By Ikeddy ISIGUZ0
SENATOR Obong Godswill Akpabio, Senate President, who refuses to imagine for a fleeting second that his role as the chief presiding officer gives him no powers to act outside the law, beyond the reaches of his office, or to ignore the law when it pleases him, serves his purpose, and sounds a warning to others that he is a very powerful man.
Akpabio is one to relish the thought that the law was his to interpret. He might be the law for he swings it to what he wants it to be. A smirk marks each of his victories. They are mostly pyrrhic, and their unimportance is lost on Akpabio who is having the time of his life reducing the Senate to his understanding of law and order.
He has spent almost two years reminding us that he is the Senate President all because he has not been able to make a landmark ruling that aligned with the welfare of the people. Last year, the motion to halt further increase on electricity tariffs was one unmissed Akpabio chance to mock suffering Nigerians. “Let the people breath,” he ruled, accompanied with a roaring laughter that denoted that he had awarded life to Nigerians.
When he suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for violating Senate Rules, Akpabio sounded triumphant reading out the verdict of the Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Code of Conduct.
“That the Senate do suspend Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months for her total violation of the Senate Standing Rules (2023 as amended for bringing the presiding officer and the entire Nigerian Senate to public opprobrium,” Senate President Godswill Akpabio ruled on Thursday 6 March 2025 reading from the recommendations of the Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Code of Conduct that probed her claims.
Would Akpabio retrace his steps if he was wrong? There is no chance that he would. Akpabio believes that his status leaves him no time to deal with mere mortals whether they were elected Senators, “court-ordered Senators” like him, his own court judgement all the way from the Supreme Court was uncommon. How would mere mortals, ordinary Nigerians query his decisions?
Akpabio’s aides say he is too busy, too elevated to prattle. Words to that effect were their response to former Vice-President Abubakar Atiku who levied serious allegations against Akpabio.
Senator Natasha’s suspension ended on Thursday 20 March 2025, 8 days ago. Whatever has been happening since then is evidence of the lawlessness of the Senate and its leadership.
The same Senate Rules book from which Akpabio suspended Natasha has 14 days as the maximum number of days that a Senator can be suspended from the National Assembly.
While Akpabio found Natasha’s infractions in the Senate Standing Rules, what provision awarded him the powers to suspend her for six months? What does “total violation” of the Standing Rules mean? Was Natasha being punished for violation or total violation?
Precedents date back to 2010 when a Federal High Court in Abuja ruled that the House of Representatives could not suspend members for more than 14 days. The case involved Dino Melayae and 10 other members.
Justice Dimgba Igwe also ruled in April 2018 that the Senate had no powers to suspend a member for more than 14 days. The case was Ovie Omo-Agege V The Senate which had suspended him for 90 days.
More recently, Senators Ali Ndume and Abdul Ningi were suspended under Akpabio’s leadership, and the courts nullified the suspensions. Ningi had alleged that the Appropriation Committee padded the Appropriation Bill by over N3 trillion.
Order 67(4) of the Senate Rules states that a Senator can only be suspended for a period not exceeding 14 days. What the courts have been doing since 2010 is to draw the attention of the National Assembly to its own law.
Akpabio and the Senate Ethics Committee do not care about Order 67 (4) of the Senate Rules.
Finally…
OUR lawyers are at best quiet, only a few have asked if President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had the powers (under whatever law) to the Supreme Court order on the monthly allocation to Rivers State until it held local government elections, passed a budget through the full membership of the State House of Assembly in session. Reports of the swearing in of the Sole Administrator for Rivers State also detailed that the President had released the State’s allocation to the Sole Administrator. The amount was secret. There was no mention of who passed the budget and the powers with which the President over-ruled the Supreme Court.
THOSE who like imposing “our mother” on people should learn from the incident at the Delta State College of Nursing Sciences, Agbor, when an MC sang for the wife of the President thus, “na our mama be dis. We no get another mama”. He expected the students to join. They rather retorted, “No bi our mama bi dis. Na your mama e bi”. The school authorities queried one of the students, but the State Government asked the school to withdraw the letter, which government said amounted to victimising the student.
WHENEVER the Minister of Power, also known as electricity, Adebayo Adelabu returns from his proposed trip to Egypt to learn about power generation (and hopefully, distribution, tariffs, and the income gaps between Egyptians and Nigerians), he should tell us why it took him two years in office, less five months, to know that there was solution to be found in Egypt. Adelabu used his first year blaming Nigerians for wasting energy that was never supplied. When Peter Obi visited to study Egypt’s electricity after the 2023 election, he was roundedly criticised for being frivolous.
JIMMY Cliff’s 1969 song, Sufferin’ in the Land, and Bob Marley’s, So Much Trouble in the Land, 1979, summarise where we are today. Things are getting tougher but those who should tell us what they are doing about Nigeria, scoff at us, and advise that we should strive for multiple income streams. The suffering in the land is on the increase.
Says Cliff –
It is plain to see we’re in a terrible situation
Sufferin’ in the land
Nearly half of the world on the verge of starvation
Sufferin’ in the land
And the children are crying for more education
Sufferin’ in the land
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer
Sufferin’ in the land
Everything’s gettin’ higher and the time gettin’ tougher
Sufferin’ in the land.
Marley rounds it off:
You see men sailing on their ego trips
Blast off on their spaceships
Million miles from reality
No care for you, no care for me.
To most of those leading and managing Nigeria’s resources, it is anathema to care for the people hence so much trouble in the land.
ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues
