Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mrs Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, has emerged as the new president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

Badejo-Okusanya will now take over from the incumbent NBA President, Afam Osigwe (SAN).

Badejo-Okusanya, the only female among the three presidential candidates, polled 12,317 votes to win the election, which was held via electronic voting.

The SAN defeated her two male challengers, polling 47.18 per cent of the 26,106 ballots cast in the presidential election, according to the final tally on the Live Election Results dashboard maintained by the Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA).

Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, SAN, secured 7,934 votes (30.39 per cent) to come second, and Olumuyiwa Akinboro, another SAN, polled 5,855 votes (22.43 per cent) to take third place.

She will be the second woman to lead the Nigerian Bar in its 66-year history, following Priscilla Kuye, who emerged as the first president of the association of Nigerian lawyers in 1991 and held the position until 1992.

The NBA will inaugurate its new national officers, who emerged from Saturday’s election, during its Annual General Conference, scheduled for 21 August and 28 August in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Badejo-Okusanya was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2002 after obtaining her law degree from the University of Lagos, where she previously earned a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in English.

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

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

She is a member of 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), the 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 (LCA).

Her Bar activities have included various leadership roles.

She previously served as 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 to the NBA National Executive Council in 2022. She won the NBA Presidential Medal of Service in August 2024.

She became a founding partner of Africa Law Practice NG & Company in 2017.

The law firm, where she is Co-Head of the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice, is among Nigeria’s leading commercial law firms and has affiliations across Africa. (The Nation)

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