NBA elects Afam Osigwe as president

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Afam Osigwe, has won the presidential election of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), which was held on Saturday.

Mr Osigwe, a former General Secretary of the NBA between 2014 and 2016, polled 20,435 votes, more than half of the total ballots cast for the presidential position, to defeat his two rivals.

Tobenna Ikwuazom came a distant second with 10,998 votes, and another SAN, Chukwuka Ikuazom, who announced withdrawing from the race in the middle of the election on Saturday, came third with 9,018 votes.

The voting by accredited members of the NBA took place electronically between 12 a.m. and 11.59 a.m. on Saturday.

As of the time voting closed, 40,451 votes were tallied for the office of the association’s president with 205 abstentions, according to the results portal updated every minute during the election by the Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA).

Winners also emerged from the elections conducted for 12 other national offices of the association.

The election for the president was restricted to eligible candidates from the Eastern Bar of the NBA, whose turn, under the association’s zoning arrangement, is to fill the position for the next two years.

Mr Osigwe, whose legal career has spanned 25 years from when he was called to the Bar in 1999, is set to take over as the 32nd NBA president when the outgoing president, Yakubu Maikyau, completes his two-year tenure in August.

Mr Maikyau represents the Northern Bar. The two other regional bars within the NBA are the Western Bar and the Mid-Western Bar, which many still see as part of the Western bar.

The inauguration of the new president and other national officers is billed to take place during the NBA 2024 Annual Conference in Lagos between 23 and 28 August.

Mr Osigwe, who campaigned for office to tackle corruption in the Bar and on the bench, is expected to revive the dwindling NBA’s traditional role of holding public officers accountable.

His leadership of the NBA comes when public confidence in the judiciary and the legal profession, generally, continues downward spiral fuelled by a series of perverse court decisions, crashing professional and ethical standards, and frustrating delays cases suffer in court.

Mr Osigwe, who became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 2020, will inherit the welling discontent of various interest groups threatening to break the NBA into splinters.

Controversies

The election into the president’s office was dogged by controversy on Saturday, with one of the candidates, Ikwuazom, the Chairman of the NBA-Institute of Continuing Legal Education Governing Council, announcing his withdrawal from the race.

Mr Ikwuazom withdrew from the election, claiming the process was compromised.

He alleged that the presidential election was manipulated to ensure a predetermined outcome, with the vote counts not reflecting the support he received.

“It has become increasingly evident that the integrity of the electoral process has been compromised. Despite the overwhelming support from my dedicated supporters, the reported figures do not align with the true expression of our votes,” Mr Ikwuazom said in a statement.

“As a candidate committed to upholding transparency and the rule of law, I cannot in good conscience continue to participate in a compromised electoral process.”

A screenshot of a Whatsapp conversation purportedly between some senior lawyers suggesting that President Bola Tinubu was making frantic efforts to sway support for Mr Osigwe also circulated online on Saturday.

But the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, denied the purported president’s backing of Mr Osigwe.

In a statement on Saturday, Mr Fagbemi emphasised that President Tinubu did not instruct anyone to campaign for any particular candidate.

“My attention has been drawn to the news making the rounds on social media that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has endorsed Afam Osigwe, SAN as his preferred candidate. I wish to state categorically that at no time did Mr President give any such instruction,” Mr Fagbemi said.

“Mr President is a democrat who believes in playing by the rules. He will abide by the outcome of a free and fair election and is ready to work with any candidate that emerges.”

This story will be updated with the results of the elections into other national offices of the NBA and other details.