₦airaland Forum

PRESS RELEASE by Paul Ibe

NBA Election: Tinubu’s meddling is a test run of rigging 2027 polls

We are concerned that President Bola Tinubu has brought his state-sponsored toxic politics of coronation to bear on the election of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

Curiously, this same strategy of imposition without allowing for free, fair and credible elections is what the Tinubu-led APC administration is working assiduously towards in the 2027 General Elections. To achieve this, the President is weakening opposition parties by instigating crises in the parties, destroying our democratic institutions and focused on rigging the elections.

Sadly, the wild seeds of coronation that is being sowed all over the place, has found accommodation in the NBA Election.

There have been media reports of how this government and its agents have resorted to the use of the courts to railroad members of the Bar into settling for its preferred candidate. This, to say the least, is a dangerous precedent that is capable of widening our fault lines, which this administration's politics has turned into craters.

What is playing out in the NBA is clearly a confirmation that what Tinubu cannot compromise does not exist.

We wish to state that NBA Election remains the sole responsibility of the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA) appointed by the NBA NEC. This has been the practice under the NBA Constitution, 2015 (as amended).

By seeking to enthrone its preferred candidate by armtwisting the NBA to disqualify two of the prospective candidates, the Tinubu presidency was simply adopting its play book to have the candidates of the opposition parties disqualified through the instrunentality of the courts and the electoral umpire.

We wish to sound a note of warning to officials of the Tinubu government who are still desperate in achieving a preconceived result to give the NBA a break to organise a democratic election that will pave the way for a smooth transition of power. That is something that Tinubu may eventually learn from.

It is disgraceful and a negation of democracy that inspite of the failed efforts to shift the polls, even with the open support of the Attorney General of the Federation, officials of government are now deploying security agents to arrest service providers and frustrate the election.

This desperation shows how the Tinubu-led APC government plans to use government agencies to rig the 2027 general elections.

Signed:
Atiku Media Office
Abuja
16 July 2026.

Source

Always accusing without facts,everything now his tinubu,if you are no longer getting morning wood,nah tinubu cos am......Mr atiku what are you going to do about subsidy,the naira value,coastal road and the Sokoto-Badagry road,state police,LG autonomy etc?

lol..What's the business of Atiku with NBA? Is he a lawyer

Nawa Nlfpmod. Tinubu wan buy everyone.

State capture in full swing. The making of the Nigerian Paul Biya.

Nawa oo.

One of the presidential aspirants is a sibling to one minister in the FGs cabinet.

Make do with it as you please.

Atiku please tell us your manifestos leave Tinubu alone

Lithiumite:
Always accusing without facts,everything now his tinubu,if you are no longer getting morning wood,nah tinubu cos am......Mr atiku what are you going to do about subsidy,the naira value,coastal road and the Sokoto-Badagry road,state police,LG autonomy etc?

Prior to 2015, it was not only Tinubu's criticism of Goodluck Jonathan.
He and his APC cohorts were actually importing jihaddists into the country for elections.



Now common talk, una dey shed teears.

As 2027 approaches, tinubu is getting more paranoid.

Any election coming up even if it is a club election or class rep election, tinubu will be interested.

He will try to rig in anybody that will stand on his mandate.

When Atiku becomes President in his next life, then he should look away on everything and allow disgruntled politicians run his government from behind the scenes.

Everybody knows the man answering the president of Nigeria is a daiylight agbero crook who steals and grab everything to sustain his agberoism rulership

Lithiumite:
Always accusing without facts,everything now his tinubu,if you are no longer getting morning wood,nah tinubu cos am......Mr atiku what are you going to do about subsidy,the naira value,coastal road and the Sokoto-Badagry road,state police,LG autonomy etc?

Atiku is going to do what he did with Obasanjo for the foundation that gave us 16 years of PDP prosperity, peace, security, cheap petrol, cheap dollars, less debt burden, low unemployment etc.

What part of these better things are you allergic to

thisweekng:
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Chief Olawale Edun has said the last time Nigeria’s economy looked stable was about a decade ago.

He made this statement during his maiden press conference as Minister of Finance where he outlined President Bola Tinubu’s vision, agenda and strategy for the economy.

He said, “I think as we all know, we are not where we should be. The economy is barely growing above the rate of population growth.

“But it was not always so, and I think in trying to look at the way forward, if we now have a situation of slow growth, double-digit inflation, weak/depreciating exchange rate, as well as security concerns that are resulting in an economy that is not growing and not taking Nigerians out of poverty.

“If we think back to the last time when the economy was stable- when it was growing, when inflation was low, and the interest rate was affordable, that period was about a decade ago. Growth was about 6% in 2013 and 2014.”
Private sector to drive the economy

https://nairametrics.com/2023/09/01/the-last-time-nigerias-economy-was-stable-was-about-a-decade-ago-wale-edun/

Helinuse:
Prior to 2015, it was not only Tinubu's criticism of Goodluck Jonathan.
He and his APC cohorts were actually importing jihaddists into the country for elections.



Now common talk, una dey shed teears.

You dey mind these balablu bulaba olodo uprisings who idolise the master strategist of Nigerian lootocrats.
Can it be that they see all of us as school na scam illiterates like that agbero thug who occupies NURTW chair illegally

If they have chosen to perish for lack of knowledge and history, why should they assume that we have also chosen the same path?

anonimi:
What group of politicians is more wicked than A-looter Propaganda Conmen, APC


https://x.com/BusinessDayNg/status/1554497253158658049


How we brought In Fulani militias from Mali, Sierra Leone, Senegal, others to win 2015 election — Kawu Baraje - mailchi.mp/businessday.ng…

Aug 2, 2022

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EkoIle1:
It is now abundantly clear that President Jonathan has finally bared his fangs confirming what was widely speculated. By declaring a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, he has intimidated and emasculated the governors of these States. We are witnessing a dangerous trend in the art of governance and a deliberate ploy to subvert constitutional democracy.

The body language of the Jonathan administration leads any keen watcher of events with unmistakable conclusion of the existence of a surreptitious but barely disguised intention to muzzle the elected governments of these states for what is clearly a display of unpardonable mediocrity and diabolic partisanship geared towards 2015.

Borno and Yobe states have been literally under armies of occupation with the attendant excruciating hardship experienced daily by the indigenes and residents of these areas. This government now wants to use the excuse of the security challenges faced by the Governors to remove them from the states considered hostile to the 2015 PDP/Jonathan project.

Let me be quick to say that this administration will be setting in motion a chain of events the end of which nobody can predict. Experience has shown clearly that actions, such as this one under consideration, often give root to radical ideologies and extremist tendencies, a direct opposite of the intended outcome of unwarranted and unintelligent meddlesomeness. The present scenario playing out in the country reminds one of the classical case of a mediocre craftsman who continually blames the tools of his trade for his serial failure but refuses to look at his pitiable state with a view to adjusting.

It has become crystal clear, even to the most incurable optimist, that the country is adrift. That the ship of the Nigerian state is rudderless is clearly evident in the consistent and continual attacks ferociously executed by elements often referred to as the insurgents in some northern states of the federation, particularly Borno and Yobe states respectively.

Indeed, no part of the country is immune from the virulent but easy attacks, veritable indices of a failing state. Unfortunately, the tenuous and uncoordinated approach adopted by this government betrays a grossly incompetent disposition which stands at variance with current realities in the country, nay the international community where acts of terrorism are engaged and contained. No Governor of a state in Nigeria is the Chief Security Officer. Putting the blame on the Governors, who have been effectively emasculated, for the abysmal performance of the government at the centre which controls all these security agencies, smacks of ignorance and mischief.

http://premiumtimesng.com/opinion/134435-jonathan-goes-for-broke-by-bola-ahmed-tinubu.html

I have asked the question before

SixSeven:
Do you ever wonder why organized labour, unions, student government activists, legislative pressure, trade associations, civil society organizations and many more suddenly died since 2015? Connect the dots.

Today the people are so divided that they can never unite for one cause that affects them all.

In 2015, the NBA officially amended its constitution to mandate that the national presidency must strictly rotate among these three geographical factions (Northern Zone, Eastern Zone, and Western Zone) every two years.

Even within the unified NBA structure, lawyers naturally group into powerful regional caucuses that act as internal political factions, especially during national elections:

1. The Northern Caucus (Arewa Lawyers Forum): Represents the collective legal interests of the 19 northern states.
2. The Eastern Bar Forum (EBF): A highly organized bloc representing lawyers from the South-East and South- South geopolitical zones.
3. The Western Bar Forum (Egbe Amofin): The influential legal caucus encompassing lawyers from the South- West region

If the Eastern Bar Forum takes a turn, the next term must go to the Western Bar Forum, followed by the Arewa (Northern) Lawyers Forum, and so on. Because of this rule, the factions hold massive leverage. When it is a specific region's turn, that faction's internal leadership meets to micro- zone or pick a single consensus candidate to represent their entire block, essentially trying to pre-determine who the next NBA President will be before the general election even starts.


The NBA is currently highly factionalized due to intense political warfare surrounding the national leadership elections. Following legal battles that saw the Court of Appeal clearing the path for the elections, the Bar's factions are currently aligned behind the main presidential candidates:

1. Aare Olumuyiwa Akinboro faction

2. Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe faction

3. Oyinkansola Badejo-Okunsanya faction

So much for our learnes fellows who are trained to respect constitutionalism and objective merit. Yet, when NBA election season arrives, they merit and vote strictly based on ethnic or regional tribalism (whether a candidate belongs to the West, East, or North) because Nigeria is highly complex. Wetin lawyers de do sef

Which one is candidates of the opposition parties ? So the body of benchers cannot organise their own election to produce their leaders or is Meecarno's media aides now an arm of the NBA? That should explain the candidates of the opposition parties those who want to use the NBA to discredit the 2027 poll is talking about . Desperate and obsessed with what is never going to be for him .

Everything that used to be done is secret is now been done in the open with impunity by the current administration..

From time immemorial, the Authorities had always tried to have some kind of influence on who becomes NMA, NBA, NARD, MAN, NANS, NYCN, IYC,etc presidents.. this is because of the influence this associations command in the polity. In the past this is done without necessarily upturning the members' mandates.. in most instances, members may have their say while the government may have its choice.. sometimes these may align..

But now, the brazen attempt to foist and impose unpopular candidate on members with impunity is most unfortunate🤔🤔

Please provide fact and evidence. Politics is not a faith or religion. We are tired of sensational accusations and propaganda battles. This is not the only way to play opposition.

helinues:
lol..What's the business of Atiku with NBA? Is he a lawyer

As Nigerian of his status, he can't comment on any issue of national importance?
If not that the NBA, has been a tootles bulldog, you don't know their impact in the polity of any nation?
When any government in Nigeria fears opposition and wants to deceive the people, it's the NBA, they go to, especially, during their election period.
That's why Tinubu, is interested on who becomes the president of the association.

Opposition doing what they know how to do best

Image123:
Please provide fact and evidence. Politics is not a faith or religion. We are tired of sensational accusations and propaganda battles. This is not the only way to play opposition.

The NBA President automatically holds a seat on the National Judicial Council (NJC). The NJC is the exclusive body that recommends who gets appointed as judges, appeal court justices, and Supreme Court justices in Nigeria. By covertly backing a compliant faction within the NBA, the presidency ensures that future judicial appointments lean in favor of judges friendly to the ruling party (APC).

Tinubu's primary political base is the South-West region. Since the 2026 NBA election cycle belongs to the Western zone, there are deep allegations that state actors are putting immense financial and political pressure on the Egbe Amofin faction to produce a consensus leader who will not oppose the Tinubu administration's legal or economic policies.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVIwZp2Aiaw


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BctpRynyEx0

Now adays,, even when the opposition lose erection and are able to perform in the other room, they drag Tinubu into it.

Atiku Abubakar is your incoming president... In waiting Mark these words....

ChiefOloye:
When Atiku becomes President in his next life, then he should look away on everything and allow disgruntled politicians run his government from behind the scenes.

Man proposes...God disposes....!!

helinues:
lol..What's the business of Atiku with NBA? Is he a lawyer

He was a very corrupt Customs Officer sacked by General Babaginda in 1991.

Blessedkingg:
Atiku Abubakar is your incoming president... In waiting Mark these words....

Misconstrued Delusional imagination.

Helinuse:
Prior to 2015, it was not only Tinubu's criticism of Goodluck Jonathan.
He and his APC cohorts were actually importing jihaddists into the country for elections.



Now common talk, una dey shed teears.

Where was your atiku then,ADC abi? Selective amnesia is an ill wind that bears no good.......go get a life dude!!

SixSeven:
The NBA President automatically holds a seat on the National Judicial Council (NJC). The NJC is the exclusive body that recommends who gets appointed as judges, appeal court justices, and Supreme Court justices in Nigeria. By covertly backing a compliant faction within the NBA, the presidency ensures that future judicial appointments lean in favor of judges friendly to the ruling party (APC).

Tinubu's primary political base is the South-West region. Since the 2026 NBA election cycle belongs to the Western zone, there are deep allegations that state actors are putting immense financial and political pressure on the Egbe Amofin faction to produce a consensus leader who will not oppose the Tinubu administration's legal or economic policies.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVIwZp2Aiaw


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BctpRynyEx0

Everything you are saying ends with DEEP ALLEGATIONS. Give proof, not allegedly, we're tired of allegations

Lithiumite:
Where was your atiku then,ADC abi? Selective amnesia is an ill wind that bears no good.......go get a life dude!!

You came here sounding so angry.
Notice that you couldn't deny what I said.
You instead went to whataboutism.

Very true Mr Atiku . You're absolutely right

anonimi:
Atiku is going to do what he did with Obasanjo for the foundation that gave us 16 years of PDP prosperity, peace, security, cheap petrol, cheap dollars, less debt burden, low unemployment etc.

What part of these better things are you allergic to

Do we need mentioning the biggest heist on our national assets by siphoning state interests to personal interests......not forgetting PTDF your principal superintended himself,how about $16b power sector probe under his govt........you had better go and sit down somewhere and don't let us even start with atiku matter.

Lithiumite:
Always accusing without facts,everything now his tinubu,if you are no longer getting morning wood,nah tinubu cos am......Mr atiku what are you going to do about subsidy,the naira value,coastal road and the Sokoto-Badagry road,state police,LG autonomy etc?

Imagine these sore losers accusing Tinubu based on media reports. No single fact or evidence, just rumour and media speculation.

These are the so called oppostion.