Women Conference
Controversy has erupted within Nigeria’s Senate after Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan was reportedly removed from the country’s delegation to a major global women’s conference organised by UN Women.
The event, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), is currently taking place in New York and brings together government officials, policymakers and activists from around the world to discuss gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The development has sparked debate after one of the limited Senate slots for the conference was given to a male lawmaker, Adeniyi Adegbonmire, instead of Akpoti-Uduaghan, who represents Kogi Central.
At the centre of the situation is Ireti Heebah Kingibe, the senator representing the Federal Capital Territory and Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women Affairs. Reports indicate that Kingibe had earlier warned during a Senate session that she might boycott the international conference if Akpoti-Uduaghan was excluded from the delegation.
However, in a letter dated March 5, Kingibe later clarified that only two senators had been officially nominated and registered by the Senate leadership to attend the conference—herself and Senator Adegbonmire.
According to the explanation provided, Akpoti-Uduaghan’s name was eventually removed because the Senate President approved only two slots for senators to attend the event. As a result, the final delegation list was limited, and the available positions were allocated to Kingibe and Adegbonmire.
Kingibe also noted that the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs (Nigeria) had not yet completed the broader list of delegates or finalised travel and accommodation arrangements for Nigeria’s delegation.
Meanwhile, documents circulating among political insiders suggest that Akpoti-Uduaghan may have initially been considered for the trip. A WhatsApp message allegedly sent by an aide connected to Kingibe requested the passport data page of the Kogi senator for registration for the CSW programme in New York.
The message reportedly asked Akpoti-Uduaghan’s assistant to forward the “principal’s data page,” referring to her international passport, and the details were subsequently sent. This development has raised further questions about why her name was later excluded from the final delegation.
The issue has also triggered wider discussions about representation at a conference specifically focused on women’s issues, especially as Nigeria currently has very few female senators in the National Assembly.
In the same letter, Kingibe advised that Akpoti-Uduaghan could still attend the conference independently if she already had a valid United States visa. However, she added that access to the United Nations building would require official accreditation handled by the Ministry of Women Affairs.
With the conference already underway in New York, the development has placed the Senate leadership under scrutiny, with observers calling for greater transparency in the process used to select Nigeria’s representatives to global policy events focused on women.
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