“Happy International Women’s Day!”
“Really? Is it really a happy day for women?”
March is International Women’s Month or Women’s History Month, depending on where you live. But never has it been made clearer how far we are from achieving gender parity in Nigeria than the last two weeks.
The events surrounding Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and Senate President Godswill Akpabio have filled the airwaves over the last few weeks. On February 20, 2025 following a seating re-shuffle in the House of Senate, Senator Natasha was moved to a new seat, which according to her, was at the very end of the back row close to where the orderlies sat and akin to a “no man’s land” (my para-phrasing).
She refused to accept this new seat and repeatedly raised a point of order despite being overruled each time she spoke. She was eventually walked out of the House by the sergeant-in-arms.
Last week, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan accused the Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment and submitted a petition to this effect.
You can read the full stories online on:
- https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/03/natasha-vs-akpabio-how-national-assembly-became-theatre-of-shame/
- https://punchng.com/natashas-suspension-fg-plans-intervention-as-coalition-threatens-showdown/#google_vignette
- https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74310qw53no
- https://punchng.com/akpoti-uduaghan-vows-to-continue-serving-despite-senate-suspension/?dicbo=v2-HOdkSYC
On Tuesday, March 4, 2025 the Senate referred Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan to the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions for disciplinary review, after it was put to a voice vote by Akpabio.
On Wednesday, March 5, 2025 Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan submitted a petition on the floor of the House of Senate, which was dismissed on procedural grounds
A Federal High Court in Abuja restrained the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions from conducting a disciplinary proceeding against the Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
By Thursday, March 6, 2025 the Senate (presided over by the chief defendant) went ahead to disregard the court injunction and officially suspended Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan from all legislative activities for six months, saying that she had brought ridicule to the upper chamber. The reason given for her suspension was ostensibly “misconduct” over her refusal to speak from her newly-assigned seat.
There are so many things wrong with these actions, from the House of Senate pointedly ignoring a court order not to intervene in the case to the senate president pronouncing judgement on the case in which he is being accused of wrongdoing.
In all this, the accusation of sexual harrasment has been neatly side-stepped.
This is why representation is important.
The senate made-up predominantly of men will not call out one of their own, particularly when the case focuses on bad behaviour that has been so normalised in Nigeria till the point that many men could be similarly accused.
The few women who could be allies are either silent or accuse the victim of not playing by the rules or not knowing her place. This is unfortunately how partriarchy works.
Just 3 years ago, in March 2022, in the same International Women’s Month, the male-dominated House of Assembly rejected 5 bills all designed to bring gender equity in 5 key areas:
- Allowing citizenship to a foreign-born husband of a Nigerian woman. (While it allows Nigerian men’s foreign-born wives to be awarded automatic citizenship).
- Enabling Nigerian women indigeneity through marriage.
- Providing for 35% appointed positions for women.
- Providing for women’s affirmative action in party administration and leadership.
- Reserving specific seats for women in the National Assembly.
This is why representation is important.
We have a long way to go. Our great-grandmothers – the Funmilayo Ransome-Kutis, the Gambo Sawabas, and the Margaret Ekpos – would be shocked that in 2025, we are still so woefully behind.
According to the 2024 Global Gender Gap report compiled by the World Economic Forum, out of 146 countries, Nigeria was ranked 125 with a score of 0.650.
In the light of this, wishing women a happy international women’s day, organising more extravagant talk shops that yield no real action afterwards and striking this year’s IWD power pose doesn’t cut it. We need to start to address the root causes of this ongoing gender inequalities. We need to make genuine concerted efforts to increase women’s participation in political and corporate leadership. Change starts to happen when there is a critical mass of women in leadership positions.
Having 4 female senators out of 109 senators won’t move the needle for us. As long as one group is under-represented, they will try to survive the best way they can, which is to assimilate or play the oppressor’s game. In the end, the few women who make it to the table will continue to be regarded as unqualified nods to diversity, who should be grateful for receiving crumbs and squashed when they try to assert themselves.
So, while we acknowledge the little representation we have at the moment, we need to ensure that we get more women into leadership positions. We need more women who will support, mentor, sponsor and speak-up for women. Just as men open the doors for other men without thinking twice, women need to unapologetically do the same for other women. And when we get those opportunities, we need to stop feeling that we should be 110% qualified before we accept them (men don’t operate that way).
When we are in those leadership positons, we need to wield our intellect and competency with pride and confidence. We need to speak up and take-up space. We need to ask the hard questions. We need to ignore those suggestions to be seen and not heard, be well-behaved ladies, and in short, supress all those qualites of ours that are our magic super-powers.
We are women and we are beautiful and special in our complex, multi-dimensional glory. Let’s claim that power, because it’s not going to be handed to us.
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