Nigeria’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Femi Fani-Kayode, and four other individuals have been conferred with the title of Senior Counsel of Nigeria (SCN) by the Nigerian Law Society (NLS).
The other recipients are Seyi Tinubu, Olufunmilayo Osifuye, Ihudiebube Chukwumdi and Alabi Olalekan Adigun.
The conferment took place during the NLS 2026 Annual General Conference in Abuja, organised around the theme of recognising Nigerian law graduates working outside traditional courtroom litigation.
According to the society’s president, Ambassador Dahiru Aliyu, the initiative is intended to recognise contributions in areas such as corporate administration, legal consultancy, arbitration, mediation, compliance, governance, legislative drafting and research.
In his acceptance speech, delivered by his media adviser, Lizzy Okoji, Fani-Kayode called for the protection of Nigerians’ rights and dignity at home and abroad. He maintained that access to justice should not depend on an individual’s social, economic or political status.
However, the title requires an important distinction. The Senior Counsel of Nigeria designation, also associated with the NLS’s “Blue Silks” initiative, is not the statutory rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
In February 2026, the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (LPPC), the statutory body responsible for conferring SAN status, said it did not recognise the Blue Silk designation and maintained that SAN remained the country’s highest official professional distinction for legal practitioners.
