I Know my Election was Controversial – New NBA President Badejo-Okunsanya Says as She Appoints Ajibade SAN as Election Reform Committee Chairman
Newly elected President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Badejo-Okusanya, has set up an election reform committee to review the association’s electoral process.
The committee will be chaired by Dr Babatunde Ajibade, SAN.
Badejo-Okusanya, speaking after her election, acknowledged the controversy surrounding the election and the technological difficulties that prevented some eligible members from voting.
She said: “I’m conscious that the election which brought us here generated some controversy, and that technological difficulties prevented a number of eligible members from exercising their franchise.
“I do not, however, accept the allegation that the outcome was manipulated or fraudulently predetermined.
“I worked hard. I took my message to lawyers across the country and I received the mandate that has brought me before you today. But confidence in an election is strengthened, not diminished, when legitimate concerns are examined openly.
“Our responsibility is not to trade accusations or remain imprisoned by a contest that has ended. It is to ensure that future NBA elections command even greater confidence among our members.
“I will therefore establish an election reform committee to be chaired by Dr Babatunde Ajibade, SAN, to undertake a comprehensive examination of our electoral architecture.
“The committee will consult widely, receive memoranda and recommend the constitutional, institutional and technological reforms necessary to deliver even better elections than we have hitherto had.
“Let me sound a note of clarification. Universal suffrage has come to stay. Our task is to just make it work better. And I invite my co-contestants, our regional bar, branches, past leaders, young lawyers, old lawyers and every concerned member not to sit in their homes and offices or hide behind their keyboards, but to participate constructively in this process.
“We may disagree about the election that has passed, but there was no fraud in that election. So let us work together to build confidence in our systems because the lack of confidence that we express is presenting an extremely negative perception of the Nigerian Bar Association to the outside world.
“And on that note, I want to implore all well-meaning members of the Bar, including my co-contestants, to join me and lend their voices to condemning the increasingly distasteful practice of campaign abuse.
“To every lawyer who voted for me, I’m deeply grateful. To those who preferred another candidate, I extend the same hand of fellowship. I will be president not only of those who voted for me, but of every member of the Nigerian congregation.
“The Bar is still mine. I acknowledge my co-contestants. Their participation enriched the contest and demonstrated their willingness to serve our profession.
“And I invite them and their supporters, and the ideas they championed, to become part of the work ahead. The election is over. The work belongs to all of us now.
“There are no victors, no vanquished in Nigeria. There is only one Bar. One profession.
“And one shared responsibility to leave it both stronger than we met it.”
