Oyinkan Badejo-Okusanya and Chinyere Moneme earn all-too-rare spots for women among prestigious SAN ranks 

While honouring the distinguished service of dozens of senior Nigeria lawyers yesterday in Abuja, the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (LPPC) continued a jarring disparity in the Nigerian legal profession with its elevation of 55 men and only two women to the prestigious rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). 

Oyinkan Badejo-Okusanya, a litigation, arbitration & ADR specialist who last year chaired the Nigerian Bar Association AGM (the largest annual gathering of lawyers in the world), and Chinyere Ekene Moneme, an international arbitrator, litigator, and partner at Crystal Legal Services, were the only women elevated to SAN. 

This continues a worrying trend with an extremely low percentage of female SANs (around 4% of the several hundred Nigerian legal practitioners holding that rank), despite 40% of Nigeria’s legal profession being women. And despite Nigeria being found by a recent International Bar Association report to compare favourably to many global jurisdictions in terms of its overall proportion of ‘senior female lawyers’. 

“The benefits of a diverse environment have been proven for decades, the measures

needed to achieve it have been identified and there is widespread awareness of this issue in many countries,” said outgoing IBA President Almudena Arpón de Mendívil when releasing 50:50 by 2030: A longitudinal study into gender disparity in law, last December. “What we truly need to do is increase action and accelerate progress.” 

An ambitious initiative based on three years of research and effort by the IBA Legal Policy and Research Unit in collaboration with the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation, the longitudinal study gathered all available information about the state of gender equality within the legal profession across 12 jurisdictions spanning five continents, including Nigeria and Uganda in Africa. 

While Nigeria had among the lowest numbers of female lawyers overall (40%) it performed very well in terms of women lawyers rising to positions of responsibility (46%, significantly higher than the likes of the UK, with 32%). 

However, that gender balance among ‘senior lawyers’ in the Nigerian profession praised in the IBA report significantly drops off at the very highest levels, with only 33% of Nigeria’s judiciary being women, and an astonishingly low 4% of SANs. 

In April, Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ) launched efforts to address gender disparities within Nigerian law. Executive Director Omowunmi Akingbohungbe said WIMBIZ had identified “key major gaps” for gender balance in law, with underrepresentation of women as SANs being a prime example.

The rank of SAN is conferred as a mark of professional excellence upon practitioners who have “demonstrated exceptional distinction either as advocates in the courts or as academics contributing significantly to the development of legal scholarship”. 

Yesterday’s other elevations to SAN include Chief Fedude Zimughan, who was called to the bar in 1983; Ikechukwu Uwanna, the Attorney General of Abia State and former Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association’s Lagos branch; Labaran Magaji, the immediate past Attorney General of Nasarawa State and current Secretary to the State Government; Oluwole Jimi-Bada, the Attorney General of Osun State; and Professor Chima Ubanyionwu, the sole academic appointee. 

The youngest new SAN is 34-year-old Olufemi Olubunmi Oyewole, the son of Justice Olubunmi Oyewole, and a member of the IBA Arbitration Committee, as well as an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK).

All SANs must attend and successfully complete the Pre-Swearing-In Induction Programme, a directive issued by the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (BOSAN). Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun is scheduled to formally confer the rank of SAN on the 57 successful candidates at a swearing in ceremony on Monday 29 September.

You can see the full list of new Senior Advocates of Nigeria, here

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