I have read Mr Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe SAN’s statement on what he tagged as controversies arising from the just concluded NBA-SPIDEL executive election published by LawHauz. He is entitled to his view. What is not entitled to is an indictment of the NBA’s electoral culture built largely on “it is reported” and “it is alleged”.
However, I find it disturbing to see the learned silk discredit the NBA’s electioneering process in sweeping, almost generational terms on the back of what he repeatedly frames as “reported” and “alleged” claims. In terms of institutional integrity, this distinction is important. You cannot simultaneously rely on second-hand formulations and speak in a tone that reads like a concluded verdict.
The danger is not academic. When a senior figure tells the public that NBA elections are habitually manipulated, that “anointed candidates” are imposed, and that litigation is the norm, he does more than raise complaints. He weakens the confidence of the Association as an electoral body. He turns suspicion into a default posture. He primes every outcome, including those not yet contested, to be interpreted as illegitimate.
Mr. Akangbe understands this fact. He says as much, warning that such allegations, if established, are capable of destroying confidence in the NBA’s ability to conduct free and fair national elections in the coming months. That is precisely why the method is important. If the stakes are that high, the bar for making the charge must be equally high: verifiable facts, documentary anchors, a clear sequence of events, and recourse to prescribed channels.
There is also a credibility question he does not help himself by avoiding. He writes as though he is diagnosing the system from outside it. However, he signed off as the past chairman of the NBA Lagos Branch. He is, by any measure, a longstanding stakeholder in the NBA political ecosystem.
In the 2022 election season, the new NBA president publicly acknowledged “Mr Yemi Akangbe” as the Director General of the campaign that brought him into office. That proximity does not disqualify him from criticism, but it does impose a duty: when you condemn a “recurring” system, you must be ready to account for your own years within it and to show a consistent reform record that predates the current controversy.
Most worrying is what this style of intervention does to the due process.
First, it normalises preemptive delegitimisation. Once leaders speak as though elections are routinely rigged, every losing faction learns the shortcut: discredit first, prove later, if ever.
Second, it chills participation. Members begin to ask why they should vote or volunteer if the process is already presumed captured.
Third, it damages the NBA’s public image. An Association that routinely lectures the nation on constitutionalism cannot afford to advertise itself as incapable of running its own internal democracy.
Fourth, it contaminates the dispute resolution architecture. Even while acknowledging that the NBA has internal appeal mechanisms, the statement risks turning any eventual outcome of those mechanisms into another target of suspicion, simply because the broader narrative has already been set in motion.
A more responsible approach is simple and readily available. If Mr Akangbe has verifiable facts, let him present them in a formal petition: names, dates, documents, the specific constitutional provisions allegedly breached, and the precise relief sought. Let the enquiry he calls for be genuinely independent, with a clear mandate and a report that members can read. That is how you pursue integrity without burning down confidence as collateral damage.
Nobody is saying that complaints should not be made. The point is narrower and sterner: do not condemn the entire electoral process with a megaphone while still speaking in the language of rumour, and do not present yourself as a stranger to a system you have long helped to navigate.
The NBA needs reform, not atmospherics; evidence, not insinuation; and criticism that strengthens institutions rather than weakening them for sport.
~Ekezie Kingstonjoe Onumajulu, Esq.
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