“If we were planning to send the clear and chilling message to our young ladies, our children and grandchildren, who face sexual harassment on a regular basis, to shut up, suffer in silence, raise no alarm, suffer humiliation and retaliation quietly, we couldn’t have chosen a better case to make the point than the Natasha-Akpabio Scandal.”
That in the year 2025, a powerful lady, a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Natasha Akpoti-Udanghan, who is also married to a highly influential husband, and who just as she released a bombshell alleging being sexually harassed by the senate president, was suspended for six months, marks a sad day for women’s right and their bodily autonomy in our country. To add insult to injury, this national show of shame occurs only hours away from March 8th, the International Women’s Day.
We do not need research statistics to tell us that sexual harassment and sexual exploitation of women in Nigeria is a true epidemic. We all know it in our daily and past lived experience.
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In a study by Owoaje ET, and Olusola-Taiwo O. titled “Sexual harassment experiences of female graduates of Nigerian tertiary institutions” and published in the 2009-2010 edition of International Quarterly of Community Health Education, the authors reported that majority (69.8%) of the respondents had been sexually harassed, with the main perpetrators being male classmates and lecturers. About two-thirds experienced the non-physical type of sexual harassment; 48.2% experienced the physical type. Non-physical harassment included sexual comments (57.8%) and requests to do something sexual in exchange for academic favors (32.2%). Physical forms of sexual harassment included unwanted sexual touching (29.4%) and being intentionally brushed against in a sexual way (28.9%). The effects experienced by victims were depression and perceived insecurity on campus. Sexual harassment is not just a common occurrence confined to Nigerian tertiary institutions, it is prevalent across the society, in the workplace, houses of worship and in everyday living, including women just walking in the street when men often feel entitled to make sly and sexually demeaning comments and sometimes unwanted physical touching.
Sadly, in our patriarchal male-dominated misogynistic society, victims of sexually harassment who are predominantly women are often shamed, intimidated, disbelieved and revictimized.
That same scenario would seem to be playing out in the high profile allegation of sexual harassment levelled by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan against one of the most powerful men in Nigerian politics, the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
Let me state here that I take no side on the guilt or innocence nor on the veracity or falsehood of the allegation by the senator. Just as sexual harassment is extremely damaging to its victim, in the same manner, false accusation of sexual harassment can cause tremendous and sometimes irreparable reputational and psychological damage to the falsely accused.
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Until a few days ago when the story broke, I had never heard the name of Senator Akpoti-Udanghan. My position has nothing to do with her public profile nor position. My position would have remained the same even if she were a pepper seller. The good news about the sad situation is that it enabled her to beam a bright light on the ugly side of our society, our pervasive problem with sexual exploitation and harassment of women to which we have played the ostrich with its head in the sand for a very long time.
“Many on social media have suggested that the lady senator bore a higher burden of proof because ostensibly she had made similar allegations before as if sexual harassment was a one time affair. Yet, no one has suggested that because Senator Akpabio had been accused before, he automatically should be presumed guilty which would be equally as ridiculous as the position many have taken against Senator Natasha.”
In a case of sexual harassment, neutrality is absolutely essential. Both the accused and the accuser must be afforded the same right and no one should be placing a finger on the scale of justice no matter who is involved. In this case, we are not just talking about a finger on the scale of justice but the full weight and force of the powerful senate is being applied punitively against a fellow senator who has come forward with an allegation against one of the most powerful men in the country. If we were planning to send the clear and chilling message to our young ladies, our children and grandchildren, who face sexual harassment on a regular basis, to shut up, suffer in silence, raise no alarm, suffer humiliation and retaliation quietly, we couldn’t have chosen a better case to make the point than the Natasha-Akpabio scandal.
Now, the accusing Senator Natasha is facing her night of long knives with her colleagues, women pressure groups, and socio-cultural association coming after her to assault her reputation, including insinuation that she was a woman with loose moral who has had six children from six different husbands! Yet official records shows she only has three children. Even if it were true that she has six children from six husbands, what business of ours is that? Does that fact only give anyone a license to sexually harrass her?
Her case, not surprisingly, has become a cause célèbre, a soap opera made for TV. In the process the opportunity that this high profile case presents for us as a society to face our national shame in the epidemic of sexual harassment and exploitation of women is being frittered away.
Sexual harassment is one of the most insidious, most embarrassing situation a woman can face. Sadly, it often boils down to ‘he says she says’ as only the two involved often know. Our society has so much sexually objectified our women that most victims of sexual harassment are too ashamed to talk. Women often get re-victimized, or blamed for dressing provocatively and hence blamed for their abuse. We all are aware of this but we only choose to play the ostrich game.
Our society often gives the men the benefit of the doubt. Sadly, it is not unusual for fellow women to join in the attack of the accuser. Many on social media have suggested that the lady senator bore a higher burden of proof because ostensibly she had made similar allegations before as if sexual harassment was a one time affair. Yet, no one has suggested that because Senator Akpabio had been accused before, he automatically should be presumed guilty which would be equally as ridiculous as the position many have taken against Senator Natasha.
With her suspension now, many would see it as an attempt to shut her up. Not only that her constituency would be denied her representation in the senate. Yes, rules must be enforced but the legal system is not a blind robotic instrument of punishment. In this circumstance, hiding behind the rule to yank off a senator who has just accused the senate president, who is nothing more than the first among equals having just been elected like any other senator, smarks of intimidation and abuse of power and procedure.
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This will send a chilling message to our daughters and granddaughters. It is a sad day for women’s right, for women sexual and body autonomy and their protection from coercive sexual harassment, abuse of power and sexual exploitation. One can only hope that society with one voice will say enough already. Sexual harassment is a malignancy that our society must attack frontally. Pressure must be mounted on the senate to recall the senator and to allow due process to take place and if she is found to have made a false accusation, the full force of the law should be applied against her. Making false allegation of sexual is destructive to the victims, because it creates the atmosphere of the boy who cries wolf the next time a true victim comes out to lodge a complaint.
Adewale Alonge, PhD, is Founder & President, Africa Diaspora Partnership for Empowerment and Development. www.adped.org
