Dear Distinguished Colleagues, Learned Silks, Learned Professors of Law, and Friends of the Bar,
I address you today not merely as an aspirant or a senior stakeholder in our noble profession, but as a sister-in-law, an academic, and a citizen deeply troubled by the rapid erosion of decorum, professional fraternity, and elementary justice within the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).
When our noble profession is reduced to a theater of cyber-bullying, proxy wars, and institutional victimization, we must speak out. When the machinery of a regional sociocultural legal association is deployed not to mentor, but to crush dissent, exclude independent voices, and wage a campaign of terror against its own, silence becomes complicity.
The Genesis of My “Offense”
My current travails do not stem from any professional misconduct or academic deficit. My only crime is exercising my democratic right as a legal practitioner and daring to think independently.
1. The Democratic Aspiration: Driven by a passion to serve the Bar, I put myself forward as a presidential candidate for the NBA in the 2026 elections.
2. The Mandated Step-Down: Out of respect for institutional hierarchy and the intervention of senior leadership within the Egbe Amofin O’odua, particularly Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, I was compelled to step down from my aspiration to accommodate the group’s preferred candidate, Aare Olumuyiwa Akinboro, SAN. I complied with a heavy heart but in deference to peace.
3. An Independent Choice in Good Conscience: Following my withdrawal, I chose, independently and in perfect alignment with my personal values and conviction, to support Mrs. Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN. I did this in good conscience to champion an inclusive, forward-thinking, and progressive Bar and an era of female leadership at the top echelon of the Bar.
Since exercising this basic, constitutional right of association and freedom of expression, a coordinated, vicious campaign of calumny has been unleashed against my person, my career, and my supporters.
If an Achiever and Veteran of the Bar is Unqualified, Who Is?
My record is not one of mere titles, but of clear, transformative results across academia, local branches, and international networks:
• Academic Leadership & Tangible Success: Professor of Law, former Head of Department, and former Dean of a Faculty of Law, during which I successfully steered the Faculty to Full Accreditation and secured a staggering 110% increased admission quota from the regulators.
• National & Branch Bar Institutionalization: Past 2nd Vice President of the Nigerian Bar Association (2018–2019); past Chairman of the NBA Ado-Ekiti Branch (2016–2018), Chief Wole Olanipekun’s home state, where I actively envisioned and started the Young Lawyers Forum (YLF) of the Ado-Ekiti Branch to mentor the next generation; and past Vice-Chairman of the Branch (2012–2014).
• International & Local Interventions: As a past Council Member of the NBA Women’s Forum (NBAWF) and current Chair of its Advocacy Committee, I single-handedly introduced the New York State Bar to the NBAWF, facilitating the strategic and historic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between both organizations. I also serve the local Bar as the Co-Chair of the NBA Lagos Journal Editorial Committee.
• Academic & Editorial Governance: Current Chairman of the NBA Lawyers in Academia Forum (LAF); Director of the Centre for Law, Innovations & Technology; and Former Member of the Editorial Board of the prestigious Journal of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS).
• Women’s Advocacy & Public Service: An active leader at the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA); a committed member of the African Women Lawyers Association (AWLA); and a veteran of numerous state committees in Ekiti State, alongside continuous pro-bono legal services.
The Anatomy of Tyranny: Fabricated Lies and Interference
What began as political disagreement has degenerated into an outright, malicious attempt to destroy my hard-earned professional standing and academic legacy through desperate, wicked fabrications.
• The ₦250 Million Falsehood: In a wicked attempt to assassinate my character, the leadership of Egbe Amofin O’odua, through their publications and official WhatsApp pages, has falsely and maliciously accused me of seeking the sum of ₦250 Million Naira from Aare Olumuyiwa Akinboro, SAN. This is a complete fabrication invented out of pure malice to justify their hostility. An audio of our meeting with Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN exists.
• The Digital Gutter War: The leadership of egbe has enabled a toxic culture on its digital platforms. Duly paid members are being unceremoniously removed. Posts supporting my perspective are censored. Most tragically, young lawyers are being weaponized as proxies, indoctrinated into a culture of indecency, throwing insults and launching vitriolic attacks against a senior academic and practitioner. This is not the Bar we inherited.
• Institutional Victimization: The hostility has spilled over from chatrooms into an active, subterranean plot to unduly block my statutory appointment into the Council of Legal Education, leveraging external administrative influence, under the baseless guise that I am seeking a position I do not qualify for.
A History of Unrelenting Service and Sacrifice: I Have Bled for This Bar
My detractors mockingly question my fitness for the Council of Legal Education, an office I was nominated for by peers who genuinely appreciate a lifetime of systemic contributions. They speak as though Bar leadership is a comfortable inheritance, forgetting that some of us have risked our very lives to serve this profession.
As a woman in leadership, my journey has never been cushioned by privilege; it has been defined by unrelenting resilience. I have crisscrossed the length and breadth of this country in service to the Bar, facing grave perils and surviving by the sheer mercy of God:
• The Lafia Insurgent Attack (November 21, 2013): On our way to a Bar event in Lafia, Nassarawa State, in a vehicle driven by Hon. Obafemi Adewale, SAN, we were violently ambushed by insurgents. The colleague sitting directly next to me, Mr. Ezekiel Agunbiade, received a horrific gunshot wound that would have been fatal but for the Almighty and the swift intervention of the then Governor of Nassarawa State, Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura.
• The Gwagwalada NEC Accident: On another fateful journey to a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, we were involved in a serious road accident around Gwagwalada. As, God would have it, the Distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Opeyemi Bamidele, CON, Bencher came running to our rescue and rushed us to the Abuja General Hospital. Again, God in His infinite mercy spared our lives.
A Lesson in True Leadership: When that horrific insurgent ambush occurred in 2013, it was the then NBA President, Augustine Alegeh, SAN, who was instantly alerted and rapidly swung into action with vital logistical and medical support. Mr. Alegeh is not a member of Egbe Amofin, yet his enormous, unrelenting support for me throughout my service at the Bar stands as a testament to what true leadership looks like.
He is a completely detribalized bar leader, a genuine “He-for-She” champion, and a monumental asset to the legal profession. His pan-Nigerian vision shines a harsh light on the petty, vindictive tribalism currently being deployed to block my growth.
There are several other instances where God delivered us on the highway while traveling for the NBA. To those who now sit in comfort, manufacturing lies tomalign me and block my appointment: I have paid my dues in sweat, sacrifice, and blood.
I write to address the recent discourse surrounding my position in the upcoming leadership process and to clarify the principles that dictate my current path. As Barrack Obama once said, I am constrained by the “fierce urgency of now” to lay the records straight. Having served as the 2nd Vice President of our great Association, representing the West, I have had a vantage point from which to observe the mechanisms of our governance.
I have reached a conclusion that is both necessary and, for the sake of the Bar’s survival, urgent: the most effective way to save the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) at this juncture is to refuse to participate in a flawed regional grandstanding designed to undermine the very foundations of our profession.
My decision to distance myself from the current agenda of Egbe Amofin is driven by a deep conviction that their current trajectory threatens to set the Bar back by decades.
The plan being pursued is not one of progress, but of retrogression. It is a roadmap to disenfranchise the individual lawyer by dismantling current electoral advancements in favor of a restrictive, opaque, and archaic delegate system.
This agenda is not merely about leadership; it is about institutional control. It seeks to subject the NBA to the whims and caprices of a limited group of people, compromising our hard-won independence. Furthermore, the preferred candidate of egbe amofin embodies the very antithesis of the leadership we require.
In my professional assessment, his record, marked by divisive roles in the Abuja Bar elections and a litigious approach that prioritized personal interest over the objective, collective purpose of the Bar, demonstrates a lack of capacity to build or unify.
We are currently witnessing a deliberate attempt to sow strife and division. The current leadership’s rhetoric invokes the specter of the 1992 era, a dark period where the transition of Mrs. Priscilla Kuye from 1st VP to President was met with rejection, leading our Association into a state of paralysis for years. We must not permit a return to such instability.
Central to this discord is the so-called “zoning” arrangement and the mythical screening process that supposedly legitimized it.
I must state for the record, as the sitting 2nd Vice President representing the West, that I was never a party to, nor am I aware of, any legitimate meeting or resolution that zoned the national Presidency into Oyo/Osun, Lagos/Ogun, and Ondo/Ekiti.
This was a private arrangement, clandestine in nature, never presented to, nor approved by, the Annual General Meeting (AGM) as required by our constitution. As a matter of law, rules cannot be applied retroactively to restructure our governance without due process and public transparency.
Furthermore, I make BOLD to say that the screening process being heralded by Egbe Amofin prior to this alleged adoption is an absolute falsehood. No such screening ever took place.
As one of the prospective candidates at the time, alongside my colleagues, Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, Muyiwa Akinboro, SAN, and Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, SAN, I can state categorically that no meetings, interviews, or objective evaluations were communicated or conducted with us. To present an adoption built on a non-existent screening process is a grave misrepresentation to the Bar.
The hypocrisy of this narrative is stark. Egbe Amofin now claims it is the turn of Oyo/Osun, citing “democratic disadvantage.” Yet, one must ask: if this zoning logic holds, why was Mr. Muyiwa Akinboro, SAN asked to step down for an Ekiti man, Dele Adesina, SAN, during the 2020 national elections?
This contradiction exposes the arrangement for what it truly is: a fraudulent manipulation of process. The alleged Abeokuta meeting where the current leadership claims to have derived the resolve to adopt their candidate back in 2019 was equally fraudulent.
I maintain that anyone who actively causes strife, promotes disunity, or engages in fraudulent procedural engineering is not “fit and proper” to lead the Bar. Our Association is not a private estate to be partitioned; it is a collective of learned individuals who deserve transparency, competence, and democratic participation.
I remain committed to the integrity of the Bar. My silence or compliance with these maneuvers would be a disservice to the legacy of our profession. I choose to stand for a Bar that is modern, unified, and governed by the rule of law—not by the dictates of a select few.
To suggest that an active leader of the Bar who has delivered full accreditation to a law faculty, expanded institutional quotas, built international bridges with global bars, survived insurgent bullets, and founded youth fora is “unqualified” to sit on the Council of Legal Education is a farce. It is an insult to the entire academic and institutional fabric of the Nigerian legal system.
To use the sacred machinery of state and the levers of our professional bodies to settle partisan, regional scores is a dangerous precedent. It undermines the independence of the Bar and subverts the Rule of Law.
My Unyielding Resolve
To those who believe that intimidation, digital bans, and financial fairy tales will force me into hiding: your tactics have failed.
My integrity, my 36 years of labor at the Bar, and my academic achievements were not given to me by a political cabal, and they cannot be stripped away by one. I will not be bullied out of my convictions, nor will I abandon the young lawyers and colleagues who believe that leadership at the Bar should be driven by capacity, merit, and character, not dictated by regional godfathers.
A Direct Call to Action
I appeal directly to the conscience of every Nigerian lawyer:
• To the Youth of the Bar: Do not allow yourselves to be used as disposable foot soldiers in proxy wars. Do not trade your professional decorum for political crumbs. Having founded a Young Lawyers Forum myself, my commitment to your growth is absolute. The seniors who instruct you to insult your teachers and leaders today are destroying the very fabric of the profession you hope to inherit tomorrow.
• To the Silent Majority: Speak up. When a regional association shifts from a welfare and cultural forum to an instrument of political terror and character assassination, it loses its moral legitimacy.
• To the Leadership of Egbe Amofin O’odua: Let us return to the pristine values of Omoluabi. Leadership is earned through fairness, truth, magnanimity, and respect for diversity of thought, not through vindictiveness, fabricated lies, and the systemic exclusion of independent thinkers.
Let us rescue our Bar from the gutter. Let us prove to the world that we are truly learned, not just in our robes, but in our character.
Yours in the service of the Bar,
Professor Foluke Dada-Lawanson, FICMC, FFS, MNIM, MCArb, MSCGN, Notary Public
Professor of Law, Innovation & Technology & Legal Practitioner
Past 2nd Vice President, Nigerian Bar Association
