{"id":178696,"date":"2025-09-13T07:35:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T06:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/senate-should-represent-democracy-not-dictatorship-akande"},"modified":"2025-09-13T08:41:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T07:41:35","slug":"senate-should-represent-democracy-not-dictatorship-akande","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senate-should-represent-democracy-not-dictatorship-akande","title":{"rendered":"Senate Should Represent Democracy Not Dictatorship Akande"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Former presidential aide, Laolu Akande, has criticized the Senate leadership for blocking Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from returning to work even after completing her six-month suspension.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on Channels Television, Akande described the decision as simply outrageous, saying the matter has gone beyond a clash between Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Senator Natasha.<\/p>\n<p>He argued it was now an attack on the Senate itself as a democratic institution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter the upper chamber of the National Assembly illegally suspended one of its own members for six months, the Red Chamber has now said even after the expiration of the six months, the Senator cannot resume work. This is simply outrageous,\u201d Akande said.<\/p>\n<p>He warned that the refusal to let Natasha resume amounts to \u201ca desecration of democracy.\u201d According to him, no group of lawmakers has the constitutional power to override the decision of the people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat is now a certain desecration,\u201d he declared, \u201cis the continued denial of the mandate of an elected Senator by the Nigerian Senate, preventing the Senator to do what she was elected for. It is an aberration and it is totally unknown to democracy anywhere. The people cannot elect a representative and a group of Senators decide to prevent such a person from performing a duly delivered mandate. It is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Akande also dismissed claims that the Senate rule book allowed such disciplinary measures. He insisted that lawmakers\u2019 internal rules cannot outweigh the authority of voters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat rule book gets its powers from among the Senators themselves,\u201d he said. \u201cBut there is a power of the electorate which is and must remain superior. Where is the power to subvert the will of the Kogi people?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Former presidential aide, Laolu Akande, has criticized the Senate leadership for blocking Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from returning to work even after completing her six-month suspension. Speaking on Channels Television, Akande described the decision as simply outrageous, saying the matter has gone beyond a clash between Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Senator Natasha. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":178695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[16140,11207,254],"class_list":["post-178696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-akpabio-vs-natasha","tag-laolu-akande","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Senate Should Represent Democracy Not Dictatorship Akande - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former presidential aide, Laolu Akande, has criticized the Senate leadership for blocking Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduagha ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senate-should-represent-democracy-not-dictatorship-akande\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Senate Should Represent Democracy Not Dictatorship Akande\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former presidential aide, Laolu Akande, has criticized the Senate leadership for blocking Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduagha ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senate-should-represent-democracy-not-dictatorship-akande\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-13T06:35:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-13T07:41:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/sm_1757736888.524699.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"888\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senate-should-represent-democracy-not-dictatorship-akande#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senate-should-represent-democracy-not-dictatorship-akande\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Senate Should Represent Democracy Not Dictatorship Akande\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-13T06:35:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-13T07:41:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senate-should-represent-democracy-not-dictatorship-akande\"},\"wordCount\":297,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senate-should-represent-democracy-not-dictatorship-akande#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/sm_1757736888.524699.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Akpabio vs Natasha\",\"Laolu Akande\",\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senate-should-represent-democracy-not-dictatorship-akande#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senate-should-represent-democracy-not-dictatorship-akande\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senate-should-represent-democracy-not-dictatorship-akande\",\"name\":\"Senate Should Represent Democracy Not Dictatorship Akande - 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