Women of Legacy
Professor (Mrs) Yinka Omorogbe
Professor Yinka Osayame Omorogbe is the product of a Sierra Leonean mother and a Nigerian father. Her mother was Dr Irene Elizabeth Ighodaro, nee Wellesley- Cole, daughter of Freetown's first indigenous Superintendent of Water Works, Wilfred Wellesley Cole, popularly known as 'Water Works Cole'. Her father, Chief (Justice) Samuel Osarogie Ighodaro was from the Ehanire Family of Igun Street. His father was a merchant and one of the earliest Christians in Benin, and was buried in St Peters Church. Chief Ighodaro was the first Benin graduate, first Benin lawyer, Minister of health and Attorney-General at various times in the Western State (1st republic), judge of the High Court, Midwest State; and in his later years Iyase of Benin.
She is an internationally recognized expert and consultant in energy and natural resources law. She was the Corporation Secretary and Legal Adviser to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) from January 2009 until July 2011. Prior to that appointment she was the Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, from August 1 2005, and Professor of Law in the Department of Public and International Law, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She was in the University of Benin from 1983 to 1990, and the University of Lagos from 1990 to 2002. She pioneered the teaching of petroleum law at the University of Benin.
Professor Omorogbe is a graduate of the University of Ife and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1979. She is also a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitration.
Whilst her main areas of specialization and research are in the areas of energy, natural resources and international economic law, she has also taught various international law subjects at undergraduate and postgraduate levels such as international law, refugee and migrant law, and international humanitarian law (the laws of war).
Professor Omorogbe is the sole author of two books;
- The International Oil and Gas Industry: Exploration and Production Contracts and
- Oil and Gas Law in Nigeria.
She is sole editor of another book and co-editor of Beyond the Carbon Economy: Energy Law in Transition, published by Oxford University Press, Oxford, England in 2008.
She is the author of two monographs. The first is an approximately 150 page Monograph on Nigeria: Energy Law for the International Encyclopaedia of Laws, published by Kluwer Law International (Netherlands) early in 2003. The second is the publication of the 2008 three-part University Lecture, delivered over three weeks in the University of Ibadan, and titled Why We Have No Energy.
She has several published articles, mainly in journals and books of international repute. In addition Professor Omorogbe has presented numerous papers at major conferences and workshops within and outside Nigeria.
She has been an expert resource person at major workshops and seminars, a notable one being the Meeting of Experts to discuss the UNCTAD 2007 World Investment Report, within which her publications were cited.
She has also been greatly involved with training programmes, organized by a company that she ran for several years, the Centre for Petroleum Environment and Development Studies. In 1999 and 2003, the Centre organised Workshops on the oil industry for selected committees of the Senate and House of Representatives of the National Assembly, on behalf of Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited.
Professor Omorogbe's consultancy work has centred mainly on oil and gas, energy, and natural resources law, and her clientele are mainly reputable institutions such as the multinational oil corporations and government agencies. She has given expert advice and has been involved in the drafting of laws and regulations in the energy sector.
Yinka Omorogbe has been actively involved with the reform of the Nigerian oil and gas industry for more than a decade. She was a member of the Oil and Gas Sector Reform Implementation Committee (OGIC), constituted by the National Council on Privatisation for the privatisation and reform of the Nigerian oil and gas industry, and for the creation of the National Oil and Gas Policy.
She was also a member of the Oil and Gas Sector Reform Committee (OGIC), reconstituted by the late President Yar'Adua to implement the National Oil and Gas Policy, draft a law in line with the Policy, and restructure the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry.
Within that committee she was the Chair of the Legal and Regulatory Subcommittee, which was, inter alia, responsible for drafting the Petroleum Industry Bill that was sent to the National Assembly by the late President Yar'Adua in December 2008. In fact, her appointment into the NNPC was based on the expectation that she would be one of the spearheads for the implementation of Nigerian petroleum industry reform.
Professor Omorogbe is the first African member of the Academic Advisory Group (AAG) of the Section on Energy Environment and infrastructure Law of the international Bar Association, and an Honorary Associate of the Graduate School of Natural Resources, Law, Policy, and Management of the University of Dundee. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Energy and Natural Resources Law, and also Deputy President II of the Nigerian Society of International Law.