An Official Statement by Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, SAN
I have seen the media reports describing my attendance at today’s Candidates’ Debate as an act of “defiance” against the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation. I address this directly because the characterisation is wrong, and because what it gets wrong matters.
I did not attend the debate in defiance of anyone. I attended because Nigerian lawyers were gathered to hear from the candidates who seek to lead them, and I will never, under any circumstances, refuse that invitation.
This is not a position I arrived at today. It is the conviction on which my entire candidacy rests. Whether the platform is a presidential debate at NBA House, a law week in a branch of fifty practitioners, a town hall in a state capital, or a corridor conversation with a young lawyer who wants to know what the Bar can do for him or her, wherever two or three lawyers are gathered to discuss the future of this profession, I will be there. I will listen. I will account. I will engage. That, in my considered opinion, is not defiance, it is what leadership looks like before it is given a title.
However, I must be precise about what happened and what it means.
The Honourable Attorney General of the Federation, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, in his respected role as Leader of the Bar, has undertaken a commendable peace building initiative to resolve the deep seated conflicts surrounding the 2026 NBA Elections. I have participated in that process. I submitted a detailed Memorandum to the 3 Man Committee of Past Presidents constituted under the Attorney General’s auspices. I attended the interactive session. I engaged in good faith. The recommendations emerging from that process, including disengaging the current service providers, enforcing mandatory NIN authentication, and establishing an Independent Electoral Oversight Committee, align directly with the exact concerns I raised on the record as far back as June 2026.
I do not disown that process. I do not disrespect it. I support it.
But the existence of an ongoing mediation process does not impose, and cannot impose, an obligation on a presidential candidate to stop speaking to the lawyers whose votes he seeks. Mediation addresses institutional arrangements. A debate addresses the electorate. They operate on different planes in my opinion. One does not cancel the other. The machinery is there to serve the members. The members are not there to wait for the machinery.
I wish to restate, for the avoidance of any doubt, the position I set out earlier today before the debate commenced.
My participation in the Candidates’ Debate does not constitute an endorsement or legitimation of the broader electoral process as currently constituted by the ECNBA. Every concern I have raised, including the constitutionality of the ECNBA’s appointment and the corporate standing of its service providers, the abandonment of the NIN safeguard, the unilateral date changes, and the threats of professional discipline, remains live, unresolved, and formally on the record. I participated today for the lawyers in the room and watching online, not to rubber stamp the process that brought them there.
I note that one of the three presidential candidates chose not to attend the debate. That is his right and I respect it. Every candidate must make their own judgment about how best to serve the electorate. My judgment is that the electorate is best served by a candidate who shows up, who speaks, who answers questions, who submits himself to the scrutiny of his peers, and who trusts the members of the Nigerian Bar Association to assess his vision on its merits.
That is what I did today. That is what I will continue to do, every day, in every forum, until the members of this Association cast their votes, whenever that may be.
I entered this contest to Elevate the Bar. Elevating the Bar begins with showing up for the lawyers who make up the Bar. I showed up today. I will show up tomorrow. And if entrusted with the mandate I seek, I will show up for you every single day of my presidency.
Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe, SAN
Candidate, Office of the President, Nigerian Bar Association