By Abraham Ogbodo
I had had to change my mind when Natasha happened again on Tuesday. My initial plan was to discuss some other aspect of the unending national tragedy. There are always new scenes and new characters too to talk about. Like Carbon atoms, the Natasha Act has a way of bonding with fresh issues to create new scenes. First, it was a security advisory from both the Kogi State Government and the State Police Command cancelling all forms of rally in Okene or Kogi Central Senatorial Zone. And that was because the Senator representing the zone, Mrs Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, had given notice of coming home to meet her constituents.
For now, Natasha is like any other woman in the street of Okene. Within the context of our understanding, the prestigious prefix, Senator, is of no direct consequence in the next twenty something weeks at least. She has been suspended for six months from the Senate, beginning March 6, 2025. Her salary, allowances and all privileges including her security aides have been suspended too. All the versions of the story of her suspension have been told over and over again. The Senate has a version called “Breach of Senate Rules.” Natasha herself has a version called “Allegation of Sexual Harassment.” And from both versions, informed and arm-chair commentators have been creating salacious versions of the same story.
But Natasha has remained logically stable and consistent. She has sustained her case with robust intellect, charisma and delivery. She is gallant. Overall, she has displayed the attributes that readily resonate with many Nigerians and which are lacking in her adversaries. She is shining like a thousand stars in a firmament of complete darkness. Yet Natasha has been stripped of all powers. Technically and substantially, she holds and commands nothing outside her person, to constitute a threat to a chicken. But her person is evolving into a weapon of mass destruction. That is the worry of the other side which cannot put a handle on what to do to stop her. She has strengthened into a Category Five Tropical Storm called HURRICANE NATASHA .
Because Natasha was coming and they didn’t want her to come, a curfew was declared in Kogi Central. She was to be physically prevented from entering her ancestral homestead. Perhaps, it was all part of a scheme to remove her from harm’s way. Her constituents are reportedly angry with her and they could kill her. Their grouse is that she was doing what she was not sent to the Senate to do. She was not sent to quarrel with a certain Godswill Akpabio, but to make laws for the benefit of the people of Kogi Central Senatorial Zone. Since the State Government and State Police Command exist to ensure the safety of life and property, stopping Natasha from entering Okene, became a fundamental duty. They did not want her to enter and be slaughtered like a sallah ram by her own people.
The thing about Natasha is that she does not take no for a final answer. She loves to be convinced. But if for any reason, you could not adduce enough reasons to anchor an action against her, for the sake of peace, do not resort to intimidation. If you recall very well, this whole drama started when she was asked to sit elsewhere in the Senate. Natasha is a lawyer. When she asked to be persuaded beyond all reasonable doubts that her sudden relocation from Seat A to Seat X on the floor of the Senate had nothing to do with the expansive libido of Senate President Godswill Akpabio, she was suspended for six months and stripped of all benefits. She was accused of making baseless allegations and also denied an opportunity to prove the allegations. Instead of persuasion, she was handed intimidation. I should believe that, before now, no Senator knew Natasha beyond being a colleague from Kogi. If they knew that, like gold, Natasha gets finer with trials, they would have sought some excuse to follow the Constitution instead of the so-called Senate’s House Rules in handling her matter. Akpabio himself would have acted differently and instead of tele-guiding her suspension, he would have most probably made her Chairman of the Senate Committee on Oil and Gas, Customs and any other area of the political economy where money flows like the waters of the Niger.
The Senate chose to draw a battle line without a good battle plan. In the contest between the eagle and the snake, the battle space is crucial. On ground, the former does not stand a good chance. To overcome, the eagle redraws the combat space and takes the snake off the ground into the air. This is exactly what Natasha has been doing so well since her battle with the Senate started. On her trip home for instance, while the enforcers secured all the entry points on land into Kogi Central, Natasha chose to drop from the sky. It encapsulates the frustrations of a babalawo who had laid in wait for his charm to impact. Instead of walking through the minefield, the target drove past in a car and crushed the spell. The spectacle of a descending chopper in a programmed submission to gravity amid an organic crowd of supporters and well wishers spoke volumes. The point was so eloquently made and Natasha didn’t have to address her supporters on anything. She stood tall against her diminished traducers.
The lie about her recall by her constituents was exploded. If anything, her constituents were itching to reinforce and not to recall her. And they had the opportunity last Tuesday to make it happen. It doesn’t matter what Yahaya Bello or INEC has been programmed to achieve. The fact remains that within that cartographic and geo-political space called Kogi Central Senatorial Zone, Natasha is the undisputed queen. She is the Amazon who leads her troops from the front. She is right in saying she is a free born and that nobody can stop her from going home to see her people. She is not banished from home also. She is only suspended by the Senate which does not amount to suspension from Kogi Central.
In 1993, the year of the failed presidential election that sparked off the epic struggle for the realisation of this current democracy, Natasha was only 14 years old. She did not even vote in that election. She was disenfranchised by age. Voting age in Nigeria is 18 years and above. She was nowhere close to the theatre of operation when people like Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Kayode Fayemi, Bayo Onanuga, Adams Oshiomhole and others in this character range were fighting for democracy. These ones were crowned champions and defenders of democracy back then by Nigerians. The demons of democracy were persons who stood against democracy. They used to be very many until Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who is still standing after causing the presidential election in 1993 to fail, came out recently to say that it was only Sani Abacha, who died in 1998, that was a demon of democracy.
That point by IBB has become very stale actually. There has been a great deal of morphing and the dividing line between the yesteryears defenders and destroyers of democracy is imperceptible. There appears to be no champions anymore but demons who operate this democracy from law making through law interpretation to law execution. This is the reason Natasha is appearing attractive. She has a small anointing to cast out demons and her crowd is increasing with every of her crusade to dethrone the demons. In a Senate where compromise is a style or virtue and incompetence a duty, the modest gains of little Natasha are already looking superfluous. If you ask me, I would suggest a clear understanding of the etymology of the word SENATE as a requirement for intending Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is a derivative of the word senior, senescent, both of which are firmly rooted in the Latin word, Senex . It means the Senate is a place for stable, sensible and tested men and women. It is an assembly of persons who have been conditioned by age and experience to understand the real meaning of service to the fatherland. The Senate is not an arena for hustlers and students activists hunting for cheap fortune.
The French Revolution had marked a turning point in world history. It was the singular event that impacted political cultures in continental Europe. It touched off a steady drift from feudalism and absolute monarchy to parliamentary democracy. But somewhere along the line, the planners of the revolution, like the hitherto champions of democracy in Nigeria, lost focus and drifted into an attrition that got almost all of them consumed. This created the leeway for the emergence of a military upstart called Napoleon Bonaparte to chart an entirely different direction for France. Instead of seriousness, the victory of democracy has come with a complacency, almost an affliction, that is pushing the nation to the precipice. Truth be told, where we are in Nigeria today with democracy is not looking good at all. Might is overwhelming the rule of law. This is what Natasha is saying.
Before I forget, let me quickly add that I have another perfect reason to support Natasha. I be Warri boy . She is our wife and we are very proud of her. We don’t like any randy ette playing around our wife. Natasha has been able to prioritize her needs. She places higher premium on her right to free expression than her right to the Senate seat. She should be allowed to breathe. Everybody must not bond with the devil to eat in coven. I can say for sure that if the choices become binary, she will vote to forgo the Akpabio-led Senate to express freely on behalf of other women in Nigeria. Natasha is made of a sterner stuff. Her Salary in the Senate, including all allowances, is about N14 million a month. That is not enough to compel her type to eat from the witch’s pot. Her Kogi Central constituency is gradually enlarging into a constituency of the entire country. If this Godswill Akpabio’s Senate keeps saying no to her, Nigerians, especially Nigerian women, shall say yes and appropriate her as a Senator representing all the oppressed people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
And paying her salary and allowances does not look like a problem. If each of us contributes just N100, we shall raise in one swoop, enough to pay her N14 million monthly salary for a life time even if she were to live above 100 years.
Last warning. Hurricane Natasha has not dissipated. She is still hanging and wrecking, threatening to make a landfall. Nothing stands in the way of a ferocious hurricane. Those standing in her path are advised, in their own interest, to shift positions and make way for her.
