Hon. Natasha Hadiza Akpoti-Uduaghan: From Community Advocate to Kogi’s First Female Senator
Born on December 9, 1979 in Ilorin, Kwara State, Natasha Hadiza Akpoti-Uduaghan is the daughter of a Nigerian father and a Ukrainian mother. She completed her primary and secondary education across Kogi and Ondo States, before earning an LL.B. from the University of Abuja (2000–2004) and a call to the Nigerian Bar in November 2005. Later, she deepened her expertise abroad with an LL.M. from the University of Dundee (2011) and an MBA in Oil & Gas Management (2012) Wikipedia.
Early in her career, Akpoti-Uduaghan served as legal counsel at Brass LNG (2007–2010). In 2015 she founded the Builders Hub Impact Investment Program (BHIIP), a nonprofit focused on community development and small-scale infrastructure projects in northern Nigeria. Her work at BHIIP brought her face-to-face with the region’s development gaps and laid the groundwork for her later political activism Wikipedia.
Akpoti-Uduaghan first captured national attention in March 2018, when she presented an investigative report to the National Assembly exposing alleged corruption at the Ajaokuta Steel Mill. Although the Ministry of Mines and Steel refuted her findings, her report sparked widespread debate about the long-stalled facility and earned her a presidential award from the Nigerian Society of Engineers for championing public accountability Wikipedia.
In 2019, she entered electoral politics as the Social Democratic Party’s senatorial candidate for Kogi Central. She narrowly lost the initial vote but challenged the result in court—a battle that culminated in the Court of Appeal declaring her the rightful winner in October 2023. Running under the People’s Democratic Party in the subsequent rerun, she was sworn in on November 2, 2023 as the first elected female senator in Kogi State’s history Wikipedia Wikipedia.
As a member of the 10th National Assembly, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan chairs the Senate Committee on Women’s Affairs. She has sponsored bills to mandate 35% female candidacy quotas, expand micro-credit for women entrepreneurs, and improve infrastructure in rural constituencies. Her legislative approach blends legal acumen with grassroots insight, ensuring that national policies address the lived realities of her constituents Wikipedia.
Her outspokenness has not come without cost. In December 2023 she accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment—a claim he denied. Following procedural clashes, she was suspended for six months in March 2025, a move widely criticized by women’s rights groups as punitive and gender-biased. Her case even reached a UN parliamentary forum and, in July 2025, an Abuja court ruled her suspension excessive—though it fined her for contempt. Through it all, she has remained steadfast in advocating for transparency, accountability, and justice The Guardian.
Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s journey—from legal counsel and social entrepreneur to trailblazing senator—embodies the resilience and tenacity at the heart of The 35% Project. As Nigeria strives toward meaningful gender parity, her career offers both inspiration and a roadmap: combine expertise, community engagement, and fearless advocacy to transform representation into real progress.