Yemi Osinbajo is a professor of law and a former attorney-general of Lagos state and commissioner for justice. He is also a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN). Yemi was educated at the University of Lagos, Nigeria (LLB, 1978) and the London School of Economics (LLM, 1980).
He was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 1979. He has authored several books on civil procedure in Nigerian superior courts, rules of evidence and justice reform.
Yemi has 31 years of litigation experience including significant trial and appellate work. Yemi supervised the commercial litigation group at SimmonsCooper Partners (SCP), a leading commercial litigation and corporate commercial firm in Nigeria. With a multi-jurisdictional competence spanning Nigeria, the United States and the United Kingdom, SCP fuses sound legal counsel with superior advocacy, and personal and responsive service.
Yemi has conducted very important constitutional and precedential cases before the Nigerian Supreme Court. Some of these include fiscal disputes between the federating units and the federal government; disputes regarding the ownership and control of oil and gas resources; town and physical planning disputes between the federating units and the federal government; an international territorial jurisdictional dispute in the West African sub-regional court; shareholder disputes involving a multinational, private investors and state-owned investment corporations and energy disputes arising from multinational participation in power projects in Nigeria.
In other cases, Yemi has advised and represented clients in a broad range of commercial and corporate issues including securities litigation, investments and divestments, joint ventures, oil block acquisitions, product liability, fiduciary duties of directors, intellectual property, and corporate valuations. He is also involved in statutory and regulatory appraisal representation before the legislature and federal and state agencies.
While in public office as attorney general, Yemi was credited with undertaking far-reaching significant judicial reform in Lagos state, addressing critical areas as judges’ recruitment, remuneration, training and discipline.
In addition, he addressed access to justice for the poor by establishing appropriate institutions in the Office of the Public Defender and the Citizens Mediation Centre. In honour of his contributions to legal reform and the development of law in Nigeria, a compendium of essays on Nigerian constitutional law was compiled. The authors of these essays were senior lawyers and law professors with a foreword provided by a past chief justice of Nigeria.
Yemi is a member of the International Bar Association and the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and has served in the Nigerian Body of Benchers and the Council for Legal Education of Nigeria.
Yemi is currently an independent director of CitiBank Nigeria and an ethics adviser to the board of the Africa Development Bank.
He has also served in various capacities within the United Nations Organisation.
Yemi speaks frequently at several commercial litigation events locally and internationally.
He is actively involved in the pursuit of legal education reform in Nigeria.
Yemi was born in Lagos to the family of late Sir Adeyemi. He attended Corona School for his primary school education. Between 1969 and 1975, he attended Igbobi College Yaba where he won the following prizes: the winner of the State Merit Award 1971; the School Prize for English Oratory, 1972; Adeoba Prize for English Oratory 1972-1975; Elias Prize for Best Performance in History (WASC) – 1973, School Prize for Literature (HSC), 1975; African Statesman Intercollegiate Best Speaker’s Prize, 1974. Between 1975 and 1978, he proceeded to the University of Lagos where he was awarded a Bachelor of Laws degree. After obtaining a Second Class Upper Degree, he received the Graham-Douglas Prize for Commercial Law. In 1979, he undertook the mandatory one year professional training at the Nigerian Law School prior to being admitted to practice as a barrister and solicitor of Nigeria’s Supreme Court. In 1980, he attended the London School of Economics, where he obtained his Master of Laws.
While at the Law School, he interned with the law firm of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. From late 1979- 1980, he did his National Youth Service with the Bendel Development and Planning Authority (BDPA) as a legal officer. In 1981, he commenced academic work as a lecturer at the University of Lagos and occupied the position until 1988, when he was appointed as Special Adviser to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (legal advice and litigation) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Prince Bola Ajibola from 1988 to 1991. He was an adviser to the Attorney-General of the Federation until 1992, when he went back to lecturing. He became a Professor of Law in 1990 at the age of 33 (thirty three). Thereafter, he established a law practice (Osinbajo, Kukoyi & Adokpaye) as a partnership, while he concurrently was a Professor of Law and Head of Department of Public Law (1997–1999) at the University of Lagos. In 1999, he was appointed a member and secretary of a Think Tank and Transition Work Group that deliberated on strategies to transition from military rule to democratic government in Lagos State. Bola Tinubu had just been elected as Governor of the State. Owing to his reform-minded contributions to the justice sector, he was appointed into the Cabinet after the inauguration of the Government in May 1999.
He later joined the services of the University of Lagos where he became a professor of Public law and was appointed as the Head of Department of Public Law in 1997, a position he held for 2 years (1997-1999). After his tenure in 1999, he was immediately appointed as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice of Lagos State under the administration of senator Bola Tinubu, who is now the National Leader of the All Progressive Congress, APC. Osinbajo held this position for 8 years, until the end of his tenure in 2007.
Yemi has served on the United Nations Secretary General’s Committee of Experts on Conduct and Discipline of UN Peacekeeping Personnel (2006); United Nations Operations in Somalia, Staff Member, Justice Division, UNOSOM II (1997–1999);
He is also the chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT) of Redeemer’s University and a solicitor to the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi on the suits against Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
After the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2013, Yemi was tasked, with other notable Nigerians, to design and produce a manifesto for the new political party. This culminated in the presentation of the “Roadmap to a New Nigeria” , a document published by APC as its manifesto if elected to power . The highlights of the Roadmap included a free schools meal plan, a conditional cash transfer to the 25 million poorest Nigerians if they enroll children in school and immunize them. There were also a number of programs designed to create economic opportunities for Nigeria’s massive youth population.
On 17 December 2014, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Retired General Muhammadu Buhari announced him as his running mate and vice-presidential candidate during the 2015 General Elections.
Osinbajo is married to Oludolapo Osinbajo, a granddaughter of Obafemi Awolowo, and has three children. He is a senior pastor at the Olive Tree House of Prayer for All Nations on Banana Island, a parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God.
On March 31, 2015, General Buhari was confirmed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the Presidential Elections. Thus, Professor Osinbajo became the Vice-President Elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. They were both sworn in as President and Vice President of Nigeria on May 29 2015.
KEMI AJUMOBI