The rule Senator Natasha broke. The sword and the shield of the law.

I grew up in a home where my parents established rules and regulations that limited chaos and allowed us to function. It was a law that Sister-Mum (if you are new to my writing, Sister-Mum is my late elder sister, who I consider sister and mother) washed plates while I rinsed.

However, I am also aware of the sword of the law, which is valuable for order but historically has always been weaponized by the powerful to inflict injury on those who rebel against them. I expressed this view in a class, and the professor recommended I read a book, “The Law is the White Dog by Colin Dayan.”

It was law that slave owners could punish enslaved people as long as it did not lead to irreparable injury. The definition of injury was not clear even when the enslaved person was killed. It was once law that all black people were subjected to all white people.

It was a law under slavery that the rape of black women was not considered an injury. Under slavery, the law of property dictated that black women submit to any white man who wanted them for whatever purpose, including sexual, which Saidiya Hartman argued contributed to "the monstrous intimacy of chattel slavery, the violent coupling and compulsory reproduction." A child of an enslaved woman belonged to the owner of his mother, and he could sell the child while he or anyone he chose copulated with the mother for another child that she does not own and can be sold at any time.

In colonial Lagos, as Saheed Aderinto documents in his book, in a bid to police prostitution, part of the loitering laws permitted that if you greeted more than three people within a mile, it was indicative that, as a woman, you were soliciting sex.

I write all of these to say that something being a law doesn't make it right. Our conscience as a society ought to guide us towards the north. The way the Senator Natasha issue was handled and the antecedents of the allegations against Senator Akpabio put sanity/justice and fairness on trial. This is not what we want as a nation. Our nation can only thrive based on whether we are faithful or faithless to our conscience, fairness, and equity.

If there were social media when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat when the law said she should in segregated America and some Nigerians were to comment on this issue. They will say the law is the law; she must respect the law. Give up your seat; are you the only woman?

If there were social media when Harriet Tubman ran the Underground Railroad, some Nigerians would ask why she must disobey the law.

If “they” did not ruin our education system, some people would have been better citizens, but we know why.

Just for records, all the people saying rubbish online in years to come, sorry, would not be an eraser of some of the nonsense you are regurgitating online; we would hold you accountable.

Distinguished Senator Natasha-Akpoti-Uduaghan!
You are your father's daughter!