The Chairperson of Senate Committee on Women Affairs, Senator Ireti Kingibe, on Friday, told Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan that all Senators are bound to follow Senate rules.
Reacting to the shouting match involving Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, on seating arrangement, Kingibe, while appearing on Arise TV on Friday, carpeted the Kogi Senator, saying she doesn’t follow the Senate rules.
She said the three other female senators have been silent about the seating arrangement row because they don’t want to say anything negative about Natasha.
“Silence is golden, especially when one of us is not following the rules, and as women, we did not want to come out publicly to say anything negative about her, and we were hoping all of this will blow over, as a lot of things do,” the Labour Party Senator said.
She added, “The Senate is not a place to fight over trivialities like seating arrangements.”
According to Kingibe, Natasha was not the only lawmaker whose seat was moved. She disclosed that other lawmakers were affected by the seating reassignment.
“This is about the rules of the Senate. Others were moved several times on that day. I wasn’t there, but I gathered that several men were also moved,” she said.
Kingibe admitted that the Senate is not gender-friendly, but she said the situation has improved.
She said: “The truth of the matter is, yes, the Senate is not gender friendly, but it has been improving much better than when we first entered the Senate, I must say. And the truth of the matter is, when we make a fuss and draw the attention of the Senate President, he corrects it. Truly, the Senate can do better than it is doing, but there’s hardly anything that’s been done to us that’s not done to other men”.
Kingibe appealed to women, saying, “I want women to know we have to follow the rules of the institution we choose to enter, and that is mostly the point of this visit here”.
