ABUJA: During the Women in Parliament session at the Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting at the United Nations in New York, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan called for international intervention to hold Nigeria’s Senate accountable.
She criticised what she described as targeted sanctions against her, including the withdrawal of her security details, salary cuts, and a six-month suspension from the National Assembly.
Following intense legal battles between both parties, the court had earlier barred them from making public comments on the issue pending the outcome of the case.
However, defying the silence order, Akpoti-Uduaghan on Sunday, just two days after Senate President Godswill Akpabio led a Federal Government delegation to the Vatican, published a highly charged ‘Apology Letter’ addressed to Godswill Akpabio. The letter, laden with heavy sarcasm, read in part:“Dear Distinguished Distinguished Senate President Godswill Akpabio –
With the deepest sarcasm and utmost theatrical regret, I tender this apology for the grievous crime of possessing dignity and self-respect in your most exalted presence.
She continued by criticising what she described as a culture that prioritises “compliance” over “competence, accusing the Senate leadership of valuing personal loyalty above legislative merit.
I have reflected extensively on my unforgivable failure to recognise that legislative success in certain quarters is not earned through merit, but through the ancient art of compliance of the very personal kind,” she wrote.
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Akpoti-Uduaghan also took aim at what she called a system of entitlement and quid pro quo politics: Please find it in your magnanimous heart somewhere buried deep beneath layers of entitlement to forgive this stubborn woman who mistakenly believed that her seat in the Senate was earned through elections, not erections.
The letter concluded with a powerful affirmation of her stance: I remain Yours in eternal resistance, Senator Natasha H. Akpoti-Uduaghan. Unafraid, Unbought, and Unbroken.
Her comments are expected to intensify the ongoing tensions between the Senate leadership and dissenting members, while drawing increased international attention to the internal dynamics of Nigeria’s legislature.
