Oby Ezekwesili Shares Her Account Of What Led To Her Heated Altercation With Senator Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, Shares His Too: ‘I Gave It To Her’
Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has given her account of what led to her heated altercation with deputy Spokesperson of the Senate, Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, at the Senate chambers on Tuesday, March 25.
Both were in the Senate to attend the public hearing into the sexual harassment allegation Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan levelled against Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
The altercation began after Mr Nwebonyi urged the committee to allow him to make his own submission if Mrs Ezekwesili-led’s team was not ready to proceed.
Mrs Ezekwesili then jumped in, telling the senator, “can you shut up?’
In response, an enraged Mr Nwebonyi attacked the former minister. He said she would “never be a senator” and called her “an insult to womanhood.”
“Can’t you respect yourself? Shut up your dirty mouth, smelling mouth. Look at you. You are a fool. You are a fool at 70. I am a Senator. I said you are a fool. Why are you talking to me like that?
Why should you talk to a senator like that? You can never be a senator. You are an insult to womanhood,”
the senator, visibly angry, said.
In an interview with Arise TV last night, Dr. Ezekwesili said while attending the hearing, the Senators dismissed her and others who came in support of Senator Natasha, and implied that they were unserious.
She mentioned that Nwaebonyi was about to speak when she asked him to ‘Shut up’. She said the Senator then came hard on her, insulting her.
Meanwhile, the Ebonyi North Senator Nwebonyi has said he has no regrets over his heated verbal exchange with Ezekwesili.
The senator said this during an interview with Channels Television on Tuesday night.
Mr Nwebonyi, who represented the senate president at the hearing, defended his reaction, stating that he was merely responding to what he perceived as disrespect. He said:
“How can I regret the scenario? I gave it to her. Is it right for her to address me that way? As a former minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a grandmother, ask her first.
I only replied to her. How can I be emotional? She was the one being emotional. It is unfortunate that a mother, a grandmother, the person of her standard can be so moved by her emotion to call a sitting senator a hooligan and I should shut up when I was asking for clarification from a presiding officer.
I was not addressing her. I was talking to the chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, so I don’t have business with her.”
When asked if he would accept Mrs Ezekwesili’s apology for describing his behaviour as unruly, Mr Nwebonyi said,
“Of course, I will. This is a lent period. You cannot insult me, abuse me, and expect me to keep quiet.”
The senator alleged that Mrs Ezekwesili and the petitioner were at the hearing to cause disruption. He said:
“These are people that have been clamouring that they were not given an opportunity to prove their case; the opportunity came.
The petitioner started by saying the committee is biased and she cannot lead evidence. I said why can’t you lead evidence in your case? You already have an affidavit; adopt the affidavit.
He said no, jumping from one excuse to the other just like Oby Ezekwesili. She said she’s a witness; take the oath so that you can tell Nigerians and the whole world what you know about this case. She said no. They actually came to disrupt the sitting.”
Addressing Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan’s concerns about silencing female senators, Mr Nwebonyi dismissed the claims, insisting that all senators, regardless of gender, have equal opportunities in the chamber.
“Everybody has equal opportunity in the Senate, be it a man or a woman. We are all equal. Senator Natasha, who alleged that the senate president is silencing the voice of female senators… this is a woman that has moved up to six motions, this is a woman that has to her credit, three bills, the records are there,”
he said.