The Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association Lawyers in the Media Forum (NBA-LIM), Mr. Adam Adedimeji, has described the last biennial election of the Nigerian Bar Association, as a sign of national renewal.

Adedimeji made the remark in a congratulatory message to NBA President-elect, Mrs. Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN.

Badejo-Okusanya was declared winner of the election by the Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA).

Referring to Badejo-Okusanya as the first elected female president of the NBA, Adedimeji asserted that “Getting elected in an election contested by men of equally high standing in the legal profession is clearly stating that the culture of condescending treatment of women has shown signs of ebbing in our society,” adding that “it is even great that she was neither elected on the basis of a quota nor exclusive reservation for women.”

According to him, “Badejo-Okusanya was elected based on the strength of what Nigerian lawyers considered to have constituted her character and competence that could aid in giving the Nigerian bar its deserving niche in the course of shaping things in the Nigerian nation.

Pointing to NBA’s zoning and rotation of the presidency that produced Badejo-Okusanya from the Western Bar, he described it as “nationalistic pride,” explaining that “her emergence is yet another proof that quality people who can lead at any level and field of our national life abound in every nook and cranny of the Nigerian nation.”

Adedimeji said: “Regarding the fact that the incoming president was called to Bar in the 21st century – the first from that age to emerge the NBA president – it is also a joyous thing that the NBA is growing with age.”

On Badejo-Okusanya’s campaign mantra of “Bold Bar That Works for Everyone,” he stated that the slogan “remains quite apt in consideration of the fact that the Nigerian society, at every level, needs to square up with daunting challenges of nation building.

“In view of issues that have been confronting our country in contemporary times, the Nigerian legal profession needs to be bold in its full form at all times and places.”

Assuring the incoming NBA President of the readiness of NBA-LIM to collaborate with the her leadership, Adedimeji stated that “At a time that I am presiding over the affairs of Lawyers in the Media Forum, it will be a personal and collective joy to experience boldness in the legal profession – both at the bench and the bar. Indeed, it takes bold leaders for boldness to be institutionalized in our system. A bold leader of the Nigerian bar is an asset to the media in multiple ways.

“With a bold NBA, the media could easily develop content that can be deployed to hold leaders in the public or governmental spheres accountable to the people.

“Since the media and the legal profession occupy strategic positions in the larger societal scheme of things, the Fourth Estate of the Realm can be an effective partner with the bar in championing and enthroning the rule of law, which have potential for societal reformation.”

“The media can also leverage on the rule of law to buffer the lot of the underprivileged and the downtrodden,” he concluded.

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