The vote of confidence passed in the leadership of Senate President Godswill Akpabio last Thursday was only a reflection of the tension that has engulfed the legislative body following the outbursts of Mrs Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.

The action of a parliament passing a vote of confidence in the leadership is normally a design for parliamentary democracies. However, over time in Nigeria, where the presidential system is our style, time and again, we have seen embattled leaderships of the National Assembly force lawmakers to invoke confidence votes to project political verve.

On April 13, 2000, at the height of the crisis in the Chuba Okadigbo leadership, the Senate passed a vote of confidence in the leadership of the Anambra State-born Senate President.

Four months later, the same Okadigbo was removed as Senate President in a way that brought to question the whereabouts of the spirit that inspired the earlier confidence vote.

Though the lawmakers who passed the confidence vote in Akpabio last Thursday did not mention it, they were undoubtedly troubled by the legitimacy questions that have recently enveloped the Senate following the Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan saga.

That legitimacy question followed the sexual harassment allegation raised against Akpabio by Akpoti-Uduaghan. The Senate’s response was to suspend her, citing sundry offences bordering on an alleged lack of respect for the institution.

The suspension was particularly vicious, and the constraints placed on her were severe.

They barred her from ever presenting herself anywhere as a senator. However, the woman who wrestled two of the most pugnacious political actors to have come out of Kogi State in modern times – Yahaya Bello and Dino Melaye – was not one to be deterred.

Hours after she was barred from ever presenting herself as a senator, Akpoti-Uduaghan was at an event of the International Parliamentary Union, IPU, where she told the whole world the story that the Senate had constrained her from presenting.

The emotive narration of Akpoti-Uduaghan before the IPU was so touching that the president of the IPU, Tulia Ackson, said that the body would have to take Akpabio’s side before taking a position on the matter.

After Akpoti-Uduaghn took the case to the IPU it was not difficult for some Nigerians to attack her for externalising what should have been the internal affairs of the country.


https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/03/immigration-journey-a-complex-emotional-ride/