Senators Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and Godswill Akpabio’s spat over seat arrangements shouldn’t be boiled down to a gender issue, according to former Edo State Deputy Governor Philip Shaibu.
Speaking on Wednesday, Shaibu asserted that federal parliamentarians’ seats and positions are privileges rather than rights. He said federal MPs need to lobby for seats and posts.
From June 2015 until March 2016, the former deputy governor served as the representative for the Etsako Federal constituency in the National Assembly. He was a lawmaker at the Edo state House of Assembly for eight years prior to that.
Shaibu said, “Interestingly, Natasha is my friend. Senator Akpabio, the president of the Senate, is my political leader.”
“There are rules guiding the House. When I was in the National Assembly, it was the prerogative of the leadership of the House to allocate office and to allocate seats, and in the House, there is what is called lobbying; you lobby for everything.”
He said, “For you to have a good office when you come in, maybe because of my experience as a two-term member of Edo State House of Assembly, when I came to Abuja from day 1, I went quickly to lobby, to check the kind of offices that they have areas and locations.”
“I was able to lobby to have my office close to where I wanted it, I was able to hurriedly lobby for where I wanted to sit. Whereas some people who are coming for the first time did not know that you lobby for things like that.”
“There are rules; the rules of the House if clear and you must be guided by them, it doesn’t mean whether you are a man or a woman. The rules are meant for the House.”
“The issue of seats and offices are a privilege. For me, I don’t think this is a gender thing; I think there is a miscommunication somewhere and we should abide by the rules of the House, and the rules are clear and the rules are not meant for women nor are they meant for men.”
In July 2024, Akpabio apologized to Akpoti-Uduaghan for his nightclub remark against the female lawmaker. On February 20, 2025, the senator from Kogi Central Senatorial District, Akpoti-Uduaghan, rejected her assigned seat in the red chamber and contested the Senate President’s order.
The female senator accused the senate president of harassment and slammed a N100 billion alleged defamation suit against him, while the Akpabio-led upper legislative chamber referred her to the senate disciplinary committee.
