For Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the forces arrayed against her would require the intervention of the Holy Spirit for her to survive.
The principalities and forces baying for her blood are increasing on a daily basis. In a patriarchal society where misogyny is a by-product and well entrenched, Natasha might eventually end up as one of the many inhuman treatments that women suffer from from birth to death.
That explains why in this society, men just don’t die, they are usually killed by their wives. Even those who killed themselves through their reckless and irresponsible lifestyle, their deaths are ascribed to their wives.
When the woman is not accused directly, everything still points to the fact that she has a huge task proving her innocence. That’s who we are and that is how we are. That’s why when a woman is raped or sexually assaulted, everyone tends to think she may have asked for it.
For instance, in a case of rape or sexual harassment as alleged by Senator Natasha, the woman is expected to convince an already biased people on how her way of dressing, or walking has not warranted her ordeal.
Therefore, if a woman wears transparent clothing, she asks for whatever happens to her. Some even blame a woman for allowing a man who is not her husband to hold her hand or shake her hand. By this, they conclude that the woman is loose and deserves whatever fate befalls her. This is misogyny at its worst!
So, for daring to say that the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, sexually harassed her, Natasha must be prepared for the worst and indeed, they have been coming in torrents. She not only has to fight for justice but also for her survival as a senator in the so-called hallowed chambers where criminals have been taking refuge.
The Kogi Central Senator is currently faced with spurious attempts by her constituents to recall her. For all that it is worth, the recall attempt is only a fraud that can only scale through with the connivance and complicity of INEC.
The framers of our constitution and Electoral Act are not fools and perhaps because they know our capacity for foolery and mischief, they laid down procedures for a recall of an elected legislator.
Ordinarily, that process should be a very tall order, especially when every indication points to the mischief and fraud behind the move. But since our propensity to do evil is limitless, all that may well happen and Natasha would soon become the first to be recalled because, as usual, INEC is a ready tool for manipulation by the political class.
Last week, some members of Akpoti-Uduaghan’s constituents, led by one Charity Ijese, had submitted over 250,000 signatures at the Independent National Electoral Commission headquarters in Abuja with a petition seeking the embattled senator’s recall.
Some 250,000 genuine signatures of voters gathered in a few days, as though Natasha’s recall is more life-threatening or of more importance than the hunger and hardship in the land.
The petition for her recall followed a series of events after she was suspended from the Senate on March 6 for alleged gross misconduct.
Sections 69, 110, and 160 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), along with Sections 2(c) and 113 of the Electoral Act, 2022, empower INEC to issue regulations and guidelines governing the recall of a member of the National Assembly, a State House of Assembly, or an Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory.
The 10 steps to be followed include: More than half of the registered voters in the Senator’s senatorial district write, sign and send a petition to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) alleging their loss of confidence in the senatorial district senator; The petition must be signed, and arranged according to polling units, wards, Local Government Areas, and constituency;
INEC notifies the Senator to be recalled, stating that it has received a petition for his or her recall, if the petition is valid, and INEC to issue a public notice or announcement stating the date, time and location of the verification of signatures to the petition.
Other steps include INEC verifying the signatures to the petition at the designation. The signatories must be individuals who appear on the voters’ register; INEC fixes a date for a referendum if more than one half (50% + 1) of the signatories are verified and a referendum conducted within 90 days of receipt of the petition if the minimum requirements for a referendum are met. Fifty per cent of registered voters must participate in a referendum. In the case of Kogi Central, 237, 277 voters constituting half of the 474,554 registered voters are needed.
In the 2023 general elections, for instance, voter turnout was only around 27 per cent. In Kogi Central all the 12 candidates scored 106,491 votes of which Natasha had 51,763 votes.
Although not up to 50 per cent of registered voters elect their legislators, a high threshold is required to recall them as may apply in Natasha’s case.
Furthermore, if the majority of the voters in the constituency vote ‘yes’ the Chairman of the INEC will send a Certificate of Recall to the Senate President to effect the recall.
As things stand now, we are waiting for 90 days for a referendum where 50 percent of registered voters who have overcome hunger and whose children are well fed and without challenges to gather to vote Yes or No for Natasha’s recall. For Kogi Central, 237, 277 voters constituting half of the 474,554 registered voters would leave their farms, places of work and gather to recall a woman for demanding justice over her allegations against Senator Akpabio.
Meanwhile, as we mentioned earlier, during the election all the 12 candidates scored 106,491 votes. Now, Natasha’s persecutors would get 237,277 voters to pull this stunt. The world is watching.
Just as we argued recently, any fair observer of what is ongoing at the Senate would be forced to draw a conclusion that indeed, Senator Akpabio and his Senate have something to hide. Their action reeks of desperation and attempts to shut her out and wipe out any trace of her. When a so-called distinguished senator says Natasha is not the most beautiful woman around, you wonder how really distinguished these men and women are.
Natasha can never get a fair hearing from any committee of senators and I am also not very sure if there is any hope for her at the judiciary. The courts are no longer protectors of the weak. Justice today is for the highest bidder.
Therefore, the least expected of INEC, is to follow their own extant laws to do what is right. The problem of the Nigerian voters is existential and real. They can’t be bothered with the recall of a Senator as our politicians from Kogi want us to believe.
