EDITORIAL

Nigerian lawyers are nearly unanimous in asserting that one of the best policies concerning Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Elections is the introduction of universal suffrage. The credit belongs squarely to the Augustine Alegeh Administration (2014-2016).

It is perhaps fortuitous that Mr. Afam Osigwe SAN was the General Secretary during that administration. Accordingly, he is also entitled to take full credit for that groundbreaking and highly innovative policy which has now been enshrined in the NBA Constitution.

The most potent argument in favour of universal suffrage is that it handed power back to the generality of Nigerian lawyers. Over ten years after, that argument is increasingly viewed as at best tenuous. The reason is not far-fetched. Every election since the introduction of universal suffrage and the attendant electronic voting has been hotly contested, both before and after the election. Allegations of rigging have been rife.

Of the five elections that have been conducted under the universal suffrage/electronic voting framework, at least two have been hotly challenged in court. While Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama’s lawsuit became academic and was adjourned sine die upon the completion of the tenure of Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud SAN whose declaration as winner he challenged, Mr. Tobenna Erojikwe’s lawsuit concerning the 2024 Election inched higher up the judicial ladder, having been determined by the Court of Appeal. With Osigwe having nearly completed the contested two-year tenure, the fate of any possible appeal hangs in the balance.

Meanwhile, some of the presidential candidates who had not taken the litigation route have nothing but strong words for the elections. A presidential candidate in the 2018 race, Chief Arthur Obi-Okafor SAN described the election as “the biggest embarrassment and robbery,” in the association’s electoral history. Continuing, he wrote: “The first danger signal that there was a deliberate attempt to rig this election came when we discovered that close to 4,000 names and telephone numbers assigned to them were not the same owners but belonged to other persons.”

His co-contestant, Prof.  Ernest Ojukwu SAN was equally unsparing. He wrote: “Though a winner has emerged from this present contest, we remember that we contested against corruption, massive vote-buying, vote capture, rigging, and a skewed process. These reasons make a challenge of the result important, but because of my long and selfless commitment to regenerating the Bar and the need not to create tension in our legal profession, I shall not contest it.”

Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, a former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, described the 2018 election as “a racket.” His words: “This was not an election. It was not even a selection. It was a racket and a messed-up one at that .…This racket is a disgrace. The process was compromised and did not even pretend about it. The outcome lacks legitimacy and the declared winner has procured a compromised non-mandate.”

The election would then open the gate for an inroad into NBA election matters by a most unusual stakeholder, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The anti-graft agency filed charges against two accused persons for allegedly rigging the election. After a three-year trial, the Federal High Court on Tuesday, February 21, 2023 struck out the charges for lack of jurisdiction.

Needless to say, a litany of other complaints has been levied against NBA Elections by other candidates and stakeholders. The persisting refrain is that of an “unseen hand” that is perverting the will of Nigerian lawyers in relation to the elections.

Instructively, that refrain has again resurfaced in the run-up to this year’s elections. At least two NBA presidential candidates have written to the Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA), raising serious concerns on the challenges that may truncate the elections. All the issues turn on modalities for ensuring that the elections are transparent and credible.

The ECNBA has copiously responded to the complaints by the presidential candidates. However, in so doing, the committee perhaps missed out on a nagging but critical question: ‘What was the role of Mikrodigital in the 2024 Elections?” There are strong indications that the fate of the 2026 NBA Elections may turn on that singular question.

In a letter to ECNBA dated June 10, 2026, Mr. Olumuyiwa Akinboro SAN wrote: “Furthermore, I have it on good authority that Mr. Shamsudeen Haruna in the course of questioning by the consultant to Mr Yemi Akangbe, SAN during the bid defence confirmed to have been part of the 2024 election of the NBA and in possession of the data of over 70,000 (Seventy Thousand) lawyers. When questioned further as to why he retains such data, he stated that he has not been disengaged.

“It is quite telling that this revelation was not disclosed by Mikrodigital Connect in its bid document but was only extracted upon questioning. Furthermore, it is on record that the 2024 election of the NBA was conducted by which are neither Mikrodigital Connect nor Shamsuddeen Haruna thereby raising the question as to what role Shamsuddeen Haruna and his Mikrodgital Connect actually played in the last election. Could it be that Shamsuddeen Usman and his Mikrodigital Connect were the unseen hands behind the shadows that determined the outcome of the 2024 national elections. This no doubt calls for a detailed investigation to avoid leaving the elections in the hands of an entity that is not only incompetent but also conflicted.”

It is clear that this very crucial question cannot be wished away. At least one other ranking candidate confirmed to CITY LAWYER that Mr. Usman indeed made the assertion that he has the data of tens of thousands of NBA members arising out of the 2024 Elections, adding that he pointedly told the stakeholders at the ECNBA Stakeholders Meeting that he had not been disengaged by the NBA.

How true is Mr. Haruna’s assertion that he has a subsisting contract with NBA, moreso as the entity is not on record as one of the service providers hired by NBA for the 2024 Elections? If true, what is the nature of the contract? On what basis is the entity still retained by NBA? What is the scope of the 2024 contract with NBA? Was it disclosed to the committee? To what extent does it align with or impugn its current contract with the NBA?  

Given its leading and all-important role as the Electronic Voting Service Provider for the 2026 Elections, Mikrodigital must, like Caesar’s wife, be beyond suspicion. This will safeguard the integrity of the elections. Thus far, the question mark hanging over Mikrodigital Connect has simply refused to go away. As things stand, only a full disclosure will douse the doubts and bolster confidence in the forthcoming elections.

Recently, FCT Minister Nyesom Wike unwittingly paid Osigwe the best compliment when he suggested that the NBA President has been very critical of the Federal Government. By so doing, he immediately cast Osigwe in the mould of fiery and fiercely independent former NBA President Alao Aka-Bashorun, to name a few. The NBA President must now go beyond this desirable detachment to also resolve the discontents that have long dogged NBA elections since the introduction of universal suffrage and electronic voting by a regime of which he was an influential member.

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