Nigeria’s legal profession has never had a woman win its top seat by ballot. Now it does. Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has been declared the 33rd President of the Nigerian Bar Association.
The vote took place on 18 and 19 July 2026, organised by the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association. She polled 12,317 votes, representing 47.18 per cent of ballots cast, ahead of Lateef Akangbe, SAN, on 7,934 votes and Olumuyiwa Akinboro, SAN, on 5,855 votes.
For thirty-two presidencies before hers, no woman had reached the office through election. One woman did hold the post before: Dame Priscilla Kuye, between 1991 and 1992. She stepped into the role after President Clement Akpamgbo left to become Attorney-General of the Federation under General Ibrahim Babangida. Her path to the office ran through succession, not a vote. Badejo-Okusanya’s path ran through ballots, cast by lawyers across Nigeria, counted, and confirmed.
She studied law at the University of Lagos before building a career that led to her conferment as Senior Advocate. Her win puts her at the head of a bar body that lawyers describe as the largest on the continent.
Word of the result spread beyond the profession within hours. President Bola Tinubu sent a message through his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, calling the result “a watershed in the legal profession and a triumph for merit, excellence, and gender inclusion.” He asked her to reach out to the lawyers she defeated and to work through the disputes that surfaced during the contest.
Atiku Abubakar, a former Vice President, sent his own message of congratulations. So did Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, and the African Women Lawyers Association, which described the day as belonging to “the Time of the Bold.”
Badejo-Okusanya herself kept her acceptance message short. “Thank you for believing in our shared vision of A Bolder Bar That Works for Everyone,” she said. She went on: “This is not the end of a campaign but the beginning of a greater responsibility. I will serve every member of the Nigerian Bar Association with courage, humility, fairness and accountability.”
She named three commitments for her term: pay, opportunity and unity. “Together, we will build an Association where every lawyer has the opportunity to earn better, live better and practise better,” she said. “The work starts now.”
She takes over from Afam Osigwe, whose two years in office focused on judicial independence, the rule of law and constitutional democracy. Those themes will likely follow her into the role, alongside the questions raised by the election itself: disputes among camps, calls for reconciliation, and the weight of a title no woman before her has won by vote.
For now, the number that matters most is 12,317. Behind it sit thousands of lawyers who marked a ballot and, in doing so, moved a profession’s history forward by one name.
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