The media has been awash with the name of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduanghan, the upper-chamber lawmaker representing the Kogi Central senatorial district in the Senate, when discussing the struggles faced by women who are determined to thrive in a deeply patriarchal political system like Nigeria’s. 

Her recent struggles started when she voiced her opposition to her alleged accusers and persecutors, to the extent of receiving physical abuse for her defiance. This led to her suspension and subsequent attempts to permanently remove her from the Senate. Her journey as a lawmaker has been anything but smooth, yet she is striving hard to outsmart her opponents, who are not ready to backtrack until she is recalled. 

Her struggles in the Senate began merely with her outspokenness against the repression of her voice after her seat was changed in the red chamber without seeking her consent, leading to a face-off with the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, who insisted that she would not address the house unless she took the new sitting arrangement allotted to her by the leadership of the house. 

Her agitation, which led to a rowdy session in the house, later took a different turn when she made an allegation of sexual harassment against the president of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio. In her claim, her refusal of the advances made by the President of the Senate has birthed the continuous victimisation she faced from the head of the legislative arm of the country. 

Instead of receiving a fair hearing from her colleagues, the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Code of Conduct recommended a six-month suspension for the Kogi senator on procedural grounds of flaunting the rules of the Senate, an action that was welcomed with strong criticisms and described as witch-hunting by the Senate president and his majority loyalists in the Senate, leading Senator Akpoti to approach some international. 

The controversy around her suspension continued to manifest in a heightened form during the subsequent sitting of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Code of Conduct regarding her allegation of sexual harassment against the Senate president, which later ended up in a rowdy session. 

Despite different calls from different organisations, such as women’s rights groups, civil society organisations, international media, and global lawmakers, the move to silence her for being defiant and daring did not stop; instead, a move was made on March 24th, 2025, to recall her from the Senate. 

The attempt to recall the senator came to light when a group that identified itself as Concerned Kogi Youth and Women went to the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to submit a petition to recall Akpoti-Uduanghan as a lawmaker representing their senatorial district. 

Led by Charity Ijoshe Omole, the group, in their letter addressed to the INEC chairman, said the petition was signed by purportedly 250,000 of the 488,000 registered voters in the senatorial districts, claiming that they have lost confidence in her because of her supposed misconduct in the red chamber. 

In response to the recall process, which the Nigerian constitution and INEC guidelines acknowledged was underway, Akpoti-Uduagan decided to return to her senatorial district for a homecoming rally. 

While she was still planning, the Kogi State Government indicated that the planned rally could create tension in the state. In a statement released on Monday by the state commissioner of information, Kingsley Fanwo insisted that the order was “necessitated by intelligence reports indicating that certain individuals are plotting to infiltrate the state under the guise of organising rallies, using fake security personnel to foment trouble and compromise the security of law-abiding citizens of our dear state.” 

More so, the Kogi State Police Command also declared a restriction on the planned rally by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.

In a statement signed by the command spokesperson, SP Williams Ovye-Aya, in Lokoja on Tuesday, on behalf of Kogi Police Commissioner Mr Miller Dantawaye, the police said intelligence reports indicated that some hoodlums planned to hijack the process and cause disturbances of peace in the state. 

While the security of the state was kept tight and tense, Senator Akpoti arrived by helicopter on Tuesday and was given a rousing welcome by her supporters from the five local government areas of Kogi Central Senatorial Districts and the residents of the Ihima community in Okehi Local Government Area of Kogi State, which she represents at the National Assembly. 

In the viral video of the event, the senator was also welcomed with songs and placards with inscriptions like “this injustice will not be sustained”, “Welcome home, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan; we are solidly behind you”, and “Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the people of Kogi Central are behind you.” 

Addressing the crowd, the lawmaker insisted that she remained undaunted despite the threats against her return to her senatorial district, insisting that her knowledge of her origin as a senator was a stronghold for returning to her people. 

“Nobody and nothing can stop me from coming home. I’m an Ebira woman; my homeland is my land. I’m the daughter of the late Jimoh Abdul Akpoti. I know my roots; I’m not a bastard, and I’m not afraid of anybody,” she said.

Meanwhile, her struggles have continued to bear the emblem of the challenges women in the Nigerian political landscape are navigating and the need for the country to lean towards a progressive narrative for an inclusive environment in the country’s governing system. 

More so, despite the reduction of women’s participation and female representation in Nigerian politics, there have been calls from all and sundry to create space for women to operate without fear of intimidation and suppression from the higher political individuals who have harnessed power for themselves to create discouragement for even political participation.