Barr Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA
The Annual General Conference (AGC) of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is often described as the flagship gathering of Nigeria’s legal profession. It brings together lawyers, judges, policymakers, academics, business leaders, civil society organisations and other stakeholders to deliberate on issues affecting the legal profession and the nation.
The 2026 AGC, currently holding in Port Harcourt under the theme “Beyond Limits: Redefining the Practice of Law,” is particularly significant because its programme addresses not only professional development but also democracy, governance, insecurity, economic regulation, access to justice, public-interest law, human rights and the future of legal practice.
Yet, the importance of the AGC should not be measured merely by the number of delegates who attend, the prominence of its speakers, the quality of its social events or the scale of its ceremonies. Its more fundamental question is one of public value: what does this annual gathering contribute to the development of Nigerian lawyers, the administration of justice and the welfare of the Nigerian people?
The AGC should therefore be understood not simply as an annual conference but as an important institutional opportunity for the Nigerian legal profession to examine itself, confront national challenges and determine how law can be deployed as an instrument of justice, accountability and national development.
The AGC as an instrument of professional development.
The first and most obvious benefit of the AGC is the continuing education of lawyers. The practice of law is no longer static. New legislation, technological developments, regulatory frameworks, judicial decisions, international obligations and emerging areas of practice constantly reshape the profession.
A lawyer who qualified several years ago cannot rely exclusively on knowledge acquired at the point of admission to practice. Continuing professional education is therefore essential to competence and professional responsibility.
The AGC provides a unique environment in which practitioners can learn from experienced advocates, judges, academics, policymakers and specialists from other jurisdictions. Its sessions expose lawyers to emerging developments and allow them to reconsider conventional approaches to legal practice.
This becomes even more important in an era of artificial intelligence and legal technology. The Nigerian lawyer of the future must understand not only statutes and precedents but also how technology is transforming legal research, document production, dispute resolution, client management and access to justice. The NBA has itself identified technology and AI-related capacity building as important areas for the profession.
The benefit ultimately extends beyond the lawyer. A more competent lawyer provides better advice, prepares stronger cases and is better equipped to protect the rights of clients.
The AGC and the development of young lawyers
Perhaps one of the most important responsibilities of the AGC is to contribute to the future of the profession.
Young lawyers enter a profession that can be highly competitive and economically difficult. Many struggle with inadequate remuneration, limited access to mentorship, insufficient professional networks and the cost of establishing sustainable practices.
An annual gathering of this magnitude can help bridge some of these gaps by creating opportunities for mentorship, networking and exposure. Senior practitioners can transfer knowledge and experience to younger members of the Bar, while young lawyers can encounter areas of practice and professional opportunities that may otherwise remain inaccessible to them.
The NBA’s establishment of a young lawyers’ co-working initiative in 2026 demonstrates recognition of these structural challenges. The initiative is intended to promote mentorship, collaboration and practical support for younger practitioners.
The AGC should build upon this by making the development of young lawyers a central, rather than peripheral, objective. A profession that does not deliberately cultivate its next generation will eventually lose institutional memory, professional standards and leadership capacity.
The AGC as a forum for national discourse
The legal profession occupies a peculiar position in society. Lawyers are simultaneously officers of the court, advisers to government and business, advocates for citizens and participants in democratic governance.
Consequently, the NBA cannot reasonably confine its annual deliberations to technical questions of legal practice.
The 2026 programme illustrates this broader responsibility. It includes discussions on democracy and governance, policing, elections, insecurity, resource control, taxation, banking regulation, public procurement, access to justice, public-interest law and human rights.
This is important because many of Nigeria’s most difficult problems have legal dimensions. Insecurity raises questions about constitutional rights and the administration of criminal justice. Economic difficulties raise questions about taxation, regulation and property rights. Democratic instability raises questions about constitutionalism, electoral integrity and the rule of law.
The Bar therefore has an obligation to participate intelligently in national conversations. It should not merely react after institutions have failed; it should contribute ideas before laws are enacted and before crises become irreversible.
The AGC and access to justice
The most compelling justification for the NBA’s existence is not the welfare of lawyers but the administration of justice.
A legal profession may be prosperous and professionally sophisticated while millions of citizens remain unable to obtain justice. That would represent a failure of the profession’s wider social responsibility.
Access to justice encompasses much more than the ability to hire a lawyer. It involves affordable legal services, timely courts, effective legal aid, protection of fundamental rights and the ability of ordinary citizens to obtain meaningful remedies when government, corporations or individuals violate their rights.
The AGC provides a platform for these issues to receive national attention. The 2026 programme specifically includes access to justice and public-interest law among its areas of discussion.
However, discussion alone is insufficient. Conference deliberations should lead to practical programmes: expanded pro bono services, stronger legal-aid partnerships, public legal education, strategic litigation and initiatives directed at prisoners, indigent persons, women, children, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups.
The true success of an AGC should therefore partly be measured by how many people who cannot afford legal representation ultimately benefit from initiatives generated by the conference.
The AGC and the defence of the rule of law
The Nigerian Bar has historically played an important role in defending constitutionalism and the rule of law. This responsibility remains critical.
Nigeria’s democratic institutions face persistent challenges, including insecurity, institutional weakness, public distrust and concerns about the effectiveness of justice institutions. The NBA’s own leadership has acknowledged these difficulties and identified democratic reform, engagement with the judiciary and law enforcement, access to justice and technological transformation as areas requiring sustained attention.
The AGC should consequently provide an environment where lawyers can speak candidly about threats to constitutional government and the independence of institutions.
A strong Bar should be willing to defend the Constitution even when doing so is politically inconvenient. It should challenge unlawful governmental action regardless of the identity of the government involved. It should defend judicial independence, due process and fundamental rights without partisan considerations.
In this respect, the AGC is not merely a professional meeting. It can serve as a yearly moment of institutional reflection: Is the Nigerian legal profession adequately fulfilling its constitutional and moral responsibility as a defender of the rule of law?
The AGC and law reform
Another critical function of the conference should be the identification of laws and legal institutions that no longer adequately serve Nigerian society.
Nigeria’s legal system contains legislation inherited from different historical periods, as well as newer laws that sometimes produce unintended consequences. The Bar possesses enormous intellectual resources capable of identifying these weaknesses and proposing reforms.
The AGC can bring together practitioners who encounter problems in court, academics who study the law, judges who interpret it and policymakers who administer it. Such interaction can produce practical recommendations for legislative and institutional reform.
The NBA’s recent policy engagements demonstrate that the Association can contribute to legislative reform, including proposals concerning criminal justice and security legislation while seeking to ensure that security measures remain consistent with fundamental rights.
The challenge is to ensure that conference resolutions do not disappear after the closing ceremony. There should be mechanisms for tracking recommendations, assigning responsibility and reporting progress.
The AGC and the relationship between the Bar and the Bench
A healthy justice system requires constructive relations between lawyers and judges.
The AGC provides an unusual opportunity for the Bar and Bench to interact outside the immediate pressures of litigation. Lawyers can communicate practical difficulties encountered in courts, while judges can explain concerns regarding professional conduct, case management and the administration of justice.
Such dialogue can improve mutual understanding and potentially reduce unnecessary friction between practitioners and judicial officers.
Nevertheless, constructive engagement should not become excessive familiarity. The independence of the judiciary and the professional independence of lawyers must remain sacrosanct. The objective should be better justice, not merely better relationships.
The economic and social significance of the AGC
The conference also has an economic dimension. A major national gathering attracts lawyers, businesses, service providers, exhibitors and visitors to the host city. Hotels, restaurants, transport operators, event companies and other businesses benefit from the increased economic activity.
More importantly, the conference can expose lawyers to commercial developments and emerging sectors of the Nigerian economy. Sessions on taxation, banking, energy, aviation, arbitration, cryptocurrency and public procurement, for example, connect legal practice to broader economic activity.
This is valuable because the modern lawyer should understand the economic environment in which clients operate.
However, economic benefits should never overshadow the conference’s primary professional and public-interest purpose.
The danger of turning the AGC into an annual jamboree
This is perhaps the most important criticism that must be confronted.
There is nothing wrong with socialising. Lawyers, like other professionals, need fellowship, recreation and opportunities to build relationships. Indeed, the NBA’s 2026 programme deliberately includes social and community activities alongside professional sessions.
The danger arises when the social dimension becomes more important than the professional and public-interest mission.
If the AGC becomes principally a week of parties, dinners, political networking, celebrity appearances, fashion and commercial promotion, while substantive resolutions are forgotten immediately after the conference, then its value to society becomes questionable.
The criticism is therefore not that the AGC contains social activities. The criticism is that social activities must remain subordinate to the larger purpose of the legal profession.
The Nigerian public should reasonably ask: after billions of naira have been spent collectively on travel, accommodation, registration and conference activities, what measurable improvement in justice will result?
That is a legitimate question.
From conference resolutions to measurable outcomes
The greatest opportunity for reform is to establish a stronger connection between the AGC and post-conference action.
Every AGC should ideally conclude with a limited number of clearly defined priorities. Each priority should have responsible NBA structures, measurable objectives and a timetable for implementation.
For example, if a conference identifies access to justice as a major concern, the NBA should subsequently publish how many pro bono cases have been undertaken, how many indigent persons have benefited and what institutional reforms have been pursued.
If lawyers identify judicial delays as a major problem, the NBA should engage the judiciary and relevant authorities and later report what has changed.
If AI and technology are identified as transformative, the profession should move beyond speeches to practical training, ethical guidelines and affordable technological tools for practitioners.
This would transform the AGC from a conference of conversation into a conference of consequence.
The public should be regarded as the ultimate stakeholder
Perhaps the most important conceptual shift is to recognise that the Nigerian public is an indirect but crucial stakeholder in the AGC.
Most Nigerians will never attend the conference. They will not listen to the keynote addresses or participate in breakout sessions. Yet they are affected by the quality of the legal profession.
When lawyers become more competent, citizens benefit. When lawyers defend constitutional rights, citizens benefit. When the Bar promotes judicial reform, citizens benefit. When lawyers provide pro bono representation, citizens benefit. When the NBA successfully advocates for better laws, citizens benefit.
The AGC therefore has a social contract dimension. The legal profession enjoys considerable privileges because society entrusts lawyers with responsibilities relating to justice, rights, property, governance and the administration of law.
The profession must consequently demonstrate that its annual gathering serves a purpose larger than itself.
Conclusion
The NBA Annual General Conference remains potentially one of the most influential professional gatherings in Nigeria. Its significance lies not merely in bringing thousands of lawyers together but in providing the legal profession with an annual opportunity to learn, deliberate, challenge, reform and act.
For lawyers, its benefits include continuing professional development, networking, mentorship, exposure to emerging areas of practice and participation in the governance of the profession. For the public, its importance is deeper: a stronger, more competent and more socially responsible Bar can contribute to access to justice, constitutional governance, human-rights protection, law reform and institutional accountability.
But the AGC must constantly guard against becoming an elaborate annual jamboree whose greatest achievements are social rather than substantive. The parties, dinners, ceremonies and networking have their place, but they should never become the measure of success.
The ultimate test should be what happens after the delegates return home.
Did the conference produce better lawyers?
Did it improve access to justice?
Did it strengthen the rule of law?
Did it protect citizens whose rights were threatened?
Did it produce useful proposals for law reform?
Did it inspire lawyers to serve society more effectively?
And, most importantly, can an ordinary Nigerian who never attended the conference point to something that became better because the AGC took place?
If the answer to these questions is yes, then the NBA’s annual gathering deserves to be regarded not as a mere jamboree, but as a critical institution for the development of Nigeria’s legal profession and the defence of justice in Nigerian society.
The real challenge, therefore, is not whether the NBA should hold an annual conference. It is whether the conference can consistently transform ideas into action, professional privilege into public service, and annual deliberations into lasting improvements in the lives of Nigerians.
George Bamidele Ogunjimi Esq
jurisrepubliclegal@gmail.com
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