Meet Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, Nigeria's second female NBA president-elect

• Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya has been elected the 33rd President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

• She becomes only the second woman to lead the NBA in its 66-year history after Priscilla Kuye.

• The Senior Advocate of Nigeria defeated Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe and Olumuyiwa Akinboro after polling 12,317 votes.

• Her victory comes despite controversies, cyberattack claims and allegations of irregularities that trailed the election.

Nigeria's legal profession is making history once again.

Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, has been elected as the next President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), making her the 33rd president of the association and only the second woman to occupy the position since the NBA was established 66 years ago. The first was Priscilla Kuye, who led the association between 1991 and 1992.

Badejo-Okusanya emerged victorious after polling 12,317 votes, representing 47.18 per cent of the 26,106 ballots cast in the association's electronic election.

She defeated fellow Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, who secured 7,934 votes, and Olumuyiwa Akinboro, who polled 5,855 votes.

Before becoming one of Nigeria's most respected lawyers, Badejo-Okusanya first studied English at the University of Lagos before returning to the same institution to obtain a law degree.

She was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2002 and began her legal career at Olaniwun Ajayi LP, one of Nigeria's leading commercial law firms.

In 2007, she was appointed Senior Special Assistant on Justice Sector Reform to then-Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, where she worked under then Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Olasupo Shasore, contributing to reforms in the state's justice sector.

She later co-founded Africa Law Practice NG & Company (ALP NG & Co.) in 2017 and currently serves as the firm's Co-Head of Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice.

Her legal career reached another milestone when she was elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in September 2025, one of the highest honours in Nigeria's legal profession.

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Badejo-Okusanya is no stranger to leadership within the Nigerian Bar Association.

Over the years, she has served as Assistant Secretary of the NBA Lagos Branch, chaired the planning committee for the 2024 NBA Annual General Conference, served on the NBA National Executive Council and received the NBA Presidential Medal of Service in 2024 for her contributions to the association.

She is also a member of several international legal and arbitration organisations, including the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), International Bar Association (IBA), Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA) and International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), among others.

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Although Badejo-Okusanya emerged victorious, the election was far from smooth.

Voting, which was expected to begin shortly after midnight, started several hours late after the Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA) said the platform came under a "deliberate, coordinated and sustained cyberattack" aimed at disrupting the process.

The election also recorded a lower turnout than the previous year's poll and was surrounded by complaints over transparency, technical glitches and the voter register.

Runner-up Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe later protested the process, describing it as a "catastrophic structural and technical collapse"

He also alleged that many lawyers were unable to vote because of technical issues, questioned the use of email instead of SMS for one-time passwords (OTPs), and claimed the electronic ballot displayed only Badejo-Okusanya's photograph while those of the other candidates failed to appear. He called for an independent forensic audit of the voting platform.

Badejo-Okusanya is expected to officially assume office during the NBA's Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt later this month, where she will succeed the outgoing president, Afam Osigwe (SAN).