Natasha vs Akpabio: Senate must uphold moral standards — Pastor Bakare

Prominent cleric and former presidential candidate, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has called on the Nigerian Senate to uphold moral standards and defend the integrity of its institution amid allegations of misconduct against Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

In a fiery state of the nation address delivered on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025, at The Citadel Global Community Church, Lagos, Bakare condemned the treatment of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and the actions of certain lawmakers, describing one as an “undistinguished senatorial misfit.”

The outspoken pastor was referring to events at the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions on March 25, where Akpoti-Uduaghan raised allegations of sexual harassment against Senator Akpabio.

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Accompanied by Dr Oby Ezekwesili, who spoke in her capacity as Chairwoman of the Board of Women Political Leaders, Akpoti-Uduaghan allegedly faced intimidation and attempts to silence her.

“There is clear evidence in reports and recordings from the occasion that there were repeated attempts to intimidate and silence Dr. Ezekwesili and her team.

“Senator Onyekachi Nwebonyi’s descent into street-level vitriol was an affront to the essence of the Senate,” Bakare said.

In a stinging rebuke of the legislature, Bakare said, “This National Assembly, the Tenth, has by its unconstitutional endorsement of the president’s abuse of powers proven to be the most spineless in our recent history.”

He accused the Assembly of becoming “the 48th member of the president’s cabinet,” while describing one cabinet minister as “more or less… a third-term state governor in Rivers State, pampered by the indulgences of the president.”

To Senate President Akpabio, Bakare issued a direct challenge: “To the President of the Nigerian Senate who has not heeded the call to subject himself to an unbiased investigation… I leave you and your conscience with the words of Frédéric Bastiat: ‘When plunder becomes a way of life… they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.’”

Also addressing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Bakare did not hold back: “Mr. President, Nigeria is too delicate for this kind of politics.

“If this state capture was what you meant by ‘emi lo kan’, it is an anti-climax that can only be counter-productive at the end.”

He concluded with a call for urgent reform and citizen action, saying, “Citizens must declare a state of emergency on governance, demanding that every aspiring public officeholder undergo rigorous psychiatric evaluation before seeking election.”

Quoting from the Holy Bible, Proverbs 26, Bakare justified Ezekwesili’s response to her critics: “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.”

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