*Says SAN Rank Does Not Equal Capacity To Manage NBA Elections
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Arise News analyst, Dr. Sam Amadi, has raised fresh concerns over the conduct of the just-concluded 2026 Nigerian Bar Association National Officers Election, saying some lawyers who claimed they voted during the exercise later complained that they could not find their names on the list released by the Electoral Committee of the NBA as persons who participated in the election.
Speaking on Arise News, Amadi said the complaints raised serious questions about the integrity of the voting data and the need for a proper post-election audit.
According to him, about 20 lawyers who claimed they successfully voted later could not find their names on the ECNBA’s published list of voters. He also recalled that on election day, he was with lawyers who claimed that about 50 persons voted from the same location, but their votes did not immediately reflect on the election platform.
“On Saturday, I was with lawyers in my office who claimed that 50 of them voted at the spot. It didn’t reflect on that machine, maybe reflected much later,” he said.
Amadi said the development, when placed alongside complaints by lawyers who could not receive OTP codes, access the voting platform or obtain support during the exercise, raised serious credibility concerns.
He, however, congratulated the President-Elect, Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, describing her emergence as historic and important for women in the legal profession.
According to him, Badejo-Okusanya’s victory as the second woman to lead the NBA showed her pedigree, professional acceptance and capacity to win a tough contest.
He said all three presidential candidates were accomplished lawyers, adding that the concerns surrounding the process should not detract from Badejo-Okusanya’s personal achievement.
Amadi described the election as a “bad election, but good outcome,” saying the outcome was positive because a young and dynamic woman emerged NBA President, but the process was troubled by controversy, malfunctioning technology and serious questions of credibility.
He said the NBA had returned to a familiar pattern where its elections are disputed and followed by rancour, allegations of poor management and questions over the use of technology.
According to him, the controversies have again raised the need for the Bar to have a serious conversation on whether the current one-lawyer, one-vote model is better than a delegate system.
Amadi said while the democratic impulse behind universal voting is understandable, there may be a need to examine whether a delegate system would provide more stability, professional judgment and less rancour in NBA elections.
He said the NBA must also reflect on the fact that lawyers who criticise national elections must ensure that their own professional association conducts elections that can withstand scrutiny.
On the use of technology, Amadi said technology remains the way forward for elections, but warned that it still depends on the human beings who design, procure, manage and deploy it.
He said the problem in Nigeria, including within the NBA, is the failure to conduct credible post-election audits after disputed processes.
According to him, an audit is not necessarily meant to remove or delegitimise a winner, but to generate useful information on what failed, what worked and what must be improved.
Amadi said the NBA must stop treating outcomes as justification for defective processes, stressing that where process errors are significant, they can affect confidence in the outcome itself.
He said the complaints from the election suggested that either the technology did not work well, there was incompetence in managing it, or there may have been mischief in the use of the technology.
Amadi also referred to concerns earlier raised about the competence and capacity of the technology service provider, Mikrodigital Connect, and the data protection consultant, Teni Nigeria Limited.
He said questions about due diligence, transparency and the credibility of the selection process had been raised before the election, adding that the NBA ought to have paused and reviewed the process when those concerns emerged.
He further questioned the practice of assuming that seniority at the Bar automatically translates to competence in managing complex electoral systems.
According to him, being a lawyer or a Senior Advocate of Nigeria is evidence of professional proficiency in litigation, but does not necessarily demonstrate the ability to manage institutions, technology, procurement, data systems and election processes.
He argued that the NBA should involve people with proven experience in managing organisations and systems, especially in procurement, technology deployment, complaints management and institutional reform.
Amadi said there is both a problem of character and a problem of capability in the way NBA elections are handled.
He warned that technology can be deceptive, saying if it is badly procured or designed to produce a predetermined outcome, it will deliver flawed results.
He urged the new NBA President-Elect to lead a comprehensive reform of the Association’s electoral system by ensuring that the process is reconstituted in a transparent and credible manner.
According to him, there appear to be vested interests in keeping NBA elections controversial, and such interests must give way if the Association is to have clean, credible and less divisive elections in the future.
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