Professor Akin Ibidapo‑Obe

Professor Akinola Ibidapo-Obe is a Nigerian legal scholar, advocate and arbitrator whose work centres on African law, law and religion, human rights, criminology and constitutional law.

He graduated in law from the University of Lagos in 1977, was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1978, and took his LL.M with distinction at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). After three years as counsel at Kusamotu, Olojo & Co., he set up his own practice in 1984, now AIO Law, where he remains Principal Partner in litigation, legal consultancy and arbitration.

He began teaching at Obafemi Awolowo University in 1986 and joined the University of Lagos in 1989, rising through Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor to Professor in 2011. He served as Acting Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ado-Ekiti from 2002 to 2004, as Head of the Department of Public Law at Lagos from 2013, and as Dean of the Faculty of Law from 2014 to 2016. As Dean he introduced Law and Religion Studies as an approved course and hosted the 2015 international conference "Towards Law and Religious Freedom in Africa".

He founded the International Centre for African Law Studies and its Nigerian Journal of African Law, which he edits, and was founding editor of the Journal of Arbitration. A Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Chartered Arbitrators since 2009, he served on its Governing Council and taught on its fellowship programme until 2023, and received its Chief Afe Babalola Award for outstanding contribution to the institute. He is President and Chairman of Council of the Institute of ADR Development & Conflict Management of Nigeria.

His human rights work runs alongside his scholarship. He founded the Masses League for Legal Aid and Human Rights, directed the Centre for Human Rights and Development, served as Vice-President of the Network of University Legal Aid Institutions, and trained in international humanitarian law at the ICRC in Geneva and in human rights at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg. He has advised the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria and the Organised Private Sector on judicial, penal and constitutional reform.

He has held visiting appointments at Southern University in Baton Rouge, the University of Nottingham and BYU Law School, and has presented papers in the United Kingdom, the United States, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Morocco, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. His contribution to African customary law was recognised with the traditional title of Bamofin-Ibile of Ipetumodu. He delivered his inaugural lecture at the University of Lagos in 2021 and retired from active university service in October 2023.