NBA: Electoral reform to top my agenda, says president-elect Badejo-Okusanya, SAN

… receives certificate of return

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

ABUJA— The President-elect of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mrs. Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, has pledged to embark on a holistic reform of the association’s electoral process.

Speaking in Abuja on Monday, shortly after she was issued a Certificate of Return by the Chairman of the NBA Electoral Committee (ECNBA), Chief Aham Ejelam, SAN, Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, acknowledged complaints trailing her emergence as the 33rd President of the association.

She stressed that her resolve to reform the legal body’s electoral process was driven not only by misgivings among her co-contestants, “but because there is a perception among the wider membership of the Bar that our elections are always rigged.”

She said: “Unfortunately, that perception, even though it lacks validation, has assumed the toga of reality. So we all need to sit down together — call it a referendum, call it a discussion — among members.

“We must have an honest conversation about how elections should go going forward, because any election that keeps some people raising the same dust every election cycle is not healthy for the growth of any association.

“So I will certainly be making electoral reform a priority so that we will have a system that everybody respects and agrees with. This is not to deny the fact that we cannot have a foolproof system.

“Not everybody will be happy, but we want one that the majority of members respect and accept,” she added.

Mrs. Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, also used the opportunity to extend an olive branch to those who contested the NBA top job with her, saying she plans to visit them and ask them to join her in moving the association forward.

“My message to them is that they have always known me to be someone who reaches out, someone who treats everyone with respect and civility, and I hope that we can come together and move the Bar forward.

“I know how passionate they are about the Bar. We have had several conversations. I know the views that they hold. I know the belief that they have in the validity of their views.

“But an election has happened. There is a winner, and there are people who did not win the election. That does not mean they are losers.

“It means that we have another opportunity to come together and unify the Bar that we all love so much.

“So that is what I am hoping we can achieve, and I certainly will reach out to them in hopes that we can achieve that.”

The NBA President-elect paid glowing tribute to the first woman to lead the association, between 1991 and 1992, Dame Priscilla Kuye, describing her as her source of inspiration.

“It is on her shoulders that people like me have stood to achieve this feat. I’m excited about it. I am excited about the possibilities that it holds for people who look at this and aspire to greater heights. So I am very excited about it,” she stated.

It will be recalled that Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, polled a total of 12,317 votes, representing 47.18 percent, to win the association’s presidential seat.

She clinched the top job after defeating her closest challenger, Mr. Lateef Akangbe, SAN, who garnered 7,934 votes, representing 30.39 percent of the total votes cast in the election, which was conducted electronically between 12 a.m. on Saturday and 7 a.m. on Sunday.

The third candidate in the presidential election, Aare Olumuyiwa Akinboro, SAN, polled 5,855 votes, representing 22.43 percent, to place third in the contest.

With her victory, Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, will, upon being sworn in, become the 33rd President of the legal body, re-enacting a 34-year-old history as only the second woman to lead the NBA since its formation in 1933.

Meanwhile, other winners of the election were also issued certificates of return on Monday.

The ECNBA Chairman, Ejelam, SAN, who described the ceremony as the last assignment of his Committee, urged all aggrieved candidates to follow the appropriate channels to air their grievances.

He said the Committee had, within 12 hours after the election ended on Sunday, published the names and redacted phone numbers of those who voted in the election from all branches of the association across the federation.

Ejelam, SAN, said the action was taken to clear up allegations that some persons had engaged in multiple voting, with some branches allegedly blocked from recording a single vote.

“Everything is now left for whoever is aggrieved to follow the appropriate channels,” he added.

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