“Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.” 

—Hermann Hesse

By Cosmas Omegoh

Natasha, for short, is the suspended Senator representing Kogi Central in the Senate.

Natasha’s current travails  dominate the social and political spaces without let. Market women are currently talking about her. Nigeria’s burgeoning army of hoi polloi is also doing the same. Natasha is also on the menu of the intelligentsia’s discourse. She keeps gaining traction every step of the way, just as reactions to her acts and activism swirl all around, refusing to stay away – not even in days to come. Natasha keeps dragging people on her trail. No week passes without her in the news as she fights on in all fronts.

Natasha’s most recent travail is the purported move to recall her from the Senate by a section of the Kogi Central she represents.

The effort which is gathering pace is being interpreted by bystanders as politically-motivated.

Some trend watchers see dramatic personae urging on some of Natasha’s constituents to press for her recall. It is such a coordinated campaign. Those behind it are fronting arrowheads; they have gone ahead to collect and collate signatures as a precondition to Natasha’s recall.

If they succeed, that might be the first since Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was said to have faulted the move initially, pointing out that the organisers faltered in their first step.

But last week, the campaigners staged a comeback with their request after purportedly correcting their mistakes.

It was a move Natasha herself was said to have kicked against, turning around to accuse INEC of being complicit for guiding the campaigners on the steps to take.

So far, INEC has officially notified her of the move.

It was learnt that if INEC finally accepts the campaigners’ submission, it will go ahead to verify their signatures and emails, paving the way for a referendum to oust Natasha.

In 2023, the lady Senator won the Kogi Central seat on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It was a rancorous outing. Against the run of expectations and the forces against her, she emerged victorious. Her success was akin to pulling chestnut out of fire, judging by the formidable opposition she faced in the person of the then incumbent governor, Yahaya Bello.

Since Natasha coasted home to victory at the polls, the dust kicked up by that contest appears yet to settle.

Besides, some persons are inclined to believe that Natasha by extension is also at war with the All Progressives Congress (APC) who dominate the polity. They probably don’t want her back at the Senate. And perhaps, ex-Governor Bello is seeing an opportunity to settle scores with her.

So Natasha’s current Senate brouhaha provides the right nexus everyone has been waiting for to spring into life and get rid of her.

However, everything about Natasha’s current trials began with her battle with Nigeria’s Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

Since the Senate pronounced her suspended after it claimed she failed to keep it rules,  and the sexual harassment accusation she levied against Akpabio, things have not stayed the same for both the Senate and Akpabio. Natasha has been dragging both of them to Golgotha. No one saw a Natasha coming.

On February 20, 2025, Natasha had accused Senator Akpabio of sexually abusing her, recalling that the incident happened on December 8, 2023. She brought the matter to the fore after confronting Akpabio after the latter relocated her seat in the Senate chamber and removed her name-plate without notifying her.

Natasha had further accused Akpabio of oppressing her and refusing her to speak in the Senate, also recalling how he had been frustrating her bills from being read.

Thus far, some persons have likened the Natasha debacle to a flash flood drowning the Senate. And for the Senate President, it is a sooth that keeps smearing his image, gradually killing off his political career.

Currently, Natasha is serving her suspension after the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges reportedly dismissed her petition and allegations.

The Senate in its ruling insisted that she violated Sections 6.1 and 6.2 of its Standing Orders.

Part of the punishment was denial of access to her office, salary, and security – a development some observers claim has become a lone tool-in-the box to keep its marked members quiet.

Akpabio has continued to deny any wrong doing in his wrangling with Natasha.

He has laboured to free himself personally and through proxies. But he leaves the watching world wondering how far he can go.

In the eyes of the people, Natasha now means a lot of things.

To some persons in and outside the Senate, Natasha is a blackmailer – an unruly, uncouth, attention-seeking fellow, out to cause trouble. Some call her a content creator – a woman on a mission to crash an upright man.

The Senate is livid with Natasha – you have guessed right – for the embarrassment she had probably brought to it and Akpabio.

And so, it must defend itself and its own. So it has cleared Akpabio of every accusation against him.

But that has already taken a life of its own. It has assumed the status of a load Akpabio finds difficult to set down.

So he trudges on, bearing it with neither dignity nor equanimity.

It must also be observed that right there in the Senate, Natasha has secret admirers, but they remain frozen, fearing to freely voice their views about her.

On the streets, some notable persons and groups stand with Natasha, having described her suspension as “disturbing and disrespectful to her constituents.”

The persons involved have challenged Akpabio to come clean or stand down to allow a probe since he cannot be a jury in his own case.

When Natasha the other time took her fight to the United Nations forum, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in New York, United States, during the Women in Parliament session, things got messier.

It was Nigeria’s day in the shadows as it were. Natasha had gone emotional on the night; she was unsparing of  Nigeria’s Senate and Akpabio. Nigeria took a direct hit as the world was forced to notice.

Meanwhile, patriots ill at ease with the optics of the Natasha-Akpabio imbroglio are warning against the gamut of its implication.

Other men of goodwill have also joined their voices to that, going further to express disgust at the new variant of weird politics being birthed by desperate politicians for selfish gains.

Their verdict aligns with that of everyone else: that when the chips are down, the country might be worse for it.

Today, it is Natasha. But tomorrow it will be another person. Sadly, the beat which goes on is not musical to the ears.

Natasha, currently at the centre of the national conundrum, was born in Ilorin on December 9, 1979 as Natasha Hadiza Akpoti.

She has a Ukrainian mother and a Nigerian father – a mother of three, she is a lawyer with specialties in oil and gas.

An activist, Natasha got married to Emmanuel Uduaghan on March 5, 2022.

She shot into the national limelight after winning the Kogi Central senatorial seat in 2023 on the platform of the PDP.