Thousands of lawyers across Nigeria began voting electronically on Saturday in the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) national elections, amid legal disputes, allegations of interference and questions about the credibility of the online voting system.
Three Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) are contesting the presidency to succeed outgoing NBA President Mazi Afam Osigwe (SAN): Olumuyiwa Akinboro (SAN), Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe (SAN) and Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya (SAN). The presidency has been zoned to the Southwest after the Midwest Bar, which produced the last two presidents, opted out.
Akinboro, a Life Bencher, is a former NBA general secretary and a past secretary and chairman of the NBA Abuja Branch. Akangbe is a former chairman of the NBA Lagos Branch, former chairman of the NBA finance committee and a member of the Body of Benchers. Badejo-Okusanya served as general counsel in the Lagos State Governor’s Office under Governor Babatunde Fashola and chaired the planning committee for the NBA’s 2024 annual general conference.
The Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA) published a final voters’ register of more than 30,000 eligible lawyers after months of verification. Only lawyers who paid practising fees and branch dues within the stipulated period are allowed to vote. Voting is being conducted entirely online through the ECNBA platform using unique credentials; the committee says each eligible lawyer will vote once and has set up a helpdesk to handle technical complaints. Campaigning has been banned during the voting period.
The election has been marred by controversy. The managing director of the election service provider was arrested earlier in the week; the NBA National Executive Council (NEC) said he has been released and that there is no justification to postpone the poll. After an emergency virtual meeting, NEC unanimously resolved that the elections would proceed as scheduled, condemning the arrest and urging authorities to respect the association’s independence.
Legal challenges and calls for a delay continued to dog the process. Egbe Amofin Oodua had obtained a court order seeking to bar other presidential candidates after endorsing Akinboro as its sole candidate, but the Court of Appeal set the order aside. On Friday the group renewed its demand for suspension of the election pending reforms to the electronic voting system, arguing that email-based verification is vulnerable to manipulation through compromised accounts, altered voter profiles and intercepted one-time passwords. Its chairman, Isiaka Olagunju (SAN), proposed linking verification to National Identification Numbers (NIN) and registered telephone numbers to strengthen integrity.
Separately, the Atiku Media Office alleged attempts by unnamed individuals to influence the outcome through security agencies and the courts to favour a preferred candidate, framing the alleged interference as part of wider efforts to weaken democratic institutions ahead of the 2027 general elections. The NBA leadership dismissed documents circulating on social media that purportedly showed the Attorney-General of the Federation had ordered a suspension of the vote, calling those reports false.
To bolster confidence in the process, the NBA invited local and international observers, including Yiaga Africa, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), and the European Union, United States and United Kingdom missions. Results are expected after the close of voting, when ECNBA will collate and verify the returns.
