As N’Assembly Battles Image Crisis

As the Senate grapples with reputational damage following sexual harassment allegations against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio by the suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who represents Kogi Central, Ejiofor Alike reports that further accusations of financial inducements to approve a state of emergency in Rivers State have exacerbated the National Assembly’s image crisis

This is not the best of times for the Senator Godswill Akpabio-led 10th National Assembly.

While the Senator Ahmad Lawan-led 9th National Assembly was perceived as the worst rubber-stamp legislature since the return of democracy in 1999, the present federal lawmakers suffer reputational damage due to the many allegations against them.

They are also perceived to have failed to subject the executive to the necessary checks and balances required in a democracy.

It would be recalled that barely 24 hours after the House of Representatives last Wednesday passed for second reading the bill for the removal of immunity for the Offices of the Vice President, governors, and deputy governors, the lawmakers on Thursday rescinded their decision on the proposed legislation, following what sources close to the lawmakers described as an order from the executive arm of government.

However, the current federal lawmakers should be more concerned about its image.

The image crisis got to a peak with the sexual harassment allegation by the suspended lawmaker representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, against the Senate President, Akpabio.

Akpabio and his supporters have denied the allegation, as she provided no credible evidence to support her claims.

Akpabio’s wife, Unoma has also filed multiple lawsuits at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, against her, claiming N250 billion in damages for alleged defamation.

Responding to the court action in a letter dated March 1, 2025, which was addressed to Mrs Akpabio, the suspended senator’s lawyer, Mr Victor Giwa, claimed that: “Our client has concrete evidence to substantiate her allegations.”

While Nigerians are awaiting her concrete evidence, she has since escalated the allegations at the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting in New York, which she attended.

At the IPU meeting on March 11, she raised the allegations of sexual harassment against the senate president to the embarrassment of the National Assembly and the Nigerian government.

The senator is yet to return to Nigeria, having raised the alarm of her alleged planned arrest on her return. This, however, hasn’t stopped her from escalating her allegation to the international audience, causing more reputational damage to federal lawmakers.

In an interview with the BBC, Akpoti-Uduaghan alleged that Akpabio repeatedly made sexual advances towards her in and out of the Senate chamber — and sometimes before other senators.

She has also formally filed a petition before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC), seeking the disbarment of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions, Senator Nedamwen Bernards Imasuen from the Nigerian Bar.

This fresh allegation has caused more havoc to the image of the Senate. In the petition, she alleged that Senator Imasuen was permanently disbarred by the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, on May 10, 2010, following a complaint by Daphne Slyfield, a client who accused him of misappropriating legal fees and multiple breaches of professional conduct.

New reports also emerged in the media claiming that the federal lawmakers received bribes to endorse the state of emergency declaration in Rivers State.

But Akpabio, in a statement issued by his spokesperson, Eseme Eyiboh, described the bribery allegation as an attempt to blackmail lawmakers.

The Deputy spokesman of the House, Hon. Philip Agbese, also described the allegation as false, malicious and emanating from “the pit of hell.”

While Akpabio said he hosted senators at his guest house for an Iftar meal but that no money was shared, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on FCT, Mukhtar Aliyu Betara, reportedly admitted that he shared $5,000 with members of his committee as a “Sallah gesture” and not as an inducement to support the emergency rule in Rivers State.

But former President Olusegun Obasanjo has insisted that the lawmakers received bribes to ratify the state of emergency.

In a video clip that went viral, Obasanjo told a member of the House of Representatives, Ikenga Ugochinyere, that he had direct knowledge of the payments.

However, Ugochinyere, who denied the reports that federal lawmakers were paid $200,000 each to support the emergency rule, said: “Nobody gave anyone $200,000. That is just what I want to correct.”

Despite his denial, Obasanjo insisted: “You can say anything. I heard it from the horse’s mouth. You can deny it; that is alright, but I heard it from those who got it and told me that they got it. If you didn’t get it, then maybe your case is different. Don’t tell me what I know. Most of your members who got it told me that they got it.” 

Obviously worried by the damage the allegation caused to the image of the National Assembly, a former President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki had warned that the Senate, as a vital institution, must be protected from any actions that could tarnish its reputation.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has also accused the leadership of the National Assembly of corruption.

Atiku spoke on Wednesday in an interview with ARISE News Channel, stating that he was not surprised at how the senate approved the state of emergency.

He said: “I was not surprised because I know the leadership is corrupt, and I have no apologies for saying that.”

The damaging assessments by such important personalities were evidence of the federal lawmakers’ declining reputation, no matter their business-as-usual posturing.

This development should worry the Nigerian government given the incalculable damage to Nigeria’s foreign image.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan recently expressed worry over the current bad image of Nigeria.

“I always plead with our people that whatever we do affects everybody and sometimes we do things and we think that it doesn’t affect us.

 “Why is it that our passport is not valued that much? Why is it that Nigerians are not given the kind of treatment we’re supposed to receive at international airports?

“Sometimes, we think it’s because of ‘yahoo’ boys or 419. Not only them; yes, they are part of the problem. But whatever happens in the country, decisions that are taken by the executive arm of government, decisions that are taken by the parliament, and judicial decisions affect everybody,” Jonathan reportedly explained while responding to the state of emergency in Rivers State.