Natasha Akpoti And Akopabio’s Saga Should Have Been De-Escalated Privately – Ned Nwoko

Husband to Nollywood actress, Regina Daniels, Senator Ned Nwoko has come out to express his disappointment with the handling of the controversy surrounding Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and Godswill Akpabio.

He recently had his say via his social media page, and fans have been reacting.

According to him, he expected Natasha’s husband to find a way to de-escalate the matter privately to prevent it from becoming a full-blown crisis, especially because he has been friends with the Senate President long before he married his wife.

Ned added that the saga could have been settled without this level of unnecessary public drama.

His words, “I was also deeply disappointed by the reaction of her husband. I had expected him to find a way to de-escalate the matter, to prevent it from becoming a full-blown crisis. When he sent me his statement and reaction, I told him exactly how I felt. If my wife were in such a situation, I would do everything possible to resolve the issue privately, to manage it in a way that does not cause further division.

It is even more surprising because her husband has been friends with the Senate President long before he married Natasha. This could have been settled without this level of unnecessary public drama.

It is disingenuous to claim that this is a case of gender-based suppression when the facts point to a different reality. The real danger is allowing the rules to be bent simply because a particular lawmaker chooses to play the victim card when confronted with the consequences of their actions.

This is not about suppressing opposition or silencing voices; it is about maintaining the dignity of the institution and ensuring that every member adheres to the same standards of conduct.

One thing that must be made clear is that the Senate did not deliberate on any sexual harassment allegations. That matter is before the courts, and the courts will decide. It is highly unlikely that she will win such a case, because the alleged incident supposedly happened over a year ago. She had multiple opportunities to report it to the Senate, the police, or any authority, yet she did not.”

WOW.

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.