Akpabio and Natasha: The Unwilling ‘Twins’

December 9 rolls around every year, and two Nigerian senators wake up older, richer in enemies, and bound by the same stubborn calendar date.

Godswill Obot Akpabio, born 1962, now Senate President, and Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, born 1979, share December 9 like unwilling twins; one leads the red chamber, the other fights to keep her seat in it.

Their connection should have stayed a harmless trivia nugget. Instead, it became the punchline nobody dared tell aloud. Or maybe a few within the Chamber.

And this is because of the dark history between these two. Natasha alleges the trouble started when she rejected late-night overtures at the Senate President’s residence; words about “enjoying a whole lot” if she played nice. Akpabio calls the story fiction.

The Senate chamber itself turned into a stage. A rearranged seat, a sharp exchange, and Akpabio’s unfortunate “nightclub” remark, later apologised for, yet remembered by everyone.

Suspension followed: six months without pay or voice, handed down by colleagues who laughed when Akpabio once noted their shared birthday.

Lawsuits rained, with ordinary people wondering exactly how senators run their lives based on outsider influence rather than a firm talk on a garden bench. But Natasha wanted N100 billion for damaged reputation; Akpabio’s wife demanded N250 billion for wounded feelings; the Senate President counters with his own N200 billion claim.

Next, Natasha carried the fight to Geneva, pleading political persecution before the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Akpabio stayed home, gavel in hand, waiting for her to return.

And that is the Akpabio–Natasha story at a glance.

Millions of Nigerians now know December 9 as the day two powerful people, born 17 years apart, celebrate by suing each other into the next lifetime. For this, the average and informed Nigerian chimes that may their cakes be sweet, their lawyers sweeter, and their shared date forever the most expensive coincidence in Nigerian history.