Reps Back Akande, Nigerian-Born UK Candidate For ICJ Seat

…As Deputy Speaker, Kalu Hails African Presence on World’s Highest Bench

House of Representatives has endorsed the candidacy of Professor Dapo Akande, the Nigerian-born United Kingdom’s candidate for a seat on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the 2027–2036 term.

The endorsement was declared on Wednesday by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu, PhD, CFR when he received Akande and other officials from the British High Commission in Abuja during a courtesy visit to the National Assembly.

He said: “As Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it is my honour to receive Professor Akande and to say clearly, as a Nigerian and as a parliamentarian, that his candidacy for the International Court of Justice for the term 2027 to 2036 is one that commands the admiration and personal support of this House”.

He described Akande’s nomination by the UK as “not symbolic” but “structural recognition of a shared legal destiny,” adding that Africa’s would-be presence at the ICJ is a matter of justice.

“The United Kingdom has done something worthy of acknowledgement in nominating you. The FCDO committed £135 million in bilateral support to Nigeria in 2025 and 2026, according to its own Annual Report, and in November 2024 our two nations signed a Strategic Partnership built on six pillars of cooperation.

“Against that backdrop, the nomination of a Nigerian-born scholar to the world’s
highest judicial bench is not symbolic. It is structural recognition of a shared legal
destiny.

“Africa’s presence on the world’s highest bench is not a matter of sentiment. It is a matter of justice. And in this House, we have always believed that justice delayed is not merely a legal failure. It is a moral one.”

The Deputy Speaker who holds a doctorate in law recalled that Akande was moulded in Nigeria, expressing gratitude for his global citizenship.

“This is not merely a courtesy visit. It is the meeting of two worlds that should never be kept apart: the legislative and the adjudicative, Nigeria at home and Nigeria at its finest abroad.

“Everything you have become, from the Chichele Professor of Public International Law at All Souls College Oxford, to counsel before the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, to elected member of the UN International Law Commission, and co-author of Oppenheim’s International Law awarded the American Society of International Law’s Certificate
of Merit, all of it began in Ibadan. It began with an LLB at Obafemi Awolowo
University and a call to the Nigerian Bar. You carry more flags than you perhaps
know, and this House receives you proudly as a son of the soil.

“The 2021 Census for England and Wales counted over 270,000 Nigerian-born residents in the United Kingdom, and according to the UK Office for National Statistics, Nigeria was the second-largest source of long-term migrants to Britain in 2024, second only to India.

“Professor Akande, your candidacy speaks to every single one of those 270,000 people. It tells them that excellence forged in Nigeria
travels, and when it arrives, the world takes note”, he said.

Commending the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for strengthening diplomatic ties with other countries of the world, Kalu expressed optimism that Akande’s candidacy will sail through.

He said: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration has made institutional
strengthening the cornerstone of its governance agenda. The legislature is
aligned. And we understand, better than most, that no domestic reform is
sustainable without an international legal order that holds.

“I commend the Tinubu-led administration and our Ministry of Foreign Affairs for championing Nigeria’s representation at the highest levels of international justice.

“Nigeria has a proud history at the ICJ, and that history must continue. I charge
our government to deploy the full weight of our diplomatic relationships; our
bilateral ties, our African Union standing, our ECOWAS leadership, and our voice
in the UN General Assembly, in pursuit of that goal.

“When the world looks at the candidates before it, it will find in Professor Dapo Akande, a scholar formed in Nigeria and carrying the endorsement of one of the world’s most consequential democracies. Nigeria looks at that with pride. And we trust that the members of the General Assembly will look at it with the seriousness it deserves”.

Kalu also charged the candidate to ensure that justice prevails when he eventually emerges at the ICJ.

“Professor, should you take your seat on that bench, and I have every confidence
that you can, you will arrive at one of the most consequential moments in the
Court’s history. The ICJ’s current docket is the fullest in its history.

“Research published by Chatham House found that a fifth of all cases ever brought before the Court were filed in the last four years alone, a historic surge driven overwhelmingly by questions of genocide, armed conflict, and occupation. And yet enforcement remains uneven, and that gap falls hardest on Africa.

“West Africa is experiencing one of its most destabilising decades since
independence. This is where law becomes real, because when institutions fail to enforce norms, the legitimacy of those norms begins to erode. Africa does not merely need judges. It needs judges who understand that law is not description. It is protection.

“Double standards in international justice are not theoretical criticisms. They are
compliance risks. They weaken treaty regimes, undermine cooperation, and
erode trust in multilateralism itself. What you bring to that bench, having argued
for Nigeria, for Uganda, for the United Kingdom, for Japan, for Equatorial Guinea, and for Zambia, and having advised the African Union, the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and ASEAN, is not merely diversity of experience. It is convergence of legitimacy. No party can claim you do not understand their position. That is not a small thing. That is the whole thing”, Kalu said.

Earlier in his remarks, Akande said he was in Nigeria to seek the support of the country.

He lauded the country’s commitment to the rule of law nationally and internationally and the efforts of the parliament in strengthening the Constitution and the constitutional democracy in Nigeria, assuring he will also work to deepen the rule of law globally if elected.