Senator Onyekachi Nwaebonyi has announced plans to report former Minister of Education Oby Ezekwesili to Igbo traditional leaders after she told him to “shut up” during a heated exchange at a Senate committee hearing.
Nwaebonyi, the deputy chief whip of the Senate representing Ebonyi North, made the statement on Monday, March 31, while speaking on ‘Kakaaki,’ a breakfast programme on AIT.
The confrontation between the two occurred on March 25 during a hearing by the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions. The hearing was based on a fresh petition from Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan of Kogi Central, who has repeatedly accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment.
Ezekwesili attended the hearing as a witness alongside Abiola Akiode, legal counsel to Akpoti-Uduaghan, and Zubairu Yakubu, the petitioner. Nwaebonyi, appearing as a witness for Akpabio, repeatedly interrupted Ezekwesili during her remarks, prompting her to say, “Please, will you shut up?” and urge him to “compose himself and stop making noise.”
The comment led to an immediate reaction from Nwaebonyi, who described it as “unacceptable.”
“As a person, I can’t talk to my wife like that in public. I can’t talk to my driver like that in public. I can’t talk to any woman like that, I have never done that in my life. I respect women,” he said.
“I am one of the people that has been championing the rights and privileges of women. As a legal practitioner, I won so many cases for women that were denied their rights of inheriting their father’s properties because their father had no male child.
“I won so many cases pro bono. The facts are there. If you go to Ebonyi, you would see them. I am one of the leaders from the South-East that has a programme for building houses for widows, sponsoring their children in school. I have over 300 of them. All these are to show the respect, and regard, and love I have for women.”
He further expressed his displeasure, stating that such a remark was an insult to his status as a senator and an Igbo traditional leader.
“But, for a woman to get up in public, and tell me to shut up my mouth and call me a hooligan, a red cap chief in Igboland that has made his mark…
“I have made my contribution. I stood for election, I had the votes of over 500 people to be in the Senate.
“And for somebody who has never won a ward councillorship election to come to my office and tell me to shut up my mouth and call me a hooligan… this is unacceptable. I am going to take her up within the Igbo traditional leadership because it has never happened.”
The clash has since sparked reactions, with some viewing it as a matter of respect and cultural decorum, while others see it as part of a broader debate on gender and power dynamics in Nigerian politics.
