Of course, it’s bad faith begetting bad faith. But let no one forget who started it all. The Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan senatorial saga just notched a new plot.
On the surface, the embattled senator’s six-month suspension, for breaching Senate rules, is over. But she cannot return for now — at least, says the Senate management — because the matter is sub judice.
Natasha had been three-quarter worsted in a suit with which she challenged her suspension. Three-quarters, because, the court only reasoned that her six-month suspension might have been excessive — not because of any redemptive behaviour from Natasha, but because her suspension had put her constituents in jeopardy.
Even then, the court didn’t order her recall. It only appealed to the Senate to reconsider the length. Indeed, the court held that Natasha was validly suspended for breaching the rules — refusing to move seats when directed to do so.
More trouble: the court ordered her to apologize — not to the Senate, but to the court — for guilt over sub judice matters: writing a mock apology letter to the Senate President, in the social media, with the case still running before the court.
But Natasha balked. Instead, she appealled the matter to the Court of Appeal, with the Senate itself doing a cross-appeal. That was the legal reality, when the six months ran out.
So, might Natasha have snared herself in own legal trap? It would seem so — and her nemeses in the chamber would appear savouring the perverse pleasure to see her squirm, in own self-imposed debacle.
Unfortunately, the senator appears unable — in any case, reluctant — to learn from her unforced errors (to borrow that tennis term), as she recklessly plays in the court of social media.
To her, there is no shortage of bad advice. Her so-called elders and supporters seem utterly useless beyond the delusion of emotional scamming and Aluta agitations on X and sundry social media platforms.
The latest ludicrous sortie is some woman senator from The Gambia, giving a peremptory order to the Nigerian Senate to recall Natasha, pretty much because she’s a woman; and if such is not checked, it could be her — in The Gambia — or other women next time! What feminist carping! How that helps Natasha’s case beggars belief.
You will recall: Natasha too went on such emotive binge to a legislative gathering in New York, under the auspices of the United Nations, spewing an old wives’ tale of her suspension issuing from gender persecution, not from breaching Senate rules. That didn’t get her far, did it? And don’t humans learn from mistakes?
Unfortunately, should the Senate stick to Natasha’s legalism to hang her, it could be morning yet on her suspension day! No one would be blamed but Natasha herself. Refusing that you’re wrong, even if you are, is no virtue.
But maybe there’s another magnanimous way — not for the senator, but for her ill-fated constituents? And shouldn’t Senate membership be made of more mature stuff?
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