Natasha, Akpabio and the Senate, by Chris Adetayo

The problem with getting into this Akpabio/Senate vs Natasha imbroglio is that both sides have taken multiple wrongful steps. In the process, any fair minded commentary will seem like one is on the fence or one is hedging.

I do not agree with the Senate summarily suspending her, and doing so for 6 months – including denying her all the rights and privileges that come with position. That’s Legislative Authoritarianism. She is not representing herself in the Senate. She is representing a Constituency. There is no need to shut the door on millions of her Constituents!!

I also do not agree with those seeking the resignation of the Senate President over the allegations. To back their claim, they have often quoted the natural justice rule that a man shall not preside over his own case. But they forget the maxim that a man is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Until an allegation is proven, it will be wrong to punish.

What should happen is that for each occasion that the matter comes up, the Senate President should not preside over the matter. That ensures that he is not the judge in his case, while preserving his own right to be considered innocent until proven guilty.

I accept that Senator Natasha did not follow the procedure for tendering her petition. Having rectified that error and re-presented, I believe that the Senate should have allowed it’s Committee to then hear the matter, take representations and evidences from both sides, and then submit its report for the whole Senate to consider (with the Deputy Senate President presiding).

It is only after all of these has happened that the Senate should then separately consider if Senator Natasha brought the Senate into disrepute.

My sense also is that Senator Natasha showed her naivety in the handling of the matter. Legislators enjoy Parliamentary Privileges, one of which enables them to say anything on the floor of the parliament without legal consequences. Instead of going to AriseTv, she should have used the Senate platform for this in the first instance.

All told, lessons for all sides to learn. Even while we await more episodes from what has become the Content Creation Senate!