Former ECOWAS Parliament member and Pan-African Parliamentarian Fatoumatta Njai has expressed dismay over the struggles faced by women in Nigeria’s Senate.
She noted that one in four female senators is currently contending with one challenge or another.
Njai made the remarks on Wednesday during an interview while reacting to the continued barring of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from resuming her seat after serving a six-month suspension. The Kogi Central lawmaker, suspended in March, was informed by the Senate on Monday that she could not return to plenary due to her pending case in court.
Condemning the decision, Njai argued that the matter being sub judice should not prevent Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s reinstatement, stressing that she had already completed the punishment imposed on her.
She said, “I know I’m not a Nigerian but I’m an African. I am a Pan-Africanist and also, as a former member of ECOWAS Parliament, I know a little of Nigerian politics. I know the struggles and the hurdles that women parliamentarians go through to be elected, let alone going to serve and having been denied that opportunity to serve.”
