Hannibal Uwaifo is President of the African Bar Association. He was born on November 25th, 1965 in Benin-City, Nigeria. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law (LL.B HONS) of the University of Benin, a Masters degree in Law (LL.M) of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria and attended the Nigerian Law School, Lagos. He was called to the Nigeria Bar in December, 1990. Immediately after he was admitted to the Nigerian Bar, Mr. Uwaifo joined forces with a Call Mate to form a partnership for Legal Practice, Ulinfun Uwaifo & Associates from where he took a break in December, 1991 to join the Federal Ministry of Justice. He worked briefly as State Counsel, Federal Ministry of Justice, Lagos, between 1991 and 1993. He was Counsel, Senior Counsel and later head of chambers in the Law Firm of Rosemary Igweonwu and Company on the 13th Floor of the Prestigious Western House in Broad Street, Lagos between 1993 and 1996.
In September, 1996 he joined the services of the then Daily Times Group as Legal Officer and later rose to Legal Adviser before returning to the then Partnership of Ulinfun, Uwaifo and Associates in 1998 where he became the Managing Partner same year specializing in International Criminal Law, Commercial Law, Employment and Labour Law related issues. The firm was to later dissolved into Sagitarian Law Firm in 2005 where Mr. Hannibal Uwaifo is still a Senior Partner till date. Mr. Hannibal Uwaifo served as President of the defunct Independent Lawyers Association of Nigeria (ILAN) a professional interest group, championing International Criminal Law, Human Rights and Democracy. He is a very committed member of the Bar Association in Nigeria and has served in many capacities.
At the resuscitation of the African Bar Association in Dar es Salaam Tanzania in 2015, Hannibal Uwaifo was unanimously chosen as interim President and was later officially elected President at the election held on September 10th, 2016 at the Julius Nyerere International Conference Center, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to run a tenure of Five years. Aside numerous tasks and on-going interventions, Mr. Uwaifo Leading the African Bar Association has successfully intervened in crisis in several flash points across the Continent including political crisis in Zimbabwe, Gambia, Burundi, Egypt, Algeria, Cameroun, Sudan. Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’ivoire, Mali and so on. He is currently a serving Commissioner at the International Commission of Inquiry on Systematic Racist Police Violence against People of African Descent in the United States.