A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Afam Osigwe has won the presidential election of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) which was held on Saturday.
Mr. Osigwe, whose legal career spans 25 years since he was called to the Bar in 1999, is set to become the 32nd NBA president when the outgoing president, Yakubu Maikyau, completes his two-year tenure in August.
Mr. Osigwe, a former General Secretary of the NBA from 2014 to 2016, secured 20,435 votes, more than half of the total ballots cast for the presidential position, defeating his two rivals. Tobenna Ikwuazom came in a distant second with 10,998 votes, while another SAN, Chukwuka Ikuazom, who withdrew from the race midway through the election on Saturday, came third with 9,018 votes.
Accredited members of the NBA cast their votes electronically between 12 a.m. and 11.59 a.m. on Saturday. As of the time voting closed, 40,451 votes were tallied for the office of the association’s president, with 205 abstentions, according to the results portal updated every minute by the Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA).
Winners also emerged from elections conducted for 12 other national offices of the association. The election was restricted to eligible candidates from the Eastern Bar of the NBA, as it was their turn under the association’s zoning arrangement to fill the position for the next two years.
He is taking over from Mr. Maikyau who represents the Northern Bar. The other regional bars within the NBA are the Western Bar and the Mid-Western Bar, which many still see as part of the Western Bar.
Brief profile of Afam Osigwe
The new NBA President-elect, Afam Osigwe, was born on October 25, 1972. He graduated from the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus in 1997 and was called to the Bar in 1999. He began his legal career with Chike Chigbue and Co., Abuja Office in 1999, and left in 2002 to establish his firm, LAW FORTE (Legal Practitioners, Corporate Consultants, and Notary Public). In 2006, he became a Notary Public of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
In 2010, Osigwe completed a face-to-face tutorial at Keble College, Oxford, earning a Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration. He became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK) in 2011. In 2007, he obtained a Master’s of Laws Degree (LL.M) from the University of Jos, and he also holds another LL.M in Transnational Commercial Practice from the Centre for International Legal Studies, Austria, in collaboration with Lazarski University, Poland.
Osigwe has acted as counsel in numerous arbitral proceedings and has served as a sole arbitrator or member of arbitral tribunals in commercial disputes. He is an avid reader and researcher. Osigwe was the last person to hold office as Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Abuja Branch (Unity Bar), covering the entire Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. During his tenure, the Bwari and Gwagwalada Branches were created.
By consent of the chairmen of the Bwari and Gwagwalada Branches, he became the first Chairman of Chairmen of NBA Branches in the FCT in 2012. He was sworn in as the General Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association in August 2014 and held that position until his tenure ended on August 26, 2016.
Mr. Osigwe, who campaigned to tackle corruption in the Bar and on the bench, is expected to revive the NBA’s traditional role of holding public officers accountable.
The inauguration of the new president and other national officers is scheduled to take place during the NBA 2024 Annual Conference in Lagos between 23 and 28 August.
