Badejo-Okusanya elected as NBA president, makes history as second woman in the role

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has chosen Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), as its next president. She received the highest number of votes when the election closed on Sunday morning.

Mrs Badejo-Okusanya was the only woman among the three candidates. She got 12,317 votes, making her the winner of the election, which took place through electronic voting over 24 hours. Voting started at 7:35 a.m. on Saturday and ended at 7:34 a.m. on Sunday.

The SAN beat her two male opponents, securing 47.18 percent of the 26,106 votes cast. This information comes from the final count on the Live Election Results dashboard maintained by the Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA).

Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, SAN, came in second with 7,934 votes, which is 30.39 percent. Olumuyiwa Akinboro, another SAN, got 5,855 votes, or 22.43 percent, to finish third.

The live results dashboard updated every 10 seconds during the voting. PREMIUM TIMES checked the dashboard for over an hour after voting was set to end at 7:34 a.m. to confirm the final results.

The total votes cast for the 13 national officer positions was 26,184, showing a 31.86 percent voter turnout from the 82,172 registered voters. But the ECNBA has not yet officially announced the results.

Once inaugurated, Mrs Badejo-Okusanya will be the 33rd president of the NBA. She will also be the second woman to lead the Nigerian Bar in its 66-year history. The first was Priscilla Kuye, who was the first president of the association from 1991 to 1992.

The NBA will welcome its new national officers at its Annual General Conference set for August 21 to 28 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The current president, Afam Osigwe, and his team will hand over to the new leaders during the conference.

The election faced many controversies leading up to Saturday's voting. There was a low turnout of 26,184 compared to over 40,000 votes in the last election in 2024.

In that 2024 election, Afam Osigwe got more than 20,000 votes, over half of the total votes cast. Mrs Badejo-Okusanya won with 12,317 votes, which is about 47.18 percent of the total votes in this presidential election.

Voting was supposed to start at midnight on Saturday but was delayed until 7:35 a.m. This delay added to the controversies surrounding the election.

The ECNBA stated the delay happened because of a “deliberate, coordinated and sustained cyberattack” from outside sources trying to disrupt the election.

The election process faced heavy criticism for not being transparent. This has been a recurring issue since the NBA began electronic voting in 2016. Many wanted the election postponed, pointing out issues with the ECNBA and the voter register.

The Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, tried to help resolve the problems, but confusion remained even two days before the election.

Only on Tuesday did the Court of Appeal in Ibadan overturn a previous decision that had stopped the ECNBA from holding the 2026 national officers' election.

Despite the court's ruling, the managing director of the service provider for the electronic voting remained with the State Security Service (SSS) as disputes and claims emerged before the election.

It wasn't until Thursday that the NBA announced the election would go ahead as planned, after the release of the service provider’s managers.

The NBA’s National Executive Council condemned the detention and demanded the release of the official, stating there was no reason to delay the election.

The NBA later confirmed that the official was released before voting day.

Mrs Badejo-Okusanya was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2002 after getting her Law degree from the University of Lagos. She also earned a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree in English there.

She started her legal career at Olaniwun Ajayi LP and became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) on September 29, 2025.

In her legal career, she was appointed in 2007 as the Senior Special Assistant on Justice Sector Reform to then-Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola. She worked under the then-Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Olasupo Shasore.

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

Her involvement in the NBA includes various leadership roles. She was previously the Assistant Secretary of the NBA Lagos Branch and a Delegate to the 2006 NBA Elections. She has also served on many committees and was co-opted into the NBA National Executive Council in 2022. She won the NBA Presidential Medal of Service in August 2024.

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