Nigerian lawyer, Yusuf Temilola Nurudeen, has received the International Bar Association (IBA) Pro Bono Award in recognition of his commitment to providing access to justice for indigent and vulnerable people.

Nurudeen received the award at the IBA’s annual awards breakfast in Copenhagen, Denmark. Other recipients included Charmaine Yao, who won the Outstanding Young Lawyer Award, and Zar Li Aye, who was honoured for outstanding contribution by a legal practitioner to human rights.

The award was presented by Babatunde Ajibade, SAN, chair of the IBA Section on Public and Professional Interest (SPPI) for 2025–2026, alongside other executives of the section, which promotes the exchange of information and views on public and professional interest issues affecting the legal profession worldwide.

Nurudeen dedicated the recognition to 141 volunteer lawyers working across 18 states in Nigeria through the Foundation for Public Interest Law and Development, also known as The Pro Bono Centre. The lawyers provide legal assistance to people who cannot afford representation.

In his acceptance speech, Nurudeen described access to justice as a personal cause rooted in his upbringing in Ikotun, Lagos, where he grew up and became the first lawyer in his family.

He said the possibility that his father could have suffered wrongful incarceration, similar to the experiences of two Nigerians he cited, might have deprived him of the opportunity to pursue his ambitions.

“If my father had been wrongfully arrested and incarcerated for thirteen years, like Igba Isaac, or eight years, like Pa Idowu Fashola, my dreams might have been cut short,” he said.

He explained that such an experience could have deprived his father of his freedom and him of the opportunity to become a lawyer.

Nurudeen identified people who remain in detention because they cannot afford legal representation, women trapped in abusive marriages, children whose maintenance rights remain unenforced and families who lose their homes or livelihoods because they cannot afford to pursue justice as some of those requiring assistance.

He said the legal profession must ensure that poverty does not prevent people from defending their rights.

“Leaving these victims of our society’s inherent inequality helpless cannot be the promise of the legal profession,” he said.

“Our undertaking must be to ensure the law remains an instrument of justice, not a privilege reserved for wealth, power, or influence.”

Nurudeen said he had led a team of volunteer lawyers providing legal assistance to indigent and vulnerable people who might otherwise be unable to defend their rights.

He maintained that the award recognised the collective efforts of the volunteers, who contribute their time, professional expertise and resources without expecting financial rewards.

Describing pro bono service as both a professional responsibility and a fundamental pillar of justice, he said the recognition was not an indication that their work was complete but a call to expand their reach.

“I accept this award not as a declaration that our work is complete, but as a challenge to do more,” he said.

“It renews my commitment to resisting the commodification of justice and ensuring that poverty does not become a sentence of helplessness.”

He added that the recognition had strengthened his resolve to work towards a society where no one was too poor to be defended, too powerless to be heard or too marginalised to be protected.

Nurudeen said the award remained a reminder of the work required to ensure that access to justice does not depend on an individual’s financial circumstances.