The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ibadan branch, has announced a boycott of activities marking the 2026/2027 New Legal Year organised by the Oyo State Judiciary.
The decision followed a dispute over the exclusion of the branch chairman from addressing participants at the judiciary’s official ceremony.
Publicity Secretary of the Ibadan branch, Raheed Khan, announced the boycott in a statement issued on Sunday in Ibadan.
According to him, members unanimously adopted the decision at a general meeting held on Saturday after deliberating on recent administrative directives from the leadership of the Oyo State Judiciary.
Khan said the branch was particularly concerned about the decision to prevent its chairman from delivering an address at the New Legal Year ceremony.
The NBA described the development as a serious threat to the established relationship between the bench and the bar, arguing that both are co-equal custodians of the rule of law.
It said the annual New Legal Year ceremony should serve as a platform for accountability, reflection and constructive engagement rather than merely a ceremonial gathering.
According to the branch, the address by the NBA chairman traditionally provides an avenue for the Bar to raise systemic concerns and make recommendations aimed at improving the administration of justice.
It consequently described the decision to exclude the Bar chairman’s address as “an existential affront to the Bar’s collective dignity.
“To deny the Bar its historic voice during a state ceremony is to relegate legal practitioners from equal partners to mere passive spectators,” the branch said.
NBA Ibadan warned that remaining silent in the face of what it described as structural marginalisation could create a dangerous precedent for the legal profession.
The branch consequently resolved to organise its own New Legal Year ceremony on Monday, October 5, 2026.
The alternative ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Aare Afe Babalola (SAN) Bar Centre, NTC Road, Ibadan.
Members are expected to attend the event fully robed in wigs and gowns.
The branch said its absence from the judiciary’s ceremony, alongside its presence at the Bar Centre, would demonstrate its position on the controversy.
“History measures a Bar not by the ease of its compliance, but by the firmness of its convictions,” it said.
“Let posterity record that when the voice of the Bar was threatened with erasure, the Ibadan Bar stood as one, unshaken, unbroken, dignified, and unapologetic.”
Meanwhile, the Oyo State Judiciary had scheduled its 2026/2027 Legal Year Service for Monday.
The service is slated to be held simultaneously at the Cathedral of St James, Oke-Bola, Ibadan, and the Oyo State Judiciary Mosque within the High Court premises, Ring Road, Ibadan.
The latest dispute marks a sharp departure from the collaborative tone that has characterised previous Oyo State legal year ceremonies, where NBA branch chairmen have used the occasion to raise issues concerning justice administration and the judiciary’s performance.
Reports from previous years show bar leaders publicly making observations and recommendations on judicial efficiency during such ceremonies.
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi
