Nigeria sent a male senator to a women's rights summit, replacing its most prominent female legislator

The Nigerian Senate's delegation to CSW70, the UN's global summit on access to justice for women and girls, currently running in New York until March 19, has two members. One is Ireti Kingibe, chair of the Senate Committee on Women Affairs. The other is Adeniyi Adegbonmire, chair of the Senate Committee on Judiciary.

Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan is not there. She was removed.

The Ministry of Women Affairs had invited Natasha, requested her passport, and she submitted it within hours. She was later told she submitted it late. When she raised the issue at a Senate appropriations meeting, Kingibe publicly promised she wouldn't attend either if Natasha was excluded. "If Senator Natasha Akpoti is not going to attend the programme, it means I am not going to attend too," she said.

Kingibe attended.

In a letter dated March 5, she explained that the Ministry had not finalised sponsorship arrangements, and that only two slots were officially approved. Those slots went to her and Adegbonmire, a man whose committee handles judiciary and legal matters, not women's affairs.

A Senate staff member told Premium Times the real reason: leadership was worried Natasha "might raise controversial issues" that could embarrass Nigeria internationally.

Here's the controversy they were afraid of. In 2024, Natasha accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment. That allegation has defined her tenure and her relationship with leadership ever since. The Senate that removed her from this delegation is the same Senate whose president she accused.

Nigeria has four female senators out of 109. Four. One of them — the most visible, the one who fought the most public battle against abuse of power inside the Senate — was replaced at a summit on justice for women and girls by a man.

The optics aren't complicated. Neither is the logic.

Kingibe is also worth looking at clearly here. She's a woman in an institution designed to punish solidarity. She made a public promise and couldn't keep it. Whether that was pressure or calculation, the institution made her choose, and she chose her seat. That's not an absolution, but it's the full picture.

Nigeria is a member state at CSW70. Member states negotiate outcomes. They shape what gets agreed. The country's official position at a summit on women's access to justice was represented by a delegation that excluded its most prominent advocate for that exact issue.

That's not an oversight.