By Tonye Clinton Jaja
Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan is trending today because of one act of boldness and courage that she displayed on 20th February 2025.
Her display of courage and boldness on the said date against the tyranny of the leadership style of senate President Godswill Obot Akpabio-GOA is what has made Senator Natasha to enter the annals of contemporary Nigerian history!!!
Before Senator Natasha, there are other Senators that have been suspended by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
None of them has raised as much dust as the suspension of Senator Natasha.
Due to her standing up, Nigerians are beginning to question the tyrannical style of leadership of GOA and his cohorts such as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions!!!
In the year 2024, when Senator Abdul Ningi was suspended by GOA and the Senate (for speaking the truth that ₦3trn was illegally and corruptly inserted-budget padding-by his fellow Senators), Nigerians did not raise the level of outcry that they are now raising because of the suspension of Senator Natasha!!!
Socio-Economic Rights Project (SERAP) and Femi Falana, SAN (just to mention a few), have written to GOA and the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria demanding the lifting of the suspension of Senator Natasha otherwise they plan to file lawsuits!!!
All these did not happen by chance, it happened because Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan herself took the first bold step and courageous action of speaking up against the tyranny and leadership style of GOA on 20th February 2025.
The lesson learned is that “heaven helps those who help themselves” as the popular saying goes!!!
As she admitted during a live interview on ARISE TV, sometime in February 2025, she was forewarned by Senator Abba Moro on the morning of 20th February 2025 that GOA and the leadership of the Senate had set a trap for her by using the ruse of the new seating arrangements to entrap Senator Natasha on the said date!!!
She could have quietly complied and nobody would have had a glimpse into the tyrannical leadership style of GOA, which according to her breeds a culture of silence and fear amongst the senators who are afraid to speak out!!!
According to Senator Natasha, on the WhatsApp platform (from which she was removed even before the announcement of her suspension) of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, senators only post complimentary comments about GOA and nothing else!!! No Senator dares to write anything that questions any decision of GOA!!!
In the face of the knowledge that GOA and the leadership of the Senate had set a trap against her on 20th February 2025, the boldness and courage that Senator Natasha displayed is akin to the words and actions of Queen Esther of the Bible!!!
For the benefit of those who are Muslims or not conversant with the Bible, let me provide a brief background.
Queen Esther is a Jewish woman who married the King A·has·u·eʹrus, the King of the Medians and Persia.
Queen Esther was informed by her uncle that there was a plot to exterminate all the Jews that resided within the Kingdom of Media and Persia.
Queen Esther displayed the same kind of courage that Senator Natasha displayed by saying that she would go into the presence of the king uninvited to discuss the rescue of the Jews.
Under the laws of the Kingdom of Media and Persia, it was considered a crime punishable by death to walk into the presence of the King without a prior invitation from the King himself.
So Queen Esther took a risk by walking into the presence of the King without his prior invitation.
In doing so she uttered the profound words that appear in the title or heading of this article when she said: “
I will go in to the king, which is against the law, and if I am to perish, I will perish”.
Below is a reproduction of the entire conversation at Esther 4:14 and 15:
“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another source, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether it is for a time like this that you have attained to your royal status?”
15 Then Esther replied to Morʹde·cai: 16 “Go, gather all the Jews who are found in Shuʹshan and fast in my behalf. Do not eat or drink for three days, night and day. I along with my female attendants will also fast. I will go in to the king, which is against the law, and if I am to perish, I will perish.”
The story of Queen Esther as found in the Bible, is something that Governor Fubara ought to find time to read and re-read during this period that he is facing all manner of threats of impeachment and all!!
Bearing in mind that even “equity aids the vigilant not the indolent!!!
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja,
Executive Director,
Nigerian Law Society (NLS).
