Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, on Monday swore in 68 lawyers as Senior Advocates of Nigeria at the ceremony opening the Supreme Court’s 2026/2027 legal year in Abuja. The new silks comprise 67 advocates and one academic, Professor Nnamdi Onyeka Obiaraeri. Their admission into the Inner Bar is 11 more than last year’s 57, a rise of about 19 per cent.
The Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee, which the Chief Justice chairs, approved the 68 at its 174th plenary session on July 23. In a statement signed by its Secretary and Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Kabir Eniola Akanbi, the committee said the rank is conferred on practitioners who have shown exceptional distinction as courtroom advocates or as scholars contributing to legal development. All the conferees were required to complete a pre-swearing-in induction programme directed by the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria.
The committee also reminded the new SANs of Paragraph 25(1) of the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Guidelines and Rule 39(3) of the Rules of Professional Conduct, 2023. Both bar them from publishing or encouraging congratulatory advertisements and goodwill messages about their elevation. The LPPC warned that breaches could attract sanctions.
Among those elevated are a former spokesperson of the Nigerian Bar Association, Habeeb Lawal, a former chairman of the NBA Lagos Branch, Alexander Muoka, and the Kwara State Attorney General, Senior Ibrahim. The full list was published by the LPPC in July in order of seniority at the Bar.
The road to Monday’s ceremony was steep. The committee shortlisted 89 candidates in June, made up of 77 advocates and 12 academics, after filtration stages, an independent appeals hearing and law office inspections. Of that shortlist, 76 per cent made the final cut. Advocates fared far better, with 67 of 77 succeeding, while only one of the 12 academics was approved.
That academic figure fits a clear pattern. Since 2023, exactly one academic has been elevated each year: Professor Babatunde Oni in 2023, Professor Ganiyu Oke Adeyemi in 2024, Professor Chima Ubanyionwu in 2025 and Professor Obiaraeri this year. By contrast, the LPPC approved nine academics in 2022 and 10 in 2020. The committee’s revised guidelines took effect from the 2023 application year, and the narrower academic intake has held since.
Annual figures from the LPPC show how much the size of each class has changed over a decade. The committee elevated 19 lawyers in 2015, 22 in 2016, 29 in 2017, 31 in 2018 and 38 in 2019. The number then jumped to 72 in 2020 and stayed at 72 in 2021, before falling to 62 in 2022 and 58 in 2023. It rose sharply to 87 in 2024, the largest class in the period, then dropped to 57 in 2025.
Taken together, 476 lawyers have been elevated in the seven years from 2020 to 2026, an average of exactly 68 a year. That is more than three times the yearly average of about 28 recorded between 2015 and 2019. Monday’s class therefore sits precisely at the average of the recent era, though it remains 22 per cent smaller than the 2024 intake.
The growth has not gone unchallenged within the profession. In 2020, BOSAN wrote to the LPPC protesting the 72 names announced that year. The body said only 545 lawyers had been made SANs in the 45 years from the rank’s creation on April 3, 1975 to 2019, an average of 12 to 13 a year. It argued that weakened criteria had watered down the standards of excellence attached to the rank, and called for a review of the process.
The LPPC has since tightened its procedures and now publishes shortlists to invite public scrutiny. This year, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria filed an objection on July 6 against one shortlisted applicant, Agba Eimunjeze, citing a pending criminal charge at the Federal High Court. AMCON withdrew the petition on July 14, nine days before the plenary, and asked the committee to decide the application on its merits. Eimunjeze, who is challenging the court’s jurisdiction over the charge, was among the 68 approved.
For Justice Kekere-Ekun, Monday’s ceremony is her third as Chief Justice. She swore in 87 SANs in September 2024, weeks after taking office, and 57 in September 2025. At last year’s ceremony, she told the new silks that the rank was a privilege, not a right, and urged them to uphold the rule of law and avoid conduct that could stain their practice.
The new SANs gain the right to wear silk, sit in the front row in court and have their matters called ahead of other lawyers. They take the rank as the judiciary prepares for the volume of pre-election and election litigation expected around the 2027 general elections.