British-Nigeria Law Forum Pushes For Deeper Legal, Commercial Cooperation

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]And now an exclusive from inside the Palace of Westminster. The British Nigeria Law Forum convened in the Jubilee Room at the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday for a high level gathering on British and Nigerian legal and business relations. MPs, peers, legal professionals and business leaders in one room making the case for deeper ties between the two nations whose bilateral trade now exceeds 8 billion pounds. The timing was deliberate. The momentum from President Tinibu's state visit earlier this year is real. The Nigerian British Chamber of Commerce trade mission delivered tangible deal flow and the UK Nigeria relationship once transactional is now strategic. The question the BNLF put to parliament this week is the legal and regulatory architecture keeping pace with the ambition.

[00:00:48]>> Nigeria has always been very very close to my heart. My father is Nigerian. My mother is English. My family name is Ukubo.

[00:01:01]My father went to the uh great St. Gregory's College in Lagos. I don't know whether any of you all went there in in the in the 50s. And um you know, I I love the place. I'm very proud of my Nigerian heritage uh and my British heritage. And I actually get excited every time I visit Nigeria. Every time I get off the plane, I get excited about the people, the energy, the food, the whole rhythm of the place, and of course, the endless opportunities. And I'm I'm very pleased because I'm going to be there for a week um at uh the beginning of June, and uh I'm I'm very very uh pleased to be uh going back there. I was also honored uh to be trade envoy to Nigeria from 2020 uh to the general election in 2024. And for me, for for the reasons already explained, that was a marvelous position, one of the best prime ministerial positions I had uh during my party's uh time in government. And the aim was very much to take uh global Britain's message out internationally to increase bilateral trade and investment and build on that really strong Anglo Nigerian relationship that Cash spoke about that has always been strong but I know with effort and work we can make it even stronger because we already have so much that unites us in terms of our language. language, our legal system, our time zones, our intertwined culture and even our love of football and and this is what today is about.

[00:02:53]This is the focus of today, the networking, the coming together and of course the endless opportunities.

[00:03:00]>> In my view, I think this setting really sends a powerful message about how much the UK values Nigeria as a partner.

[00:03:08]Nigeria is now one of the biggest partners for the UK um in different sectors in the legal industry, in energy, with investment, with trade.

[00:03:20]We've all seen the figures, we've all seen the trade visit and it shows what an important um partner that Nigeria is and we as BNLF are simply bringing people together. We're bringing businesses, investors, legal um practitioners with parliamentarians and policy makers and we're bringing people into a room to make decisions, to make opportunities happen, and to build those relationships. So in my view I mean and my view might be a bit different from any everyone else but I think the one single opportunity that's being missed is creating that bridge that collaboration between the UK and Nigeria creating those opportunities for professionals. So we want to create organizations that collaborate businesses and professionals between the UK and Nigeria. Nigeria has a really youthful population. It has be entrepreneurs. It has that commercial drive and the UK as we all know has the capital. You know, it has the international business. And we need to now merge those two together. And I think what's missing is organizations and that structure to bring those two things together. And I and I think that's why we have things like this.

[00:04:45]It's to bring people together and create those opportunities. Well, as BNLF, we are actually having a two-day conference in Nigeria um on in June on the 25th to the 26th of June. And there we, you know, we're doing something very similar to this, but on a much bigger scale. Um we're going to be hosted by the deputy British um high commissioner in in Lagos. We're bringing the UK trade envoy um to to Nigeria and all of that is to help create that collaboration again that I'm talking about. We're bringing lawyers from the city here to meet with lawyers in Nigeria. We're bringing banks from London to meet with high netw worth in Nigeria. And you know we we we we just want to create a space where people feel like they can build those relationships. And so in the next 12 months, all we're thinking of doing is just creating that bridge and ensuring that those structures are in place to enable those investments to flow.

[00:05:49]>> It's it's for me it's a deeply personal event. It's a moment of joy as well. I think it reflects 25 years of hard work, consistency, recognition of that hard work and consistency amongst the profession. So for us deeply symbolic. Um I mean being here parliament is a place at the intersection of law policy. So British Nigeria forum being here is for me it's a really truly momentous occasion because it shows that we're not just participating in the system but we're actually shaping those conversations.

[00:06:22]I'll say there's a lot of opportunity but access is still uneven. Um and this is where we as the um British Nigeria Law Forum come in to create those spaces like we're doing today in parliament to bring um emerging professionals, women, give them access to those decision makers. So I would say there are lots of opportunities but we need to create those platforms. We need to create those opportunities through organizations like us so that people can access this. I would want them to leave this event with uh a sense of commitment towards um sustainable collaboration between the UK and Nigeria. So beyond a short-term political conversation to longerterm strategic partnerships between both countries, I want them to know that there are organizations like the British Nigeria Law Forum who live the realities of both sides. you know that they can come to and engage and have meaningful dialogue you know where there are issues concerning both jurisdictions be it law business education we are that forum that bridges that relationship between both countries so I think a longerterm commitment to strategic collaboration