A lawyer who commented anonymously on social media has responded to the intervention of human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, in the controversy trailing the 2026 Nigerian Bar Association National Officers Election, saying the Senior Advocate merely restated what Nigerian lawyers already know about the country’s broken electoral culture.
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The lawyer was reacting to the eight questions Falana posed to Chief J.S. Okutepa, SAN, after Okutepa criticised the conduct of the July 18, 2026 NBA election and described the exercise as deeply flawed.
According to the respondent, Falana’s comments were factually correct but did not go far enough because they failed to provide a practical solution to the problem of electoral credibility within the Bar and in Nigeria generally.
“The distinguished Silk, Falana SAN, has only stated the obvious,” the lawyer said.
Falana had asked Okutepa whether he was not aware that riggers of presidential, legislative, governorship and local government elections in Nigeria are defended by very senior lawyers; that many lawyers no longer accept election petition briefs because fraudulent results are almost impossible to overturn; and that State Independent Electoral Commissions, which routinely return ruling parties in local government elections, are often headed by retired judges and senior lawyers.
He also asked whether Okutepa was unaware that judges who rely on technicalities to validate manipulated elections are also senior lawyers; that NBA election manipulation had been litigated since 2016; and that senior lawyers allegedly persuaded complainants to withdraw the criminal case against two lawyers charged over alleged digital rigging of the 2018 NBA election.
Falana further asked whether the senior lawyers who managed the 2026 NBA election had apologised to lawyers who were allegedly disenfranchised, before asking whether Okutepa was truly surprised that the 2026 NBA electoral officials mismanaged the process.
However, the anonymous lawyer said Falana’s questions only diagnosed the problem without prescribing a cure.
“The question is, what do we do to change the narratives, that is, right the wrongs? Make the electoral process more credible?” the lawyer asked.
“We know what ails us and there is absolutely no denying it. The question now is that Nigerians are looking for solutions,” he added.
The lawyer further stated, “How I wish the distinguished Silk could tell us what it is we should do to get ourselves out of this cesspool.”
The respondent also argued that Falana’s intervention appeared to follow a familiar pattern of recalling past failures without offering a concrete path to reform.
He questioned why Falana directed his questions at Okutepa, who had already used an interview to identify what he considered to be wrong with the NBA electoral system and to call for reform.
The lawyer also raised concerns over Falana’s political alignment, suggesting that it weakened the force of his criticism, and insisted that the more useful contribution at this stage would be a clear proposal on how to make future electoral processes more credible.
The exchange arose from the fallout of the July 18, 2026 NBA election, in which Mrs Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, polled 12,317 votes to defeat Lateef Akangbe, SAN, who scored 7,934 votes, and Olumuyiwa Akinboro, SAN, who secured 5,855 votes.
A total of 26,106 votes were cast out of 82,213 eligible voters.
Okutepa had described the election as “a coronation” rather than a proper contest, alleging that the process appeared geared towards a predetermined outcome. He also questioned the cyberattack explanation offered during the exercise and argued that the alleged disenfranchisement of about 56,000 lawyers made the outcome difficult to defend.
Falana’s response did not directly dispute Okutepa’s account or defend the Electoral Committee of the NBA. Instead, he situated the controversy within what he described as a wider professional culture in which senior lawyers defend election riggers, compromised electoral processes are legitimised through technical judgments, and electoral impunity has become normalised.
The latest response has added another layer to the debate over the NBA election.
One position, associated with Okutepa, Akangbe and former NBA President J.B. Daudu, SAN, is that the election was fundamentally flawed and should be challenged, audited or annulled.
Another position, represented by former NBA President Chief O.C.J. Okocha, SAN, is that the complaints have not been substantiated, that no one has shown that the glitches benefited any candidate, and that the Bar should accept the outcome while focusing on future reform.
Falana’s intervention presents the issue as systemic and predictable, arguing that the same legal profession that enables electoral impunity nationally should not be surprised when similar problems occur within its own association.
The anonymous lawyer’s reply, however, insists that all sides have so far done more to describe the problem than solve it, adding that the urgent task before the Bar is to produce a concrete, practical and implementable reform plan before the next NBA election cycle.
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