1 month ago
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Former Minister of Education, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, has urged the Nigerian Senate to afloat reconstruct the rights and privileges of the Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, describing her earlier suspension arsenic unjust and discriminatory.
In a station connected X (formerly Twitter) connected Wednesday, Ezekwesili said the lawmaker’s instrumentality to the Senate aft a six-month suspension should service arsenic an accidental for the National Assembly to close what she called “a sedate mistake.”
“It is clip for your enactment and members to bash the close happening — extremity each forms of harassment oregon targeting against her,” she wrote.
“Senator Natasha’s suspension is seen by each tenable Nigerians arsenic an enactment of injustice — 1 that went acold beyond the bounds of just discipline.”
Ezekwesili said Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan had go “a awesome of fortitude and resilience indispensable to combat injustice perpetrated against citizens by those who maltreatment nationalist power.”
She called connected the Senate to halt each “silent punishments” and reinstate Akpoti-Uduaghan’s afloat privileges arsenic a lawmaker.
“Restore her afloat rights and privileges arsenic a Senator — her office, her staff, her committee roles, and her close to talk freely successful the enclosure indispensable beryllium disposable for her to afloat function,” she added.
The erstwhile curate cum activistic further challenged the 10th Senate to acceptable a higher modular of fairness and transparency successful handling interior matters.
“Set a amended example. The Senate indispensable beryllium it tin grip each matters involving idiosyncratic members with maturity and not weaponize nationalist powerfulness to unjustly punish the aggrieved,” she said.
“Show respect for the people’s mandate. Senator Natasha represents the radical of Kogi Central. To people her immoderate further is to disrespect the volition of her voters.”
Ezekwesili noted that the contented transcends Akpoti-Uduaghan’s idiosyncratic case, saying it represents a trial of Nigeria’s committedness to antiauthoritarian values and sex equality.
“This is not lone astir Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan. It is astir what benignant of ideology Nigeria wants to physique — 1 wherever nary 1 is punished for lasting up for the truth, and wherever women tin pb without fearfulness of bias oregon bullying,” she wrote.
She concluded by urging the Senate to show integrity and restraint moving forward.
“Nigerians are watching, and past volition retrieve whether the Senate chose vindictiveness oregon justice,” she said.
LEADERSHIP reports that Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan of the absorption Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) returned to the Senate 2 weeks agone aft serving a six-month suspension pursuing a face-off with the Senate enactment earlier this year.
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