Tinubu to NBA Chief: Unite the Bar
President Bola Tinubu’s congratulatory message to Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, the incoming President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), carried more than the usual ceremony. Alongside praise for a historic victory, the President added a pointed instruction: to reach out to her rivals, unify a divided bar, and “make efforts to correct issues that arose during your election.” That single line placed the celebration squarely against the turbulence that shadowed one of the most contested polls in the association’s recent history.
Badejo-Okusanya, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), was declared winner of the NBA’s 2026 national officers’ election on Sunday, July 19, emerging as the 33rd President of the umbrella body for the country’s lawyers. The Chairman of the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA), Chief Aham Ejelam, SAN, announced the results at the association’s national secretariat in Abuja. She polled 12,317 votes, or 47.18 percent of the ballots, to defeat Lateef Akangbe, SAN, who secured 7,934 votes (30.39 percent), and Aare Olumuyiwa Akinboro, SAN, who garnered 5,855 votes (22.43 percent). A total of 26,106 valid votes were recorded.
Her emergence is historic on two counts. She becomes the first woman ever elected to lead the NBA, and only the second to occupy the office since the association was founded in 1960. The distinction matters. The first female president, Dame Priscilla Kuye, held the position between 1991 and 1992, but she was not elected to it. She stepped up as First Vice President after the elected president, Chief Clement Akpamgbo, was appointed Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice by the then military President, General Ibrahim Babangida. More than three decades therefore separate Kuye’s tenure from Badejo-Okusanya’s win, a gap that framed much of the reaction to the result.
In his message, conveyed through his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, President Tinubu described the outcome as “a watershed in the legal profession and a triumph for merit, excellence, and gender inclusion.” He said: “I extend my hearty congratulations to the President-elect of the NBA for her victory. As the first elected female president of the Association of Lawyers in Nigeria, Mrs Badejo-Okusanya has made history. She has once again shown that our women can attain any heights in pursuit of excellence in their careers and ambitions, both in the private sector and in public service.”
The President then turned to the friction. “I urge you to reach out to the other contestants, unify the bar and make efforts to correct issues that arose during your election,” he said, before wishing her “a successful tenure and service to the legal profession and our country at large.” He also expressed confidence that her leadership would strengthen the profession by upholding the rule of law and widening access to justice, and pledged his administration’s continued cooperation with the NBA.
Behind that careful wording lies a poll that nearly collapsed before a vote was cast. The election, conducted electronically over roughly 24 hours, was thrown into early confusion when the ECNBA reported what it described as a coordinated cyberattack on its voting platform. Balloting, initially scheduled to open at midnight on Saturday, July 18, did not begin until about 7:35 a.m., after the committee said it had migrated the process to a more secure domain. Voting eventually ran until the morning of Sunday, July 19.
The disruption did not end the disputes; it deepened them. Several lawyers said they were shut out entirely by the technical failures. Monday Ubani, SAN, publicly stated that he and his son, also a lawyer, were unable to cast their votes despite repeated attempts, and called for a comprehensive review of the exercise even as he congratulated the winner. Complaints of widespread disenfranchisement have become one of the central grievances trailing the result.
The two defeated candidates rejected the outcome outright. Akinboro, a former General Secretary of the NBA, dismissed the process as a “charade,” citing alleged irregularities in the electronic voting system, including claims of ballot manipulation. Akangbe similarly challenged the legitimacy of the result. Their objections echoed months of pre-poll tension over the zoning of the presidency to the association’s Western Zone and accusations of candidate imposition and bias against the leadership.
The courts were drawn in well before polling day. An Oyo State High Court had at one point restrained the NBA from proceeding with the election, following a suit by four lawyers questioning the legitimacy of the process. That order was overturned by the Court of Appeal, Ibadan Division, shortly before the poll. In a further twist, the managing director of the firm handling the electronic voting platform was held in the custody of the State Security Service (SSS) amid the disputes. The NBA’s National Executive Council condemned the detention, demanded his release, and insisted there was no logistical justification to postpone the election. The official was freed before voting commenced.
Even with a winner declared, the litigation has not stopped. The Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners (ALDRAP) approached the Federal High Court in Abuja, in suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/1471/2026, seeking to halt the swearing in of Badejo-Okusanya and other newly elected officers. In additional reliefs filed on July 20, the plaintiff joined the Attorney General of the Federation as a respondent and asked the court for an order restraining the NBA from inaugurating the president-elect “until the final determination of this suit or further order of this court.” The grounds cited include voter disenfranchisement, technical failure of the electronic voting platform, and non-compliance with the timetable approved by the NBA’s National Executive Council.
Badejo-Okusanya, for her part, has struck a conciliatory tone. “The election is over. We are one Bar, united by a shared commitment to advancing our profession and defending justice and the rule of law,” she said after her declaration, pledging to lead with “integrity, courage, humility, fairness, and accountability.” In an earlier message, she thanked members for endorsing what she called a shared vision of “A Bolder Bar That Works for Everyone,” and promised to prioritise lawyers’ welfare, better earnings, and improved working conditions.
The outgoing President, Afam Osigwe, SAN, has defended the integrity of the exercise, maintaining that the election survived a coordinated cyberattack after the technical team moved to a secure server. Badejo-Okusanya is scheduled to be sworn in on August 21, 2026, when she formally takes over from Osigwe, subject to the pending court action.
Congratulations have nonetheless flowed from across the political and legal divide. Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan hailed the win as proof that “competence, excellence, resilience, and character will always find their rightful place,” while former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, among others, urged her to strengthen the bar and defend the rule of law.
The NBA, which adopted electronic voting in 2016 to widen participation and curb malpractice, has repeatedly grappled with disputes over disenfranchisement and technical breakdowns in successive national elections. That history lends weight to the President’s charge. For an association that positions itself as a guardian of Nigeria’s justice system and a frequent critic of flawed public polls, the manner of its own leadership contest has become a test of credibility. How Badejo-Okusanya answers the call to “correct issues that arose” may shape not only the tenor of her tenure, but the bar’s authority to hold others to the standards it professes.