A former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has criticized the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, while reacting to a chart showing African countries with the highest number of women in their parliaments.
The chart, compiled by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), ranks Rwanda, Senegal, and South Africa in the top three positions. Nigeria, however, is placed at 180th, with only 4.4 per cent of its parliamentary seats occupied by women.
In a social media post, Ezekwesili linked Nigeria’s poor ranking to the way Akpabio allegedly treats women in the Senate.
“Look at how even war-torn Congo is way above Nigeria, which sits at the lowest position in this ranking of countries based on the number of women in parliament. Connect the dots to the appalling behavior of men like @Senator_Akpabio, who specializes in harassing his female colleagues over whom the Constitution gives him no authority to humiliate as he pleases,” she wrote.
She further emphasized the need for Nigeria to address what she described as the “terrible data” of only 4.4 per cent female representation in the National Assembly.
Ezekwesili’s remarks come just days after the Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Diaspora and Non-Governmental Organisations, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, confronted Akpabio over a new sitting arrangement in the Senate chambers.
The confrontation led to a heated exchange, with Akpoti-Uduaghan raising her voice after Akpabio refused to acknowledge her contribution at plenary because she was not speaking from the new seat assigned to her.
