NBA elects Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya as first female president in over three decades

Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, has been elected as the next President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), emerging victorious in the association’s 2026 national election conducted through electronic voting.

Badejo-Okusanya, the only female among the three presidential candidates, secured 12,317 votes, representing 47.18 per cent of the 26,106 ballots cast in the presidential contest.

Her closest challenger, Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, SAN, polled 7,934 votes (30.39 per cent), while another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olumuyiwa Akinboro, garnered 5,855 votes (22.43 per cent).

The 24-hour electronic voting exercise commenced at 7:35 a.m. on Saturday and concluded at 7:34 a.m. on Sunday after an earlier delay from its scheduled midnight start.

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The Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA) maintained a live election results dashboard, which updated every 10 seconds throughout the voting period and remained active for more than an hour after voting ended to confirm the final tally. Although the results were reflected on the dashboard, the ECNBA was yet to make an official declaration as of the time of reporting.

The final figures indicated that 26,184 votes were cast across elections for the association’s 13 national offices, representing a voter turnout of 31.86 per cent out of the 82,172 registered voters.

Upon inauguration during the NBA Annual General Conference scheduled for August 21 to 28 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Badejo-Okusanya will become the association’s 33rd President and only the second woman to occupy the office in the NBA’s 66-year history, following Priscilla Kuye, who served as President between 1991 and 1992.

The outgoing President, Afam Osigwe, and other national officers are expected to hand over to the newly elected leadership during the conference.

The election, however, was marked by controversies before and during the voting process. Voter turnout fell significantly from the more than 40,000 ballots recorded in the 2024 election, in which Afam Osigwe secured over 20,000 votes to win the presidency.

Voting, initially scheduled to begin at 12:00 a.m. on Saturday, was delayed until 7:35 a.m. due to what the ECNBA described as a “deliberate, coordinated and sustained cyberattack” by external actors aimed at disrupting the election.

The election also attracted criticism over the transparency of the process, with concerns raised about the composition of the ECNBA and the credibility of the voters’ register. Several lawyers had called for the election to be postponed.

An intervention by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, failed to resolve the disputes, while legal uncertainty persisted until the Court of Appeal, Ibadan Division, overturned an earlier order of the Oyo State High Court restraining the conduct of the election.

The build-up to the poll was further complicated by the detention of the managing director of the electronic voting service provider by the Department of State Services (DSS). The NBA’s National Executive Council condemned the detention and insisted there was no operational reason to postpone the election. The association eventually confirmed that the poll would proceed as scheduled after the official was released.

Profile of the President-Elect

Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2002 after earning a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree from the University of Lagos, where she had earlier obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in English.

She began her legal career at Olaniwun Ajayi LP and was elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) on September 29, 2025.

In 2007, she was appointed Senior Special Assistant on Justice Sector Reform to the then Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, serving in the office of the then Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Olasupo Shasore.

Badejo-Okusanya is a member of several professional bodies, including the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA), African Arbitration Association, ArbitralWomen, International Bar Association (IBA), Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA), International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), and a Life Member of the African Women Lawyers Association (AWLA). She also serves on the Board of the Lagos Court of Arbitration.

Within the NBA, she has held several leadership positions, including Assistant Secretary of the NBA Lagos Branch, Delegate to the 2006 NBA Elections, Member of the NBA Lagos Branch Building Committee, Member of the Future of the Legal Profession Committee, Member of the Conference Investigation Committee, Alternate Chair of the 2023 Annual General Conference Planning Committee, and Chair of the 2024 Annual General Conference Planning Committee.

She was co-opted into the NBA National Executive Council in 2022 and received the NBA Presidential Medal of Service in August 2024.

In 2017, she became a founding partner of Africa Law Practice NG & Company, where she currently serves as Co-Head of the firm’s Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice. The firm is regarded as one of Nigeria’s leading commercial law firms, with affiliations across Africa.