Why Akpoti-Uduagan's 'Satirical Apology' to Akpabio Is Stirring Controversy

On Sunday, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the suspended senator from Kogi Central, made a parody apology on her official Facebook page, mocking Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

The letter was a sarcastic apology from Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan for her "crime of maintaining dignity and self-respect" before the Senate.

She claimed that under Mr. Akpabio's leadership, Senate success appeared to be based more on adherence to personal demands than on qualifications.

"I offer this apology for the terrible crime of having dignity and self-respect in your most esteemed presence with the utmost dramatic regret and the darkest sarcasm. I've thought a lot about my inexcusable inability to see that legislative success in some places seems to be obtained through the age-old skill of compliance, which is very individualized, she added.

Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan said that part of the reason she was suspended was because she refused to accept Mr. Akpabio's unwanted sexual approaches.

She noted that turning down such advances was viewed as a transgression of unspoken norms that prioritize the rights of particular males.

How careless of me to fail to realize that my unwillingness to comply with your … "requests" constituted a constitutional infraction of the unwritten laws of some men's entitlement, not just a matter of personal preference.

"I now understand the disastrous results of my actions: legislation not being passed on time, tempers erupting, and the tragic bruises of egos so big they need their own postcodes." I bend my head in fictitious shame for this disturbance of the "quid pro quo" natural order.

The lawmaker said, "Please find it in your generous heart — somewhere buried deep beneath layers of entitlement — to forgive this stubborn woman who thought that her Senate seat was earned through elections, not erections."

Taking the ethics committee's recommendations into consideration, the Senate decided on March 6 to suspend Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months.

The ethics committee's report, which accused her of wrongdoing during a plenary session on February 20 and of disregarding the chamber's seating arrangement, served as the basis for the judgment.

She also faced a number of sanctions from the Senate, such as the termination of her position in the National Assembly and the removal of all of her security guards.

She was required to turn up all Senate property to the National Assembly Clerk. During the suspension period, she was also not allowed to enter the National Assembly's grounds.

In addition to being prohibited from representing herself as a senator both domestically and abroad, her pay and benefits were also suspended for the term of the suspension.

However, the Senate stated that if Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan offers a written apology, the suspension could be overturned. The leadership could then take this into consideration before the full six-month period ends.

In an attempt to get international assistance in her Senate suspension, Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan presented her case to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) on March 11.

She made accusations of sexual harassment against Mr. Akpabio while speaking to delegates at an IPU meeting at the UN headquarters in New York.

The senator from Kogi said that her suspension from the Senate was illegal and an intentional ploy to keep her quiet for criticizing alleged wrongdoing in the upper house of government in Nigeria.

Tulia Ackson, the president of the IPU, responded by saying that while the international legislative body would take the appropriate action in the situations that the senator had reported, it would also give the Nigerian Senate a chance to explain its position before acting.

However, a day later, Kafilat Ogbara, a Nigerian representative to the IPU meeting that day, gave a press briefing in which she urged the National Assembly to guarantee an impartial and open investigation into the matter.

The Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, sent a letter to Mrs. Ogbara, the chair of the House Committee on Women Affairs and Social Development, explaining that Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan's suspension was due to her alleged misconduct during the plenary and violations of Senate Standing Rules, and had nothing to do with the allegations of sexual harassment against Mr. Akpabio.

Since then, Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan's suspension has remained in place and the IPU has not commented on the matter.

Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan’s attendance at the IPU meeting, however, provoked a government probe.

Nigeria's internal and foreign intelligence services opened an investigation into how she entered the conference without being officially nominated, according to a previous DoroTV article.

Nigeria claims that Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan's suspension from the Nigerian Senate was politically motivated in order to silence her for speaking out against misconduct in the legislative chamber, and that she did not adhere to the necessary diplomatic procedures before being granted access to the IPU meeting on March 11.

However, Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan clarified in an exclusive phone chat with DoroTV on March 16 that she was already on the IPU email list as a previous attendee, therefore she was able to get her accreditation and register for the conference online as a senator.