President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, has called for a legal profession in which lawyers can openly seek mental-health support without fear of stigma or professional consequences.
In a message issued on Saturday to mark World Mental Health Day 2026, the NBA President said the profession must recognise that lawyers, despite routinely being expected to solve other people’s problems, may themselves be facing significant personal and emotional pressures.
This year’s World Mental Health Day theme is “Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change.”
Badejo-Okusanya said the theme should encourage the profession to listen more closely to practitioners’ experiences and allow those experiences to influence the support structures available to members.
The NBA President identified demanding workloads, financial uncertainty, bereavement, illness and the pressures associated with caring for loved ones among the difficulties lawyers may experience privately while continuing to fulfil professional responsibilities.
She warned against assuming that professional appearance or continued attendance at work means a colleague is necessarily coping well.
Of particular significance is the President’s position that asking for mental-health support should not be treated as evidence that a practitioner is less professionally competent.
The NBA, she said, is committed to integrating mental wellbeing into its broader members’ welfare programme through accessible and confidential support from qualified professionals, alongside initiatives informed by the lived experiences of practitioners.
The intervention raises an important issue for the legal profession.
Lawyers regularly operate within high-pressure environments involving deadlines, emotionally difficult disputes, demanding clients, court schedules, financial uncertainty and the responsibility of making decisions that can substantially affect other people’s lives.
For young practitioners, those pressures may be compounded by remuneration difficulties and the challenge of establishing sustainable legal careers.
Yet discussions around lawyers’ welfare have traditionally focused heavily on insurance, remuneration and financial assistance, while psychological wellbeing has received comparatively less public attention.
The NBA President’s message therefore represents a broader conception of welfare, one that recognises that professional sustainability involves both financial security and mental wellbeing.
She also linked the message to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, noting that serious illness can impose psychological burdens not only on patients but also on survivors and family caregivers.
Badejo-Okusanya encouraged lawyers to check on colleagues, listen without judgment, respect privacy and encourage professional assistance where necessary.
The message places responsibility not only on the national Bar leadership but also on law firms, branches and individual practitioners to build professional environments in which asking for support is treated as responsible rather than weak.
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