In three days, members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) will head to the polls to elect a new president as the tenure of incumbent Mazi Afam Josiah Osigwe, SAN, comes to a close. Osigwe was sworn in as the 32nd President of the association on August 29, 2024. Three Senior Advocates of Nigeria are vying for the plum office. They are Olumuyiwa Akinboro, Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, and Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya. As the only woman in the race, Badejo-Okusanya’s presence is not only momentous but also brings a historical perspective to the contest.
If she triumphs at the polls and realises her ambition, Badejo-Okusanya will become the second woman to assume the NBA presidency in its history, and the first to do so by direct election. Dame Priscilla Kuye led the association in 1991 after she succeeded President Clement Akpamgbo, SAN, following his appointment as the Attorney-General of the Federation. She would throw her hat in the ring the following year to contest in a proper election, but she lost. Funke Adekoya, SAN, tried and failed to break the ceiling in 2006 and 2014.
The rubric of Badejo-Okusanya’s electioneering, “A Bolder Bar That Works for Everyone”, encapsulates what her presidency will look like. She has built her candidacy around what she calls BOLD leadership: an association that prioritises the concerns of its members, carries them along in the decision-making process, provides actionable solutions to their needs and challenges, and delivers measurable results. Her manifesto is anchored on five pillars, which she insists must each be achievable, scalable, and sustainable.
From Lagos HOMS to the Inner Bar
Badejo-Okusanya may not ring a bell in the ears of those outside the legal profession, but those in the business of adjudication and lawyering know how she is a colossal figure and force to be reckoned with in the field. Her stint as a civil servant was sterling and exceptional, and her records working in the private sector are impeccable and excellent.
Born on January 15, 1967, Badejo-Okusanya is the daughter of two upstanding, excellent and exemplary citizens: the late Professor Olufolabi Olumide, a general surgeon who became the first Vice-Chancellor of Lagos State University, and Clara Folasade Abiodun Olumide, who rose to become the first female Registrar of the University of Lagos. She earned a first degree in English from the University of Lagos in 1987 and a law degree from the same institution in 2000, before being called to the Nigerian Bar in 2002.
Her public service record includes a stint as General Counsel to the Governor of Lagos State under the Babatunde Fashola administration, where she helped develop the Lagos State Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme.
Within the NBA, Badejo-Okusanya has served as Assistant Secretary of the Lagos Branch, a delegate to the 2006 NBA elections, chair of the Lagos Branch’s Annual Dinner Committee, and a co-opted member of the National Executive Council since 2022.
She chaired the 2024 Annual General Conference Planning Committee and was the Alternate Chair the year before, and was awarded the NBA Presidential Medal of Service in August 2024. She currently serves as Partner and Co-Head of Litigation and Dispute Resolution at ALP NG & Co. and sits on the Board of the Lagos Court of Arbitration. She was elevated to SAN on September 29, 2025.
Outside the courtroom, the senior advocate has taken on pro bono cases for indigent defendants, including capital cases that ended in acquittal and appeals that overturned wrongful convictions. She is a chorister and church steward at Emmanuel Chapel, Methodist Church Nigeria, Ikoyi, and is married to Yomi Badejo-Okusanya, with whom she has a son.
Why she’s gunning for the top job
On why she is running, Badejo-Okusanya said her candidacy has little to do with the actualisation of personal ambition but more about the fulfilment of an obligation and desire to bring positive energy and changes to an organisation and people she respects.
In an interview with Inspiring Woman Africa magazine, she recounted how a senior colleague urged her to run after listening to her critique of the Bar’s direction; her own reaction, she admitted, was to recoil. “My immediate reaction was horror!” she said, before adding that she came to see the request differently: “There comes a point when one must ask, ‘What more can I give?’ rather than ‘What more can I gain?’”
That ideological epiphany, she said, is the whole basis of her run. “At the end of the day, titles come and go,” she told the magazine. “What endures is the difference and impact we make in the lives of others and the institutions we leave stronger than we found them.”
Not Pledges, But Commitments
Badejo-Okusanya underscores the distinction between campaign pledges and what she calls responsible commitments. “Leadership is not about making promises,” she said. “It’s about making sensible and responsible commitments and being willing to be held accountable for them.”
She disclosed that every promise and commitment in her manifesto is accompanied by a meticulous and well-thought-out implementation plan, timelines and measurable outcomes, resting on three tests: that they be achievable, scalable and sustainable.
The senior advocate wants her tenure judged in concrete terms by August 2028: members earning more, practising better, and trusting a more financially transparent NBA than the one they have today.
Everyone will have a say
Badejo-Okusanya was open and frank about what her presidency would do for representation and equality.
“Inclusion must be intentional,” she said, promising that committees and leadership structures under her would reflect the profession’s full diversity — young lawyers, lawyers with disabilities, women, law officers, academics, and members from rural and urban branches alike.
One of her plans is to deepen regular stakeholder consultations and make it a core component of the association so that “policy decisions are informed by broad-based input rather than a few voices,” and pointed to a proposed initiative, the NBA Justice Watch, meant to monitor court efficiency and rebuild public confidence in the justice system.
She was also candid about whether her gender makes the task more painstaking. She recalled a senior lawyer once telling her, without irony, that Bar leadership “is not for women.”
She, however, stated that lawyers of both genders who “have seen beyond my gender and identified a capable person,” have been exceedingly supportive of her candidacy. Badejo-Okusanya invoked Dame Priscilla Kuye and Funke Adekoya, SAN, the two women who preceded her in seeking the presidency, saying she stands “on the shoulders of these two giants of the profession.”
Her ambition, she insisted, goes beyond her own name on a certificate of return: “I don’t want to be ‘lonely at the top.’ It is far more important to me to get there, fling the door open and wedge it with my foot, so that all our willing, capable and competent female members can get seats at the tables.”
Badejo-Okusanya has secured key support and endorsements as the campaign gathers momentum
One of the people who threw their weight behind her is veteran actor, producer and lawyer Richard Mofe-Damijo, who described her as authentic and forthright. He said: “Titles may open doors, but it is character that keeps them open,” noting that she “has remained true to herself through every season.” He closed his endorsement simply: “Oyinkansola is ready.”
Former Minister of Education Dr Oby Ezekwesili endorsed her last month, calling her “the brilliant and amazing Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya” and citing her record on professional ethics, arbitration and welfare for young lawyers.
She has also received the backing of Pastor Paul Adefarasin of House on the Rock, who declared that his family has “consistently seen a life marked by excellence, professionalism, and a deep concern for the advancement of our nation.”
Similarly, the Progressive Young Lawyers Network formally endorsed her candidacy, too, describing her as possessing the “experience, competence, courage, and capacity to lead the Association into a new era of progress.”
