The 2026 national officers’ election of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has remained a talking point, driven by a series of historical parallels and precedents that have evoked mixed reactions among legal practitioners across the country.

A major highlight of the election was the victory of the only female candidate in the three-horse presidential race, Mrs. Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, who has made history as only the second woman to lead the NBA since its formation in 1933 — replicating a feat last achieved 34 years ago.

Barring any setback, she is scheduled to be sworn in on August 21, 2026, as the 33rd President of the NBA, which prides itself on being the biggest association of lawyers in Africa.

Mrs. Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, clinched the NBA’s top job after defeating her closest challenger, Mr. Lateef Akangbe, SAN, who garnered 7,934 votes, representing 30.39 percent of the total votes cast in the election, which was conducted electronically between 12 a.m. on Saturday and 7 a.m. on Sunday.

The third candidate in the presidential election, Aare Olumuyiwa Akinboro, SAN, polled 5,855 votes, representing 22.43 percent, to emerge third in the contest. The Chairman of the NBA’s Electoral Committee, Chief Aham Ejelam, SAN, declared that Mrs. Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, polled a total of 12,317 votes, representing 47.18 percent, to win the presidential seat.

The election, conducted through electronic balloting, drew participation from 26,106 lawyers who voted in the disputed presidential contest.

While many lawyers have lauded the election as free, fair, and credible, describing the outcome as a true reflection of the will of the electorate, opposition has also mounted amid allegations of result manipulation.

The other presidential candidates, Akangbe, SAN, and Akinboro, SAN, promptly denounced the outcome of the election, which they alleged was skewed to favour a predetermined candidate. Akinboro, SAN, who was rated a frontline candidate, described the election as a sham that, he said, has brought the association to its lowest point.

Speaking during an interview on ARISE Television shortly after the election, Akinboro, SAN, alleged that the outgoing President of the NBA, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, influenced the activities of the electoral committee, whose members he alleged were unconstitutionally appointed.

He bemoaned what he termed the continued deterioration of the standard of elections in the association, insisting the 2026 polls were the worst yet.

The runner-up in the presidential poll, Akangbe, SAN, also rejected the outcome of the contest, reiterating his earlier query about the integrity of the Ejelam-led ECNBA.

Akangbe kicks against poll outcome

Akangbe, SAN, a former Chairman of the Lagos branch of the association, had, while the election was ongoing, written an emergency protest letter demanding immediate suspension of the process.

He alleged that the electronic voting portal had collapsed, adding that voters were receiving one-time passwords (OTPs) through email instead of SMS, in violation of the committee’s revised guidelines.

According to him, the presidential ballot displayed the photograph of only one candidate while omitting the others, insisting the system was compromised.

However, his assessment of the election stood in sharp contrast to the view of many lawyers who maintained that the process was smooth and seamless.

An Abuja-based lawyer, Deji Adeyanju, furthered the claim by urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to monitor and emulate the technology the NBA adopted for the election.

“Registration, verification, and voting took me less than two minutes. The ECNBA has demonstrated that secure electronic voting is possible, using each lawyer’s unique Supreme Court number and OTP verification.

“INEC should closely observe this process and take lessons from it. Electronic voting can work efficiently and securely in Nigeria. The NBA election shows that electronic voting is achievable with the right systems,” Adeyanju stated shortly after he voted.

The outgoing President of the NBA, Osigwe, SAN, denied any alleged influence over the election, insisting the electoral committee, which he said was validated by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the association, operated independently.

Speaking with newsmen a few hours before the voting portal was activated, Osigwe, SAN, disclosed that one of the service providers was arrested and later released by the Department of State Services (DSS), with his laptop temporarily seized by security operatives.

Election faced many challenges, says Osigwe

In his remarks after the results were announced, Osigwe, acknowledged that the election faced several challenges, including a cyberattack that he said almost derailed the process.

He said: “Many went to great lengths to truncate the electoral process. They maligned the process with their utterances, but we held firm. Every effort to derail the process failed.

“This is a trying time for the Bar. Many persons may still go to great lengths to disparage the association. However, this is a time for healing. At the end of the day, let the Bar be the winner,” Osigwe, SAN, added.

He said the ECNBA would carry out an in-depth analysis, especially of the challenges encountered, so as to come up with recommendations that will engender greater confidence in the association’s electoral process.

“The cyberattack shows that we must do more, not only for data protection but also to protect our electoral integrity. We must insulate our electoral process from such activities.

“Someday the story will be told of how the ICT system had to be rebuilt and moved to a safer server to ensure that the election was held. “The Bar must always protect its independence and must eternally determine the course of its own electoral process,” he added.

Unfortunately, allegations of rigging have become a recurring feature at every NBA election cycle.

The runner-up in the 2022 NBA presidential election, Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama, SAN, alleged that he was rigged out of the contest.

Gadzama, SAN, insisted that the technology adopted by the association “was highly vulnerable and most susceptible to electronic fraud, rigging, and pre-programming of votes.”

He therefore called for an audit of the server used for the July 16, 2022, presidential election, which was won by Mr. Yakubu Maikyau, SAN. Maikyau, SAN, polled a total of 22,342 votes to defeat his major challenger, Chief Gadzama, SAN, who received 10,842 votes, out of a total of 34,564 votes cast for the position.

The third contender for the NBA’s top position, Mr. Taidi Gunu, garnered 1,380 votes, representing four per cent of the total number of 34,564 votes cast for the position.

While announcing the results, the Chairman of the ECNBA, Mr. Ayodele Akintunde, SAN, disclosed that out of a total of 59,392 records of eligible voters in the NBA database, 59,388 records were cleared to vote.

He added that while 1,346 emails sent out to eligible voters bounced back, only 34,809 lawyers, representing 58.61 percent of the membership strength of the association, participated in the election, which was conducted electronically.

However, Gadzama, SAN, maintained that his polling agent, Mr. Andrew Madaki, an ICT expert, had, before the conduct of the election, tested the vulnerability of the website used for the exercise—electionbuddy.com. He said the outcome of Madaki’s investigation showed that the website was susceptible to manipulation.

“During the conduct of the election, my agent discovered numerous irregularities and reported them in a letter sent via email to the ECNBA at 2:00 p.m.

“In the email, he reported the frequent timeouts experienced by the site, the lack of access to the backend of the server, the lack of graphical representation of the results, and he ultimately requested to audit the election, which the ECNBA promised to provide immediately.

“After the conduct of the election, my agent sent a reminder to the ECNBA on Sunday, July 17, 2022, to audit the election and discover whether there were more irregularities, but this has not been provided by the ECNBA.

“After the conduct of the election, my agent engaged another IT specialist to test the server.

“The specialist’s report, dated Monday, July 18, 2022, also shows that there is a high likelihood that the system could be hacked and manipulated. “A follow-up report by my agent, dated Wednesday, July 20, 2022, confirms that this occurrence was more than likely.

“I have been advised that this is why the percentage scores among all three presidential candidates remained within the same range from the commencement of voting until the end.

“It is important to reiterate that auditing the election will permit independent parties and agents to discover whether there were any technical interferences aimed at usurping the will of the electorate.

“This access is expected to have been provided immediately after the conclusion of the poll, to prevent any party from tampering with the system,” Gadzama, SAN, stated, alleging that the service provider was compromised.

Unsubstantiated allegations

None of the allegations of election manipulation in the NBA have ever been substantiated.

Most of the cases that found their way into the courts were dismissed for want of merit.

Remarkably, the NBA President-elect, Mrs. Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, has pledged to embark on a holistic reform of the association’s electoral process.

Speaking shortly after she was issued a Certificate of Return, she acknowledged the complaints trailing her victory.

She said her resolve to embark on the reform was driven not only by the misgivings of her co-contestants, “but because there is a perception among the wider membership of the Bar that our elections are always rigged.”

“We must have an honest conversation about how elections should proceed going forward, because an election that keeps some people raising the same dust every cycle is not healthy for the growth of any association.

“So I will certainly be making electoral reform a priority, so that we will have a system that everybody respects and agrees with,” Mrs. Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, added, as she extended an olive branch to the other contenders.

A group operating under the aegis of the Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners (ALDRAP) has however approached the Federal High Court in Abuja for an order to stop her swearing-in.

The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1471/2026, further prays the court to order the maintenance of the status quo in the leadership of the NBA, pending determination of issues the plaintiff raised regarding the constitutionality of the processes leading to the 2026 NBA election.

The Egbe Amofin O’odua, an association of lawyers of Yoruba extraction, had also dragged the NBA to court over its alleged refusal to adopt Akinboro, SAN, as the consensus candidate of the Western Zone of the Bar—whose turn it is to produce the next NBA President.

A similar suit, marked I/221/2026, is also pending before the Oyo State High Court.

The legal action was filed by four aggrieved lawyers: Ibrahim Lawal, Raymond Oki, Omotan Olusola Ogunmodede, and Chief Gabriel Ojo Adekunle Ijalana, who sought to halt the election.

As it stands, despite Badejo-Okusanya’s enthusiasm and proposed reforms, legal challenges to her ascendancy to the presidential seat may still fester. (Vanguard)

Update news