Former Edo State Deputy Governor Philip Shaibu has stated that the seat arrangement dispute between Senators Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and Godswill Akpabio should not be framed as a gender issue.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, Shaibu emphasized that seats and offices in the federal legislature are privileges, not entitlements. He added that lawmakers must engage in lobbying to secure these positions.
Shaibu previously served as the representative for the Etsako Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives from June 2015 to March 2016. Prior to that, he spent eight years as a lawmaker in the Edo State House of Assembly.
Shaibu said, “Interestingly, Natasha is my friend. Senator Akpabio, the president of the Senate, is my political leader.
“There are rules guiding the House. When I was in the National Assembly, it was the prerogative of the leadership of the House to allocate office and to allocate seats, and in the House, there is what is called lobbying; you lobby for everything.”
He said, “For you to have a good office when you come in, maybe because of my experience as a two-term member of Edo State House of Assembly, when I came to Abuja from day 1, I went quickly to lobby, to check the kind of offices that they have areas and locations.
“I was able to lobby to have my office close to where I wanted it, I was able to hurriedly lobby for where I wanted to sit. Whereas some people who are coming for the first time did not know that you lobby for things like that.
“There are rules; the rules of the House if clear and you must be guided by them, it doesn’t mean whether you are a man or a woman. The rules are meant for the House.
“The issue of seats and offices are a privilege. For me, I don’t think this is a gender thing; I think there is a miscommunication somewhere and we should abide by the rules of the House, and the rules are clear and the rules are not meant for women nor are they meant for men.”
On February 20, 2025, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, refused her assigned seat in the Senate chamber and defied the directive of the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
The senator accused Akpabio of harassment and filed a ₦100 billion defamation lawsuit against him. In response, the Akpabio-led Senate referred her case to the disciplinary committee for review.
In July 2024, Akpabio had publicly apologized to Akpoti-Uduaghan over a controversial nightclub remark he made about her.