The Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate, Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, is taking issue with Oby Ezekwesili, the former Minister of Education, for telling him to ‘shut up’ during a heated exchange at a senate committee hearing.
Nwaebonyi, who represents Ebonyi north, claims that Ezekwesili’s public rebuke was ‘unacceptable’ and that he will report her to Igbo traditional leaders.
The exchange occurred on March 25, when Ezekwesili joined Abiola Akiode and Zubairu Yakubu as a witness at the Senate Committee hearing on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions.
Nwaebonyi, who appeared as a witness for Senate President Godswill Akpabio, repeatedly interrupted Ezekwesili, prompting her to ask him to ‘compose himself and stop making noise’ and ultimately telling him to ‘shut up’.
Nwaebonyi took offense to Ezekwesili’s remarks, stating that he respects women and has championed their rights and privileges throughout his career.
He said “As a person, I can’t talk to my wife like that in public. I can’t talk to my driver like that in public. I can’t talk to any woman like that, I have never done that in my life. I respect women.
“I am one of the people that has been championing the rights and privileges of women. As a legal practitioner, I won so many cases for women that were denied their rights of inheriting their father’s properties because their father had no male child.
“I won so many cases pro bono. The facts are there. If you go to Ebonyi, you would see them. I am one of the leaders from the south-east that has a programme for building houses for widows, sponsoring their children in school. I have over 300 of them. All these are to show the respect, regard and love I have for women.
“I have made my contribution. I stood for election, I had the votes of over 500 people to be in the senate.
“But, for somebody who has never won a ward councillor to come to my office and tell me to shut up my mouth and call me a hooligan… this is unacceptable.
“I am going to take her up within the Igbo traditional leadership because it has never happened.”
