In a time long gone, the wife of a very important man accused a not too important one of sexual harassment and got him imprisoned on a false charge. That woman was the wife of the Captain of Guards in Pharaoh’s army, Potiphar. Though she was not named in the Bible, the Quran identifies her as Zuleikha.
In the very instructive story, the Quran notes that Zuleikha is given the opportunity to repent and confess publicly but it was left unsaid whether she did accept the opportunity for clemency.
So it was for the Senator representing Kogi Central in Nigeria’s Senate, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan who has created an uproar across the country over her salacious claim that Senate President Godswill Akpabio sexually harassed her and her refusal to his advances has led to victimization, intimidation and exclusion from effective parliamentary endeavour.
The reverberations of her allegation has been no less like that of Zuleikha, Potiphar’s wife of that era. How dare a commoner, a servant look upon the wife of the Captain of Guards of the Supreme Pharaoh. Only that it was a lie. A malicious effort to denude, incarcerate and end the promising career of Joseph in the palace of Pharaoh. As it was over 4, 000 years ago, so it is evident now.
Senator Natasha in her blinded rage to do the Senate President in could simply not adhere to the very rules a lawmaker ought to obey in order to be positioned to make laws for the country.
To begin with, it is the prerogative of the Senate President to allocate seats to senators according to the Senate Standing Rules of 2015 as Amended.
For the avoidance of doubt, it states: Order 11 Rule 1 of the Senate Standing Order gives the senate president the power to allocate seats to senators.
Rule 2 says a senator “may only speak from the seat allocated to him, provided that the President of the Senate may change the allocation from time to time”.
So, to begin with, Senator Natasha was amiss in her attempt to speak from a seat that was not hers. Rather than act like a distinguished lawmaker, she descended into motor park behaviour; uncontrollable, wild and unbecoming.
It was evident that it was all theatre and to gain sympathy and see to the fall of a man whose powers she lusts for, she went on a sordid offensive not on the floor of the hallowed chambers of the Senate, rather on national TV to concoct, charm the gullible and sully the senate president because it is fitting to give a dog a bad name, not that the senate president is one, in order to hang it.
If anything, it further emerged that all the while she has been in the Upper Legislative Chamber for nearly two years, it has been to wear make-up, entertain Nigerians with her pretty face like Nneka the Pretty Serpent in the old engaging Nollywood movie, without having any understanding of the rules of where she was sent to.
Again, she failed a simple litmus of how to present her petition of Zuleikha-like allegations against Senate President Godswill Akpabio. Rather than have a counsel sign the petition sign it for her, she signed it herself and it was fittingly consigned to the waste bin.
It is instructive to state that Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan isn’t new to making outlandish claims, allegations and accusations. She had previously alleged sexual harassment against a former aide to President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokiri. When the accused presented irrefutable evidence that she was a liar and blackmailer, she sought behind-the-scene settlement to avoid being dragged to court.
During her campaign for the senatorial seat and owing to differences with her then Governor of Kogi state, Yahaya Bello, the whining accuser that she has become threw up the same allegations of sexual harassment and intimidation. Well, like previous fabrications, she could not substantiate her claims.
It becomes imperative to ask what constitutes sexual harassment or overtures when the victim or offended does not draw her dislike or disdain to the alleged perpetrator’s attention? In the Natasha matter, it is even ridiculous that by her admittance, she did not confide in her husband, Alema Emmanuel Uduaghan, when he queried her on her interaction with the Senate President at a certain occasion. Natasha cannot be taken as a witness of truth, rather a modern day Potiphar’s wife to undo any man that she cannot bend to her will.
Individuals like Senator Natasha abound everywhere. They cook up sexual allegations against the rich and powerful when they can’t have their way. U.S Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was faced no less similar allegation of sexual assault.
Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump’s defense secretary, was assailed and accused against on his rise to the apogee of power. These men like Senate President Akpabio would now be haunted by the memory of false accusations. It is all-too-familiar. And because people like Natasha are persuaded that they are gullible and misguided citizens who would buy into their motions of fancy, they are buoyed to remain adamant and insistent on the false charge.
In a setting, especially in the court of public opinion, which is to believe all women, there is the urgency for greater circumspection. For many a man, “if you call a women a liar, even if you didn’t do [what you’re being accused of], you’re guilty of calling a woman a liar, so there’s no way out.
If you don’t deny it, you’re thought to be guilty. If you do deny it, you’ve committed an additional political sin, so it’s a trap. And for a woman whose virtue is a subject of controversy, it is easy to see why Senator Natasha should not be taken seriously as she lacks the defining character, temperament and history of truthfulness, trust and uprightness.
Like the Senate Leader Bamidele Opeyemi noted on Thursday, the six months suspension slammed on her by the Senate should be one of sober reflection, knowledge gaining and spiritual purification, until then her attempt like Potiphar’s wife has failed and will remain so.
*Adeiza writes from Lokoja, Kogi State
