senators? They are all imprisoned in the Ometa of silence the National Assembly adopted since the All Progressives Congress (APC) came into the picture in Nigeria.
Naturally, as the curtain fell on Thursday, those whose eyes remain on the stage would certainly not be disappointed. They would no doubt get the entertainment they seek. Soon, the curtain will rise again for a fresh act in another scene, as the drama continues.
But one thing is sure – in this act Natasha is bound to lose no matter how strong her performance. Those seeking to see Akpabio in the dock on that stage, should better banish the thought. He will never come to trial. In fact, he must end up the hero. He will never be the villain. Even the imbeciles in Nigeria and elsewhere know this. Anyone who fails to get it should forget about it. It is how Nigeria rolls. To fathom it, requires one state of the mind – madness
On Wednesday, July 8, 2026, Peter Obi, candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), practically took the media space of Nigeria by storm, with his alarming claim that he might not be alive to contest the 2027 presidential election.
Obi was not talking about some strange illness discovered by his doctors, which had limited his days on earth or alluding to any other kind of natural cause of death. On the contrary, he was forecasting of a more diabolical, highly sinister variant of unnatural, untimely kind of death – political assassination or any other dimension relating to it.
The former Governor of Anambra State, who has remained the main thing in the polity since taking the Nigerian political firmament by storm with his emergence as contender for the nation’s number one job in 2022, ending up with a stunning performance in the February 25, presidential election as candidate of the Labour Party (LP), despite all odds, and prediction of naysayers, was not in doubt about where the threat was domiciled.
A guest of #WithChude, a popular podcast, hosted by Chude Jideonwo, he was instead quite emphatic that his reading of his current ordeal suggests that his traducers, might not stop with their clear intent of preventing him from being on the ballot in the 2027 presidential contest, but up the ante to the level of taking his life if the push eventually graduated to shove.
He did not mince words where the arrows were coming and who was pulling the bows, but was equally emphatic of that as well – the All Progressives Congress (APC) government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Hear him: “Every single thing I do for a living, this government is frustrating it. Deliberately so. Everything. So, there is even a possibility, if they have the opportunity, I will not be alive.
“It’s not an accusation. I know. I get frustration every day. Because you do things that you think would be normal – it is not normal anymore. They won’t come directly and say, ‘Oh, we’re doing this,’ but you can see their hand in virtually everything.
“They are attacking everybody who is in opposition personally. I am being attacked personally. Everything. Even to provide me with necessary things that I should have been entitled to, not at all. I had a case recently at the airport, where people who work in the airport came and locked my car. And I said, ‘It’s me.’
“But I said, ‘Look at the cars of other people.’ And you could see them talking to each other, as if, ‘Who is this one? And I see people I know at the airport, they will not greet me because they are fearing that if they greet me…And I have people send me invitations and say, ‘My son, my daughter is wedding, but please don’t come.’”
Since this outing, it has been hoopla on the Nigerian turf as the centrifugal and centripetal forces pull from all sides on the matter in a dog-fight between the government forces and Obi’s supporters.
In fact, Abuja did not waste time in producing a quick riposte, with Bayo Onanuga, spokesman of the President, ostensibly conveying the sentiments of his boss on the matter, dismissing the NDC candidate as a liar and a cry-baby.
He has support from Festus Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Management, who quickly pulled out a video of what was supposed to be the airport incident Obi was referring to underscore the point that the former governor was indeed the guilty party.
In fact, so intense was Keyemo’s intervention that he not only instructed Obi to render an immediate and unreserved apologies to the airport staff – the selfsame people he accused of insulting him – but pay N25,000, which he claimed was the mandatory fine for the “crime” of parking in an unauthorised place, he allegedly committed.
Now as the drama in the nation’s theatre of the absurd continues to build up into a fearsome political fireball, it is pertinent to assess the situation, based on the facts on the ground – past and present.
In so doing, it is apposite to review the images on the huge national screen playing from the reel of events since Obi happened on the Nigerian political space. This will underscore whether his outcry could be considered as coming from genuine fears or dismissed as non-issues, as the Aso Rock Villa, enjoins.
Does NEXT International Supermarket, arguable once the biggest monuments in Abuja and one of the visible concerns linked to Obi, suddenly going up in flames some years back, not deserve a mention in the current conversation?
What about the outburst of Monday Okpebholo, Governor of Edo State, warning the NDC candidate never to step his foot in Benin the capital or anywhere within the territory without his express say-so? Where does that fit in?
How does Abuja capture the real life attack on Obi, then a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), in the same Benin under the nose of the selfsame Okpebholo? Does that bullet-ridden vehicle that told the story of the entire macabre event in more ways than words not mean anything?
Okay, how is Obi supposed to process the silence of Abuja after an APC chieftain warned him not to step his feet into Rivers State or do so at the pain of death, when elsewhere such open threat ought to instigate an instant action, including the arrest and prosecution of the culprit?
What about the outburst of the selfsame Onanuga warning the NDC candidate – never to interfere in Lagos politics – following the blitzkrieg that came after trouncing Tinubu in his own backyard during the 2023 presidential election?
How was Obi supposed to process the pulling down of a prime property in Lagos belonging to his brother, in the context of this warning and other events that nuanced the actions of Alausa and other players since that 2023 routing?
Given this list of what is in the public domain, though not exhaustible yet – not knowing what else could have transpired beyond what is known to him and his supposed traducers alone, does it make for Obi to be complacent and believe that all is well?
For us, no politician in Nigeria today could be accused of being too careful with the foregoing events, not the least, Obi, given the long list of unresolved political killings history in the country.
The horrendous cases of the likes of Funso Williams, Bola Ige, Aminasori Dikkibo, Harry Marshal, Ogbonnaya Uche (OGB), who fell to the bullets of gunmen at various times, have not continued to blur the nation’s political firmament, but remain sad reminders of how awry things could go.
WHIRLWINDNEWS believes, therefore that the case of Obi deserves more than being dismissed with a wave of the hands as Abuja has since done. We believe that, not only the NDC candidate, but the nation needs the assurance that he is alive to contest in the election.
The consequences of Obi coming to harm might be graver than those who believe they are safe in the fortresses of Abuja foresee. It might signal the doomsday. Therefore, that assurance must come in visible words and deed. Now!
It began less than 10 minutes after taking the oath of office. In his address to the nation, he uttered those three-letter words – subsidy is gone. The ink with which he signed the documents declaring him President was yet to dry.
That was it. From that moment, Nigerians have known nothing but poverty, tears and death. It was a declaration that came out of impulse rather than articulacy. It was not even contained in his original speech prepared for the occasion. But it sprouted out – from a rash, unthinking and impetuous mental construct.
But the effect was instant, the impact direct. From that moment, Nigerians have never known peace. Every thing took a cue. Minutes after, the news broke that the price of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol had jumped from N189 to N550. It was that instant. Today, it hovers around N1,500.
The effect: Within minutes, transportation cost quadrupled. So too, commodity prices. Caught unawares, marketers, who had earlier thought it was a day of the rains as customers rushed to their shops, soon became suspicious and then got wiser – these were not ordinary customers but smart alecs playing a fast one on them.
They stopped selling, retrieved the items they could from those who had not disappeared with their goods and closed shop to study the situation properly. Hours after, they responded. A plate of eba and soup, went up from N200 to N1,000. Prices hit the rooftops.
In fact, the vehicle transporting what used to be Nigeria, which had been moving at a horse and buggy pace in the days of Muhammadu Buhari, stopped abruptly, engaged the reverse gear and began galloping backwards. That has remained the ugly, parlous tale of the Tinubu days, since May 29, 2023.
Now, the expectation would be that the President and his government that wrought such a horrendous punishment on the polity, would themselves take some blows. But nada! Instead, the opposite was the case. Within months of plunging the citizens into the untold hardship Tinubu went on a binge, spending money – in the words of Olusegun Obasanjo, former President – like a drunken sailor.
Few weeks after, as Nigerians were reeling and gasping in pain from the impact of their new situation, 469 newly-minted Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs), rolled out from factories in Japan, where they were produced into the premises of the National Assembly for the just inaugurated members.
Put the cost at N100billion – that is N160million for each unit, plus other charges. Reason: The lawmakers needed the vehicles because of their good suspension system, to navigate the so many bad roads in Nigeria. Yes, you heard right. How could they think well and make good laws after the hassles of the bad roads? Tinubu saw reasons, acquiesced and voila!
But it did not end there. Tinubu suddenly realised that Kashim Shettima, his deputy, needed a new home “befitting” his new office. Pronto! A voucher of N21billion was raised and he had it. Till date a haze still hovers over the project.
The last news that was heard was that Number Two refused to take residence because the entire environment, including the toilets was wired to the teeth to monitor him. And Number Two needed privacy.
Again, in the same weeks, Oga Patapata, also realised that Madam needed to transport more comfortably. Pronto! It was arranged. Another voucher was raised for cars for the Office of the First Lady. Cost N1.2billion. Of course, madam needed the comfort for peace at home.
Naturally, since transportation is not done by land alone, he also took care of that. For the sea, a yacht was procured. Cost N5billion. Because the birds in the presidential fleet were not good enough, Tinubu did the needful.
He enriched the fleet with the one befitting of his status and had it transformed to mimic the US Air Force One. To complete the status symbol project, he also added a replica of The Beast, the US presidential automobile.
Ironically, the funds used in procuring these luxury lifestyle, came, not out of productive ventures of Nigeria, but through borrowing. Today, Tinubu has practically borrowed Nigeria blind, doubling or even tripling that of his predecessors.
Meanwhile Nigerians had upped the ante from mere groaning and skreiching. Citizens, unable to take it anymore, now stop their hitherto sleek vehicles on the Third Mainland Bridge and plunge into the Lagos lagoon to end it all. The option is now more rampant than remote and occasional.
Many others, taking the Socrates option, now drink hemlock and many more simply sleep off without any intention of waking up. That is where we are. That is the new Nigeria – the Tinubu Nigeria. But there is more.
Terrorists and the landlords of the forest, having now discovered that the Commander-in-Chief has other fancies than security and welfare of the people – the constitutionally-declared primary purpose of government and scant regard for the citizens, have practically gone haywire. They have taken over and established their authority.
Presently, outside those wantonly slaughtered or butchered in their homes like animals at the abattoir, incinerated alive while sleeping on their beds, among other forms of decimation, many more citizens are now spending months, going to years as victims of captivity with them in various forests in Nigeria.
In their rampage, the terrorists have since broken all barriers considered out of place hitherto. One of their escapades is the present videos of the school children and teachers taken from Oyo State. The gory imagery captures the current Nigerian story.
For instance, on Thursday, just as the sound of heavy celebration was going on in neighbouring Ogun State as the world marked the Ojude Oba yearly carnival, two of the victims, one of them with a toddler on her back, were pleading for their lives, as others went through various forms of torture, including heavy whipping like beasts.
Don’t forget that the terrorists had earlier slaughtered one of their colleagues. In the new video, the totally terrified women, informed that they had chosen another victim to be similarly eliminated. Yet, no word about rescue! Terrible!
Interestingly, if not painfully, Tinubu’s response, in the few cases he bothered, was to see the crisis through the politics lens. His most recent reaction was to tell the world that the harvest of attacks and carnages ravaging the country, were sponsored by his political enemies, intent on shoving him out of power. That to him was all that mattered.
Now, where are your powers as C-in-C? They are mostly found in the most disgraceful economic and political acts of impunity. Nigerians now waking up to hear of the award of brain-dazing contracts such as the N15trillion Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and Badagry-Maiduguri Highway – with scant regard for official regulations, is now becoming more common than rare.
Few days after one of the teachers was beheaded and the video of the hideous act made to circulate on the social media, the President and his All Progressives Congress (APC), party, rolled out the drums of his winning the party’s ticket to contest the 2027 presidential election.
To say that it has been three years of weeping, wailing, mourning and gnashing of the teeth, is a clear euphemism. There is no starker way of putting it than calamity – pure, unmitigated catastrophe – disaster.
Then comes the big question. Nigeria is already breasting the tape of these ruinous years of the first term. Suppose Tinubu succeeds in renewing his tenure by January next year? Will Nigeria survive five more years of a life like the last three? What will be left of Nigeria? Is there a way out, outside shouting – God forbid!?
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