Biography
Chief Bayo Ojo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and current President of the AfAA, was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1978 after graduating from the University of Lagos, Nigeria in 1977. He obtained LL.M from the London School of Economics, University of London and later got admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales. Since then he has been in active Commercial law, International Law, Litigation, Mediation, Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution practice. He has acted as sole Arbitrator, member of arbitration panels, and as Counsel in numerous domestic and international arbitrations both at the ICC, ICSID and the LCIA over the last thirty five years. He has also acted as expert witness in international arbitrations including ICSID. He has mediated on several disputes as well. He is a former Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, past President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), past Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Nigeria Branch. Ojo was until recently a member of the United Nations International Law Commission (ILC) Geneva Switzerland, Council member of the Section on Energy and Natural Resources Law of the International Bar Association, a member of the ICSID Panel of Arbitrators, Washington, DC, a member of the Panel of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, Hague, Netherlands, Alternate Chairman of UNESCO Appeals Board in Paris, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators London, President of the African Users’ Council of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA). He is currently the President of the African Arbitration Association. He is a Chartered Arbitrator and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators (ICMC). He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Nigerian Journal of Arbitration and Mediation (NJAM) and African Journal of Arbitration and Mediation (AJAM). He is the co-author of The Handbook of Arbitration and ADR Practice in Nigeria. During his tenure as Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice of Nigeria, he pushed for the review of the Nigerian Arbitration and Conciliation Act. He still remains a part of the group that is pushing for the enactment of the new Act by the Nigerian National Assembly. He is a recipient of the National Honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON).