A warning has gone out to Nigerians against externalising the allegation of sexual harassment against the Senate president, Godswill Akpabio. “Externalising the rift will never be as harmful to Senator Akpabio as it will harm Nigeria and over a long time,” says Senator Abdulhamid Ahmed Mallam-Madori, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Police Affairs.
Senator Mallam-Madori said in a statement in Abuja that he doesn’t think the members of the opposition and some individuals orchestrating the externalisation realise this.
He contends that the fire is coming on Senator Akpabio not entirely because of the allegation but because he is a known pillar of the Tinubu regime.
Apart from doubting if pressure from outside could make the Senate change its position, Senator Mallam-Madori wondered what the point is in externalising the rift in a manner that could decrease reception for the average Nigerian around the world, block opening or opportunities for younger Nigerians outside the country because of the image arising from all these.
“Why say or do things that can become roadblocks for other Nigerians who have no hands in this rift in the Senate?”
His advice is for the Senate to be allowed to handle the matter. “This is not the first time someone has been suspended and all those threatening fire and brimestone know this”, said the diplomat – Senator from Jigawa State who is also advising campaigners to take partisan politics away from issues in the Senate to party headquarters.
“The chamber is one, and we have the formal and informal capacity to leverage on the resources of the past, on ranking Senators to restore peace and tranquillity in that chamber.”
Arguing his position further, Senator Mallam-Madori points out how opposition to Senator Akpabio as an individual or for the regime doesn’t serve a credible basis for taking a position on the allegation of sexual harassment, asserting that national interest demands a more holistic perspective on such issues.
