NBA Elections: That Candidates May Win ‘Fair and Square’ 

Condolences

Before I go into the Word for Today, I must express my heartfelt condolences to the family of Rtd Major General Rabe Abubakar, who died over the weekend, in the captivity of a gang said to be led by one Kachallah Muhammadu. We saw the video showing the late General in captivity, with a painful looking swollen foot. It is extremely sad and disheartening, to see someone who served this country as a soldier, lose his life this way. May Allah forgive him his shortcomings, and grant him Jannah. 

Introduction

I  have always tried to stay away from the politics of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), outside being just a member in right-standing. However, as a member of the NBA with no stake in any camp aside from the camp of due process and credible elections, it has become impossible to ignore the recent controversy concerning the upcoming NBA elections for national officers, scheduled to hold on July 20, 2026. The NBA elections go beyond the Association. Our elections should serve as a precedent for national elections, seeing as Lawyers are considered to be the vanguards of rule of law, and must therefore, be a shining example of everything good about democracy in their affairs – fairness, transparency, integrity and credibility, so as not to erode public trust. 

Upcoming NBA Elections: Matters Arising 

All disputes, except those excepted by the Constitution, can be litigated in the courts – see Section 6(6)(b) & (c) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended)(the Constitution) – and, of course, Lawyers are the ones who represent litigants. Both Petitioners and Respondents alike, call upon Lawyers to represent them in their election petitions. It would therefore, be absurd, if those who are called upon to handle these situations, appear to be incapable of upholding the rule of law in their own affairs, when in actuality, the primary purpose of the NBA and legal practitioners is defending the rule of law – see Part 1 Clause 3(11) of the NBA Constitution 2015 (as amended in 2025)(NBA Constitution).

Incidentally, This Day Lawyer’s interview of the week on page 8-10, is with the Chairman of the Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA),, Aham Ejelam, SAN, who seeks to clarify the second and third matters arising listed here.  

1) Establishment of 2026 ECNBA

Unfortunately, there have been complaints concerning how the  ECNBA, the body that conducts the NBA elections was constituted/members appointed, with some alleging that it was done in breach of the NBA Constitution – see Part II Clause 10(3) of the NBA Constitution; Fawehinmi v NBA & Ors (No. 2) (1989) LPELR-1259(SC) per Andrews Otutu Obaseki, JSC on the role of the NBA Constitution, being to regulate its affairs. 

2) Selection of IT Companies

The choices alleged to have been made by the ECNBA with regard to the IT Companies that will conduct the elections, Mikrodigital Connect for electronic voting and Thanelinc Nigeria Limited for Data Protection, have been called into question by two of the three Presidential candidates, and apparently, for good reasons too. The challenges of the candidates, point to calls for due diligence, transparency and unimpeachable processes for the conduct of the elections. The complaining Presidential Candidates, have demanded that the appointments of these companies be reviewed and set aside. 

Mikrodigital is alleged to be a sole proprietorship, an unknown business name and not a limited liability company, lacking competence or any track record whatsoever in electronic voting; also very low on corporate governance, as it is alleged to have owed the Corporate Affairs Commission fees for six years (2020-2025) since its registration in 2019, the arrears cleared between May 31 and June 1, 2026, coinciding with the period of Mikrodigital’s selection to conduct the elections. 

In a Press Statement issued on Friday, June 12, 2026, the ECNBA defended itself by stating that Mikrodigital defeated 18 other companies to win the selection process. Naturally, this has made people ask what type of organisations the other 18 contenders are, if the winner doesn’t appear to be an ‘A’ list company. The ECNBA stated emphatically that its decision to select Mikrodigital was based on ‘Demonstrated performance’ – an important question to ask, would be whether demonstrated performance should be holistic, or just performance at an interview. 

It has also been alleged by one of the Candidates, that the sole proprietor of Mikrodigital, the Secretary of the ECNBA and the DG of the Campaign Council of one of the Presidential Candidates, all share strong ties to the same Nigerian State. While ordinarily, such connections should not matter in principle, they fuel understandable concerns, particularly in light of questions over why Mikrodigital – a company seemingly skating on thin ice – was chosen to handle the electronic process in the first place.

Another allegation levelled against the other company selected as the Data Protector, Thanelinc, was that there are no public records of its registration with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) as a Data Protection Compliance Company, and requisite certification to conduct the data protection role that it was selected for by the ECNBA. See Sections 5 & 33 of the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 (NDP Act). It appears that Thanelinc’s data protector role aligns with the framework of those that may require registration with NDPC. However, in the aforementioned Press Statement, the ECNBA didn’t state categorically that Thanelinc had the NDPC  registration. In law, such an allegation must be directly controverted. The way to have put this particular allegation to rest, would have been to simply provide the NDPC registration details of Thanelinc. This was not done. 

While I’m not in a position to confirm or deny the allegations levelled against these two companies, another important question is, why choose companies that may not be perfect for the assignment and have clouds hanging over their heads, in the first place? 

If the allegations are found to be true, then it is troubling that the ECNBA selected companies that may, prima facie, be unfit to conduct our NBA elections credibly. Even if according to the ECNBA, their live performance was decisive, due diligence on corporate governance, financial standing, and regulatory compliance should precede demonstrations. Holistic evaluation (past verifiable projects in such high-stakes elections), matters for public confidence.

3) Voter Authentication/NIN Issue

The issue of using the National Identification Number (NIN) for voter authentication/accreditation, which the ECNBA allegedly agreed to with stakeholders, but didn’t incorporate into the voting process, has also been raised. A way in which members could maybe use the NINs as a secret password to enter the voting platform, so that the NBA, IT Companies, and no other third party has access the NINs.

The argument on one side is that, with only the SCN + OTP, the election can easily be compromised. That those in control of the voting process can feed in SCNs of members without their knowledge (as the SCNs of all members who have paid their practicing fees are readily available at the NBA Secretariat, while those who have paid their Branch dues are also available at the Branch Secretariats), create alternative email addresses/phone numbers where the OTPs can be sent to, and cast votes for the hackers’ preferred candidate using members’ hijacked details. This was one of the accusations levelled against the 2018 ECNBA, in which for example, using the details of several members of the NBA Ahoada Branch, their OTPs were allegedly sent to fake emails instead of their registered accounts, and others voted in their stead/they were unable to vote. 

But, with the NIN, unless the member makes their NIN available to others, they do not readily have access to it, thereby making it almost impossible to use the details of members to vote in their absence, because of the missing NIN link. 

One of the responses of the ECNBA to this complaint, is that the NBA Constitution provides that all NBA Members are eligible to vote once they are members of a Branch and have paid their Bar Practicing Fees. That NIN as an authentication tool, may therefore appear to be inserting an additional condition (which isn’t part of the NBA Constitution). Concerns were also raised by the ECNBA about female Lawyers who may have married, but haven’t changed their NINs, and Lawyers in Diaspora who may not have NINs. Is this really the case? No. It isn’t. Adding NIN isn’t necessarily an extra eligibility requirement, but a security measure. It doesn’t alter eligibility, it enhances and strengthens it. Now, the ECNBA insists that there are time constraints and incorporating NIN is no longer feasible, given that the elections are just a little over a month away. While practical hurdles may exist, the ECNBA could have initiated earlier harmonisation or phased integration. Credibility demands addressing systemic risks, rather than defaulting to convenience.

In Fawehinmi v NBA & Ors (No. 2) (Supra), the Supreme Court held inter alia that the NBA Constitution isn’t a statutory instrument nor a subsidiary legislation, but a private document regulating the NBA’s affairs. It therefore, goes without saying that, the NBA Constitution is inferior to the laws of the land. By virtue of Section 16(a) of the National Identity Management Commission Act 2007 (NIMC Act), it is mandatory that every Nigerian citizen must enrol for and obtain an NIN, and this is obviously applicable to Nigerians living abroad, as they are not excepted. It is possible to obtain NIN in about 40 countries outside Nigeria, and NIN is also a prerequisite for the renewal of passports – see Section 27 of the NIMC Act. This is a law, which all Nigerians are bound by. As for the change of circumstances of female Lawyers, such as change of surname as a result of marriage, Section 22(1) of the NIMC Act provides that they must notify NIMC of this development, and the NIMC Regulations stipulate that this notification must be done within 30 days of such change. 

Therefore, the argument about the disenfranchisement of thousands of eligible NBA members who don’t have NIN, or Nigerian Lawyers in the Diaspora who do not have the NIN, or married female Lawyers who haven’t regularised their status with NIMC but are eligible to vote, that they would be excluded from voting in the elections, appears to fall flat on its face. It is even an offence punishable by a fine of N100,000 or 6 months imprisonment or both, for those required to obtain the NIN, not to – see Section 30(1)(a) & (2) of the NIMC Act. How then, can the ECNBA justify the non-use of NIN as a security tool, because of Lawyers who have violated the law and failed to do what is legally compulsory for all Nigerians? Is that not undermining the rule of law? After all, the NIMC Act is an 11 year old law, not one that was enacted last week.

Pertinent Questions 

If Lawyers, Officers in the Temple of Justice, cannot conduct credible elections, then, who can? If Lawyers, whose primary purpose in society is to uphold the rule of law, blatantly disregard it regularly to achieve their own agendas/goals, then such society, sadly, will very easily descend into a Hobbesian State. 

Conclusion 

The NBA exists first and foremost, to uphold the rule of law. When those who are called upon to defend justice in Nigeria cannot conduct their own affairs with transparency, fairness, and integrity, they lose the moral authority to lecture the nation. Lawyers cannot demand from others, what they refuse to practice themselves.

For the 2026 NBA elections to be credible, the process must not only be fair, it must be seen to be fair. Anything less erodes public confidence in the Bar, and sets a dangerous precedent for our national democracy. 

The ECNBA, the candidates, and all members of the NBA must rise above personal and sectional interests. Our elections must reflect the highest standards that we preach to the rest of the country. Nothing less is acceptable. All that is required is a level playing field for credible elections, where those candidates who win ‘fair and square’, emerge victorious. I however, request that Lawyers read the interview of the ECNBA Chairman, for more information on the preparations for the upcoming elections.