Nigeria Replaces Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan with Male Senator for UN Women’s Forum

The Nigerian Senate has removed Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from the country's delegation to the 70th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, currently underway in New York, replacing her with a male colleague in a decision that has drawn sharp criticism from gender advocates.

The global forum, which runs from March 9 to 19 at the United Nations headquarters, is focused on advancing gender equality and strengthening access to justice for women and girls worldwide. Nigeria's final delegation has raised eyebrows after one of the Senate's few female lawmakers was dropped from the list in favour of a male senator.

Akpoti-Uduaghan first raised the issue during a Senate Committee on Appropriations meeting on February 25, revealing that she had been removed despite complying with all documentation requirements. She said the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs had initially invited her to join the delegation and requested her passport details, which she submitted within hours. She later received a response informing her that her details had arrived too late.

Senate Committee on Women Affairs Chairperson Senator Ireti Kingibe initially dismissed the exclusion claims, stating she had forwarded Akpoti-Uduaghan's name after two other female senators, Idiat Adebule of Lagos West and Ipalibo Banigo of Rivers West, reportedly declined the opportunity. Kingibe even pledged that if the Kogi senator was not included, she would also stay back.

That assurance did not hold. In a letter dated March 5, Kingibe confirmed that only two senators had been officially nominated, herself and Senator Adegbonmire Adeniyi Ayodele, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights, and Legal Matters. She apologised for the development and advised Akpoti-Uduaghan to attend privately if she held a valid United States visa.

A Senate staff member, speaking anonymously, suggested the decision may have been driven by concerns within Senate leadership that Akpoti-Uduaghan could raise sensitive matters at the international forum, attracting unwanted attention for Nigeria.

The exclusion does not exist in isolation. Akpoti-Uduaghan has had a deeply turbulent tenure in the Senate, marked by a high-profile clash with Senate President Godswill Akpabio that has defined and complicated her time in the chamber.

In February 2025, following a seat relocation she described as retaliatory, she publicly accused Akpabio of sexual harassment and abuse of office. The Senate Ethics Committee dismissed her petition as "dead on arrival" on a technicality, and she was subsequently suspended for six months for allegedly violating Senate standing orders and disrupting proceedings. 

The suspension came with a total freeze on her legislative privileges, her salary was cut off, her security detail removed, and access to her office denied.

Legal experts questioned the suspension's legality, citing court precedents that limited such punishments to a maximum of 14 days. The incident was widely interpreted as political victimisation following her public confrontation with Senate leadership.

We are unable to determine whether her removal from the UN Women delegation continues that pattern; however, her supporters are already answering that question loudly. 

What is harder to dispute is the optics of a country sending a male senator to an international forum dedicated to women's rights, in place of a female lawmaker who had already been invited. It is a difficult image to defend, regardless of the official explanation.

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