When members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) go to the polls on July 18, they will be choosing among three Senior Advocates of Nigeria for the association’s next president: Olumuyiwa Akinboro, Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, and Oyinkansola Badejo-Okunsanya. Only one of them is a woman, and her presence on the ballot alone carries historical weight.
If Badejo-Okunsanya wins, she becomes only the second woman to lead the NBA in its history, and the first to do so by direct election. Dame Priscilla Kuye ascended to the presidency in 1991 by succession, after President Clement Akpamgbo, SAN, was appointed Attorney-General of the Federation; she contested the office outright the following year and lost. Funke Adekoya, SAN, tried and failed to break the ceiling in 2006 and 2014.
EDITOR’S PICKS
- What Tinubu Wants ICPC To Uncover About PFIPC, Adeyemi
- 2% of GDP ‘Missing’ or Just Unreported? Inside the IMF Controversy
Campaigning under the banner “A Bolder Bar That Works for Everyone,” Badejo-Okunsanya has built her candidacy around what she calls BOLD leadership: an association that listens to its members, includes them in decision-making, acts on their concerns, and delivers measurable results. Her manifesto rests on five pillars, which she insists must each be achievable, scalable, and sustainable.
From Lagos HOMS to the Inner Bar
Born on January 15, 1967, Badejo-Okunsanya is the daughter of two trailblazers: 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, she 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 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, she 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.
On Why She’s Running
In an interview with Inspiring Woman Africa magazine, Badejo-Okunsanya described her candidacy less as ambition than as an obligation that found her.
She recalled a senior colleague urging her to run after listening to her critique the Bar’s direction; her own instinct, 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 reframing, 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 Promises, But Commitments
Badejo-Okunsanya draws a sharp line between campaign promises 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 said every pledge in her manifesto comes attached to an 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.
A Seat for Every Voice
On representation, she was equally direct about what her administration would prioritise.
“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.
She plans to institutionalise regular stakeholder consultations 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.
Asked whether her gender makes the task harder, Badejo-Okunsanya did not dodge it.
She recalled a senior lawyer once telling her, without irony, that Bar leadership “is not for women.”
Yet she said she has drawn support from lawyers of both sexes who “have seen beyond my gender and identified a capable person.”
Badejo-Okunsanya 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.”
Who’s Rallying Behind Her?
Endorsements have piled up steadily as the campaign has gone on.
Actor, producer and lawyer Richard Mofe-Damijo threw his weight behind her, writing that “titles may open doors, but it is character that keeps them open,” and describing her as someone who “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.
Pastor Paul Adefarasin of House on the Rock has also declared his support, saying his family has “consistently seen a life marked by excellence, professionalism, and a deep concern for the advancement of our nation.”
FURTHER READING
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.”
Philip Ibitoye is a Special Correspondent with EKO HOT BLOG. Click here to find daily analysis and critical insight on trending issues in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria.
Click to watch the video of the week below:
