Female casualties: Obsequies for women participation in legislature
By Emeka Umejei
In Greek mythology, the tragic end of Antigone, a Theban princess and the major character in Sophocles’ Antigone provides a prism for interrogating the fate of Nigerian female legislators. After the death of Oedipus in Colonus, Athens, his two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices killed each other in the battle for the throne of Thebes.
Thus, Creon, their uncle became a beneficiary and took over the throne of Thebes. However, Creon issued a royal decree that accorded Eteocles a state burial and forbade Polyneices from being buried. According to the decree, whoever buried the corpse of Polyneices would be sent to die in the living tomb. In defiance of the state, Antigone decided to bury her brother, whose corpse had been left to decay in an open field, at the expense of her own life. She was caught and sent to die in an underground tomb. This is where the troubles began for Creon. Though, he succeeded in enforcing the law of the state, he lost his son and wife in the ensuing melee.
I draw a nexus between the fate of Antigone and the fate of female legislators in the Nigeria legislature stemming from two interrelated events that occurred at the Lagos State House of Assembly (LAHA) and the Senate Chambers of the national assembly, Abuja. Even though the two incidents happened in two different political contexts, women were the casualties in both instances.
On January 13, 36 lawmakers at LAHA unanimously sacked Mudashiru Obasa, the speaker of the Lagos State House Assembly and elected one of their colleagues, Mojisola Meranda as the new Speaker of the state legislature. The election of Mojisola as Speaker of the LAHA was historic as she became the first female speaker of the LAHA since the return to democratic governance in 1999.
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However, Obasa, who was overseas at the time of his removal resisted the impeachment and sought judicial intervention because his colleagues did not follow the rule of the house: “If you are going to do that, you must follow the rules of the House. It is constitutional to impeach and remove. You have to follow the dictates of the Constitution.” After 49 days of holding forte as Speaker of the LAHA, Mojisola was forced to resign on 3 March 2025 and Obasa reinstated as speaker of LAHA.
While the LAHA incident was simmering down, the Senate Chambers of the National Assembly captivated Nigerians with drama and politics. In this drama, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan (SN) sparred with the Senate President (SP), Godswill Akpabio. At the outset, SN was asked to leave her seating position to another but she refused and lamented that the SP was picking up on her for selfish reasons.
While the veracity of her allegation is still within the realms of judicial adjudication, it is important to acknowledge that this was not the first altercation between SN and the SP. During a plenary of the senate in July 2024, SN had commented on a motion without prior permission of the SP, thus contravening the Senate’s standing order. She apologised immediately when she realised her mistake but the SP responded with a condescending statement that: “We are not in a nightclub.” The Senate President later apologised stressing that “I will not intentionally denigrate any woman and always pray that God will uplift women. Distinguished Senator Natasha, I want to apologise to you”.
Eight months after, SN and the SP reenacted their topsy-turvy drama but the outcome was entirely different. In this second round, SN insisted that the SP picks on her because she refused his amorous advances. Subsequently, Natasha was referred to the Senate Ethics committee, which recommended a six-month suspension for contempt of the Senate. The Senate ratified the recommendation of its ethics committee and suspended SN for six months.
The cannibalization of the two women by their male colleagues in the Nigerian legislature may not be a good omen for women participation in politics in Nigeria. According to the World Bank, the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments in Nigeria is merely 4%. The Inter-Parliamentary Union data for women participation in the Nigerian Senate is trifle 2.8%, which is far below the global and regional averages for women participation in national parliaments. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the sub-Saharan Africa averages for lower chambers and unicameral legislature is 27.1%, it is 27.0% for the upper chamber, and 27.0 % for all chambers. Gender equality is a right that cannot be dismissed with a wave of the hand and fulfilling it is critical to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). This is why Gender Equality is one of the 17 SGD goals adopted for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. If the Nigerian legislature excludes women from participating in lawmaking because of its internecine patriarchy, it raises a cause of concern for lawmaking as women are known to bring compassion to bear on legislative assignments.
Creon succeeded in enforcing the law of the state but he paid dearly for it with the lives of his wife and son because he refused to acknowledge his error of judgment. While President Tinubu is the head of the executive branch of government, it is important to acknowledge that the two events that culminated in the fall of the two women in the Nigerian legislature have the imprimatur of his adminsitration. The earlier he intervenes, the better for the future of women participation in legislative politics and our march towards achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
Emeka Umejei, PhD is a Senior Research Associate in Communication and Media at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa.
