7 Things to Know About Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, NBA’s 33rd President

Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya made history on Saturday when she emerged as the 33rd President of the Nigerian Bar Association, becoming only the second woman to lead the association in its history and the first to be elected directly by the bar.

Her victory, with 12,317 votes (47.18%), marks a significant milestone for the legal profession in Nigeria. Here are 7 key things to know about the new NBA president.

She returned to study law a decade after earning her English degree: Badejo-Okusanya earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Lagos in 1987. She stepped away from pursuing law for more than a decade before returning to the institution to study law, obtaining her LL.B (Hons) in 2000. She was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2002 at the age of 35.

She comes from a distinguished academic family: She is the first child of the late Prof. Olufolabi Olumide, a general surgeon who became the first Vice-Chancellor of Lagos State University, and Clara Folasade Abiodun Olumide, a university administrator who rose to become the first female Registrar of the University of Lagos. She grew up on the UNILAG campus at Akoka.

She is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN): Badejo-Okusanya was elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria on September 29, 2025, just months before her presidential campaign. The prestigious rank is a testament to her decades of excellence in legal practice.

She served in the Lagos State government for eight years: She served as Senior Special Assistant on Justice Sector Reform to Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola from 2007 to 2011. She later became General Counsel to the Governor of Lagos State from 2011 to 2015, advising on public-private partnerships, arbitration legislation, consumer protection, and the state’s home-ownership mortgage scheme.

She is a founding partner at Africa Law Practice NG & Company. In 2017, she became a founding partner of ALP NG & Co., where she serves as co-head of the firm’s litigation and dispute resolution practice. She advises clients on complex commercial disputes before Nigerian courts and in domestic and international arbitral proceedings.

She has extensive arbitration expertise: Badejo-Okusanya is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and an accredited CEDR mediator. She has served on the board of the Lagos Court of Arbitration since 2015 and contributed to the reform process that produced Nigeria’s Arbitration and Mediation Act 2023. She is also a member of the London Court of International Arbitration, the International Bar Association, and the International Federation of Women Lawyers.

The Electoral Committee of the NBA disclosed that its voting platform was targeted by a coordinated cyberattack shortly before polls were due to open. The election was conducted electronically after the portal was migrated to a new, secured domain. Her campaign slogan, “A Bolder Bar That Works for Everyone,” focused on lawyers’ welfare, institutional accountability, and reducing the cost of legal practice.