Natasha: Standing Truth On Its Head?

THEFRONTLINES: Joseph Ushigiale

jushigiale@yahoo.co.uk,

joseph.ushigiale@thisdaylive.com

08023422660 (sms only)

In the past few weeks, the news cycle, including social media, have been dominated and treated to salacious allegations of sexual harassment by Kogi-born Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan against the Senate’s number one man and former Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio.

In what ought to have been a straightforward affair that should be settled in-house, the flouting of the Senate’s rule and disorderly conduct by Natasha snowballed into a tsunami of a sort which effects are still reverberating as far as the Inter Parliamentary Union in New York, at home and globally.

It all started from the plenary of that fateful day when Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan complained that her seat was swapped. In order to make a case, she left her seat to raise a point of order. According to her, she noticed a new sitting arrangement, removing her from her previous position to somewhere else.

She, therefore, raised her hand under the Senate rule’s order 10 to call Akpabio’s attention to what she just discovered. But, according to her, Akpabio deliberately ignored her or didn’t show any sign that he noticed her out of malice.

Infuriated that she was being ignored, she stood up, left her seat and stood on the aisle to call attention to her plight. This action infuriated her colleagues and got her a summons to the Ethics Committee.

In a later clarification made by Senator Ned Nwoko who was among the decampees that necessitated the seat arrangements as a result of their defection to another party, he stated that realignment of seating positions was a ritual in the senate and nothing new, adding that he personally appealed to the Kogi senator to conduct herself appropriate so as not to disrupt plenary.

Others who also contributed opined that if Natasha claimed that she was unaware of such rule, it either amounted gross ignorance or she was deliberately disruptive and disrespectful to the entire senate.

Before proceeding, it is important to note that the principal officers, most especially Akpabio, mishandled proceedings of that day.

Ideally, whoever is saddled with rearranging the sitting position ought to have informed her ahead of time that such an action was going to take place and why.

If that was not done, the last option was Akpabio, who ought to have openly addressed his colleagues, informing them of either a new entrant, a colleague who has moved parties. He would have, in addition seized the opportunity to cite relevant sections of its rules prescribing what actions to take under such circumstances, including some precedents to buttress his point. That done, he would have directly addressed Akpoti-Uduaghan, informing her that the development affected her sitting position and kindly moved to her new seat.

Had Akpabio taken this line of action, there would have been no way to give room to the disruptions going on right now. This whole storm in a teacup was needless and avoidable.

Now following her suspension for six month based on the recommendations of the committee on ethics, privileges and public petitions the crux of her suspension was supplanted and upended by the new narrative that her suspension was because she raised allegation of sexual harassment against Akpabio. But was that the case? Except for very few discerning minds, the mob reaction that embraced Natasha identifying her as a victim swallowed the narrative hook line and sinker. The reason for the suspension immediately assumed a new twist. It is amazing how some people preferred to stand truth on its head by ignoring the fact and following the narrative that she was suspended because she accused Akpabio of sexual harassment?

That brings us to yet another observation of the way Akpabio handled the Ethics Committee proceedings.

When the Senate decided to deliberate on the Ethics Committee’s report, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan raised a point of order to present her petition of sexual harassment against Akpabio to the whole house before live television.

Rather than referring her to tender her petition to the Ethics Committee, Akpabio permitted her to lay the petition before the Clerk.

It is from this point that things start getting fuzzy, convoluted, and a new narrative emerged dwarfing the main course of the event and narrowing it to sexual harassment.

Within hours, the new narrative assumed a new hue and life. Propelled by social media denizen, Akpoti-Uduaghan suddenly became a symbol of feminism and an avid voice for the voiceless women under the oppression of chauvinistic men.

Had Akpabio rejected the petition and directed her to the appropriate committee which would have investigated her allegations, the cacophony of voices and the mob reaction of today would never have been. The Senate fell into a trap set by Akpoti-Uduaghan and having realised its mistake, it is now striving through the Chief Whip Senator Bamidele Opeyemi to clean up the mess.

While the controversy on the twisted narrative on why Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan was suspended is still raging, this poses a very grave challenge signalling that there is a foreseeable danger ahead. Are women the only victims of rape and sexual harassment?

How safe are men in the company of women, or who will defend men in high offices? Are they also not vulnerable to women harassment? Who will speak up for them or do you assume that there are no women traducers? Given the trajectory and force this controversy has assumed, it is therefore safe to argue that men in position of authority are endangered species in the company7 of ambitious women.

While in other climes, there are clearly defined legal steps to seek redress for women some of who get hefty pay offs from their traducers; victims abound showing that some men are not so lucky, as there are documented proof of how some women deliberately and maliciously accuse men of rape and sexual harassment.

There are countless accounts of innocent men who are known to have served long sentences because a women out of racial prejudice accused him of rape; along the line, some of these women recant their earlier submissions to admit that it was either a wrong identity or they pointed at an innocent person who had nothing to do with the crime. I’m still waiting for the first woman to serve time because a man wrongly accused her of raping him or sexually harassing him or is it that women don’t rape men or sexually assault them?

Back home, in the absence of laws prescribing hefty payment as damage to victims, some ambitious women resort to deploy allegations of sexual harassment and rape as a potent tool to blackmai or pull down highly placed government officials or high networth individuals for their selfish ends.

Therefore, there is a need for Nigerians to be vigilant and discernible and not allow ambitious and ego flaunting women to weaponise sexual harassment against some innocent men. Women who resort to these antics should be called out and subjected to public disgrace.

For Akpabio and his journeymen, there are lessons to learn from former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Undoubtedly the longest serving leader of that country who not only facilitated its independence from Malaysia, he, his team pulled the country from third world to first world. The position of Singapore today in the world is eloquent testimony to his visionary leadership and enduring legacy.

In the ‘60s and in the political heat where different parties and aspirants were displaying competing interests to lead the country, some of his opponents made sweeping allegations impugning on his character. He sued them and quite a number of his opponents were jailed.

Years later, a reporter asked him why he was engaged in the relentless pursuit of legal battles against his traducers all of whom ended up in jail. He said he had a reputation which took him several years to build. He said as a result, he would not sit by and allow some of his political opponents impugn on his character and get away with it.

According to him, so long as they were sure of the allegations they made against, they should as well prove that in court. He argued that in the end of each trial his traducers couldn’t prove their cases and were jailed while his integrity and character were restored.

The corollary of this narration is that Akpabio and his colleagues who feel their rights have been infringed upon should seek redress in a court of competent jurisdiction. Few years ago at the Niger Delta Ministry, the then MD of NDDC, Joy Nunieh accused Akpabio of sexual harassment and she concluded that he slapped Akpabio for making passes at him.

Akpabio failed to rise to the occasion. Had he taken steps to deal with the situation at the time by going to court to challenge Nunieh, perhaps it will be on record and serve as a deterrent to others seeking to chart that course.

Having failed in the Nunieh palaver, another golden opportunity has presented itself to clear his name from the two accusers who now label him as a serial sexual predator.

Earlier in the week, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan was in New York to present her case before the IPU. She tried to mislead the organisation that she was being persecuted because she raised allegations of sexual harassment against Akpabio. Rather than gaining their empathy, she was told that the organisation does not treat one sided story and that they’d wait for Akpabio’s response before making its position known.

Now, in rushing abroad to cast aspersions on the institution you would soon return to says alot about the Senator’s judgement. It seems she believes issues about sexual harassment are limited to Nigeria.

Unfortunately it is not so. According to a recent report on CNN, the United States Congress spent $17.6m between 1997 to 2004 to settle 658 cases of sexual harassment and race related issues in Congress. This money is not paid from the individual pockets of the congressmen but from its treasury.

Having returned empty handed from IPU, where next? The Senate must not sweep this allegation under the carpet but pursue it to a logical conclusion in a court of law without protecting any sacred cows.

Once that is done, it must return to the drawing board and draft appropriate laws that protect the rights of Nigerians from sexual predators. Unlike the Congress that maintains a treasury to settle such complaints, the law should prescribe hefty compensation to be paid by the offenders to settle the victim to serve as deterrent and bring closure to their ordeal.