The Nigerian Senate last week found Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduagban guilty of “bringing the presiding officer and the entire senate to public opprobrium.” The “presiding officer” she brought to “public opprobrium” was no other person than the big man who delivered the judgement, Godswill Akpabio. It was a first in how not to run a trial. The most clownish of circuses will bow for Akpabio and his senate for staging that abject drama.
Because dawn met me in one of the most traditional of the Yoruba society, I always run back to the treasure trove of memory whenever I see strange things like what Akpabio’s senate did last week.
Our ancestors had a deep sense of commitment to justice devoid of personal gains. They were people with a sense of self-worth and shame. I witnessed a traditional court sitting at an early age. The story is worth telling here because of its relevance to the strangeness of this era.
I should not have been at the palace that day. Two things took me to that day’s sitting of my town’s traditional court. One was curiosity; the desire to know things that were ordinarily of no importance to my agemates then. The second was the tutelage of a cousin and mentor who ensured that I was introduced to community ‘politics’ almost in my cradle.
The court sat with the full complement of Onísè-in-Council in attendance. Oba Ojo Olúyèye Òjoyèbugiòtèwó (He who ascends the throne and uproots the tree of conspiracy) was on his throne. His Second-in-Command, the Aláùn was seated.
Several cases were listed on the palace cause list. The number one case, the one which led to my curiosity about coming to the palace that day, involved an older cousin, a male. He was alleged to have put one equally known town-sister in the family way. The ‘anti’ involved is from Ònà, precisely, Ilise, the unit that produces the Onísè. In essence, being from the royal quarters, the ‘anti’ is a princess.
The Onísè (the oba) was the presiding officer, the Chief Justice of the town. The place ‘court registrar’ called the cause list. The two parties stepped forward and genuflected according to their sexes. Chief Aláùn asked the complainant, the ‘anti’, to step forward further and state her case. She knelt and greeted Kabiyesi and the chiefs.
As she was about to speak, Chief Obadòfin stood up and stopped her. He turned to Kabiyesi and greeted him, calling him by his praise name, Amélilájetùotùo (he who eats the entire cow with its horns). Then he said: “Kabiyesi, you cannot sit in judgment over this matter. The girl involved is your daughter, a princess, from Ilise. Aláùn cannot also sit because the girl is also his daughter.”
There was complete silence. Chief Obadòfin continued: “I too, alongside Chief Alárà and Chief Ajaùbí, can also not sit over this matter because the boy involved is our son from Òtún. I just want to point this out.” He chanted some other Kabiyesi’s cognomen and sat down.
The oba sighed. The crowd chorused “Kabiyesi!” He turned to his chiefs and said: “Obadòfin is right. There is no partiality in the palace. Alámìrò, and Obamìlà, please take over and call us when you are through with the case.”. He got up. All the chiefs did. Kabiyesi led the way to the inner recess of the palace. Chiefs Aláùn, Obadòfin, Alárà and Ajaùbi followed.
After their exit, Chief Alámìrò took over. Together with Chief Obamìlà and other palace chiefs present, the matter was decided. Before the next case was called, a chief was sent to call Kabiyesi and his other Iwarefa. They came out and Kabiyesi was briefed about how the matter was decided. The king sealed it with the pronouncement: “Let it be as it was decided.” The town chorused “Kabiyesi”, again. Then Oba Olúyèye Òjoyèbugiòtèwó continued with the remaining cases on the cause list.
This incident happened over 40 years ago. The two principal parties involved in this story are alive. Oba Olúyèye Òjoyèbugiòtèwó was not the direct father of the female party. Still, because the female party is from the same quarters as the king, Oba Olúyèye Òjoyèbugiòtèwó traditionally ‘recused’ himself from the matter. All other chiefs who also had direct and indirect relationships with the respondent also stepped down from the traditional bench.
You can now see how shocked anyone familiar with the principle of checks and balances embedded in the black man’s well-ordered justice system would be at what the Senate did last week.
The black man’s judicial system was established on the tripod of fairness, equity and justice. That was long before the Romans came up with the fairness principle of Nemo judex in causa sua (no man may be a judge in his own cause).
The underpinning principle of our traditional jurisprudence is the quest to eliminate any shade of unfairness in the dispensation of justice. Civilisation began with our forebears; long before the advent of today’s ‘civilisation’.
In the story above, you will observe that only those chiefs whose judgment would not be perceived as being coloured were allowed to adjudicate in the matter. Interestingly, not even one of the chiefs mentioned above was an educated man. They were all pastoral people, the best of them a cocoa merchant! That is the African traditional setting in its most just element. Judicial recusal is as old as humanity in Africa. Nobody teaches it; it is congenitally given!
The last two weeks have not been too rosy for the Senator Godswill Akpabio-led Senate. The Red Chamber has been in the news for the wrong reasons. The event climaxed on Thursday last week when the chamber had every opportunity to change its negative narratives to positive ones. Expectedly, the Nigerian Senate failed to seize the opportunity to redeem its battered image.
Did Senator Akpabio beat his chest after last Thursday’s plenary? Did he click wine tumblers; did he exchange banter? Did he celebrate the suspension of his accuser, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan?
Last Thursday, it was another day that the Nigerian lawmakers scored a new low. The Senate proceedings of that day, after which Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan was suspended, it was the day the accused sat in judgment over his accuser! It can only happen in the Senate of Akpabio.
Akpoti-Uduaghan had, penultimate week, had an altercation with the senate President over the change of her seat. The Kogi Central senator, on national television, accused the Senate President of s3xual harassment. She followed it up with a written petition to the Senate.
The world waited for what the Senate would do. The petition was declared “dead on arrival” by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics. Then Akpoti-Uduaghan was taken before the same committee for violating the Senate Rules. The committee sent out a notice that it would decide the matter on Wednesday, March 12, 2025.
Then something happened. Without any communication with other members of the committee, the chairman, Senator Nelda Imasuen of Edo South, changed the ‘trial’ date. The committee sat on Wednesday, March 5, and found Akpoti-Uduaghan guilty of all charges!
With Senator Akpabio, the man accused of sexual harassment presiding, the Senate ‘unanimously’ adopted the prayer that Akpoti-Uduaghan be suspended, her salary stopped, her office closed, and her aides and security withdrawn. All the senators that spoke had one unkind word for Natasha! Terrible. The same Senate, which rejected Akpoti-Uduaghan’s petition on the grounds that the matter was a subject of litigation before a court, went ahead to suspend the senator despite a court order that nothing should be done until the matter brought before it by Akpoti-Uduaghan was determined!
I watched the suspension of Akpoti-Uduaghan, and my heart bled for Nigeria! I saw how the Senate sergeant-at-arm moved to evict the female senator from the chamber. I held my breath as the Kogi senator uttered the profound words: “This injustice will not be sustained”, and how someone switched off the microphone! I wonder who we are as a people. I queried how we got to this level, 26 years after we started a new democratic journey.
The Senate said before Akpoti-Uduaghan would be recalled or her six-month suspension reduced, she must tender a written apology. Funny!
If for anything, the speed with which the Nelda-led Committee on Ethics dispensed with the Akpoti-Uduaghan and Akpabio matter calls for concern.
We should therefore search no further why, despite our efforts at charting a new course for Nigeria, where every citizen will have a complete sense of protection from any infraction, we have not been able to make any meaningful progress.
As the ‘yeah’ voice vote on the Akpoti-Uduaghan matter reverberates, even now, in my hearing, the only wish I have is a voyage back to our not-too-long past, the era of Oba Ojo Olúyèye Òjoyèbugiòtèwó, when justice was dispensed with every sense of morality and fairness!
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and then