Unexplained Wealth: Tightening the noose against criminals with strengthened institutions

The fight against unexplained wealth in Nigeria cannot be won by legislation alone, as legal experts and public figures who gathered in Lagos to launch a three-volume work on financial law called for stronger institutions, better records and safeguards for legitimately acquired property, writes Onozure Dania

How can Nigeria recover illicit wealth without turning suspicion into proof or making illegitimate wealth difficult to defend? The question featured prominently at the launch of Unexplained Wealth: A Trilogy of Nigerian Financial Law, authored by Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Dr Wahab Shittu, held at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, as legal experts and public figures called for stronger institutions, better record-keeping and safeguards for lawfully acquired property.

The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, set the tone by arguing that legal reforms must be accompanied by political and judicial reforms.

Sanusi, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, said good laws would have limited effect if the institutions charged with enforcing them did not operate fairly, transparently and consistently.

“The only comment I’ll make is that as we continue to look at legal reform around unexplained wealth and other vices that afflict our society, these reforms need to go hand-in-hand with political and judicial reforms,” he said.

For him, the problem extends beyond the existence of anti-corruption laws to how investigators, prosecutors and judges apply them.

He warned against a system in which people with unexplained wealth escape scrutiny because of political connections while those perceived to be on the wrong side of politics face prosecution.

“We live in a society where if you have unexplained wealth and if you have the right political cover, nobody asks you. And if you are on the wrong side of politics, you get into trouble,” Sanusi said.

He, therefore, urged that the law be applied consistently, regardless of political affiliation.

The emir also praised the trilogy for going beyond the conventional understanding of corruption, pointing to mechanisms through which wealth could be siphoned from the economy, including inflated contracts and subsidies.

But while Sanusi focused on institutional fairness, the author of the books, Shittu, took the debate to the foundation on which any unexplained wealth regime must rest: the ability to establish how wealth was lawfully acquired.

Presenting blank page

Presenting his paper, titled “Best Practice Standards in Combating Corruption and Unexplained Wealth in the Developed Economies”, Shittu argued that Nigeria must build systems that make lawful wealth capable of being demonstrated before demanding that citizens explain their assets.

He said Nigeria had developed laws and agencies to investigate wealth but had not sufficiently established reliable systems for documenting legitimate ownership and accumulation.

Land ownership, taxation, banking, company ownership and inheritance, he noted, often lacked the integrated records required to establish the origin of assets.

“A state that punishes wealth it cannot explain, without first building the channels through which wealth can lawfully be made and recorded, will fail twice over,” Shittu noted.

“It will fail at enforcement, because where very little is written down, very little can be explained, and the honest man and the thief present the same blank page.”

His argument was that the infrastructure required to protect legitimate wealth is also necessary for effective anti-corruption enforcement.

Land registries, company filings, tax systems, regulated financial institutions, electronic payment systems and transparent procurement, he said, leave trails that enable the State to distinguish lawful wealth from illicit assets.

Nigeria already has some of the building blocks, including the Bank Verification Number, National Identification Number, instant payment systems, beneficial ownership provisions under the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 and digitised land registries.

But, according to Shittu, the problem is that these systems do not yet sufficiently communicate with one another.

“Justice in this field does not begin at the courtroom door. It begins at the registry,” he said.

Beyond unexplained wealth

Shittu also challenged the idea that unexplained wealth orders alone could solve corruption.

He examined several asset-recovery mechanisms, including conviction-based confiscation, non-conviction-based forfeiture, freezing and forfeiture of funds in bank accounts and unexplained wealth orders.

Drawing from the United Kingdom’s experience, he referred to the 2020 High Court decision in National Crime Agency v Baker, where three unexplained wealth orders were discharged and the enforcement agency incurred a substantial costs bill.

While subsequent legislative changes widened the scope of the power and altered the costs regime, Shittu argued that the experience demonstrated why unexplained wealth orders should complement rather than replace other recovery mechanisms.

“Anyone who tells this country that an unexplained wealth order is the answer to systemic corruption has not read the returns,” he stated.

For the Senior Advocate, the more fundamental question is whether a person subjected to an obligation to explain wealth has a realistic opportunity to do so.

“A burden to explain is fair only where explanation is possible,” he asserted.

He proposed a three-tier standard comprising lawful source, documentary coherence and proportionality.

Under the framework, a person should identify a legally recognised source of wealth, produce documentation coherent with that explanation, and demonstrate that the amount of wealth is reasonably consistent with the claimed source.

The documentation required, he argued, should also reflect the individual’s circumstances.

“What may fairly be demanded of a Minister who has held office for 12 years is not what may fairly be demanded of a trader in Idumota,” he said.

Shittu anchored the proposal on Sections 36 and 44 of the 1999 Constitution, dealing with fair hearing and property rights.

“These provisions are not obstacles to the fight against corruption. They are the terms on which the fight is worth winning,” he said.

Stolen wealth recovery

Former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, represented at the event by his former Chief of Staff and former Attorney General of Lagos State, Ade Ipaye, reinforced the constitutional dimension of the debate.

Osinbajo said Nigeria already had several laws dealing with unexplained wealth and financial crime, but argued that the immediate need was for a clear and constitutionally sound framework.

“While further legislative refinement is no doubt desirable, I think what we need now most urgently is a clear, fair, and constitutionally sound approach that can recover what was stolen without threatening what was lawfully earned,” he said.

According to the former Vice President, public debate on unexplained wealth often moved between two extremes: treating all unexplained wealth as illicit or assuming that strong asset-recovery measures must necessarily be oppressive.

He said Shittu’s trilogy provided a framework for addressing the issue within the rule of law.

Osinbajo also highlighted the author’s experience as both a prosecutor and academic, recalling Shittu’s involvement in the Presidential Advisory Committee and National Prosecution Coordinating Committee established during his tenure as Acting President.

• Wema Bank accelerates SME growth through export trade academy
• Customs trains trainers for 2026 recruitment exercise
• APM Terminals expands scholarship scheme, supports 50 students

He said the three volumes examined issues ranging from unexplained wealth across jurisdictions, the burden and standard of proof, cybercrime and cryptocurrency, to shell companies, political finance, public institutions and the protection of legitimate property.

Elasticity of suspicion

Professor Olanrewaju Fagbohun, SAN, who reviewed the trilogy, identified what he considered a central legal concern: the possibility that suspicion could expand beyond its proper evidentiary limits.

The former Vice-Chancellor of Lagos State University described the 1,600-page work as an examination of the legal framework for identifying, investigating and recovering illicit assets while protecting individuals whose wealth was legitimately acquired.

“There is a peculiar asymmetry at the heart of modern financial law. The state has become remarkably sophisticated in requiring citizens to explain the sources of their wealth, yet considerably less precise about what constitutes an adequate explanation,” Fagbohun said.

He said the first two volumes focused on unexplained wealth, prosecution, and the recovery of illicit assets, while the third examined what he called “explained wealth” and the rights of individuals whose assets might attract suspicion despite having been lawfully acquired.

Fagbohun also highlighted the author’s concept of the “elasticity of suspicion”, warning against circumstances in which a lack of documentation could itself be treated as evidence of illegality.

That concern, he said, was particularly relevant in Nigeria because legitimate wealth could be accumulated through informal economic arrangements that do not always generate conventional documentary trails.

He cited esusu, cooperative savings and family-based transfers as examples.

The reviewer said the trilogy proposed an informal wealth verification scheme to help people with legitimate but poorly documented wealth gradually build evidence to establish its source.

For such a system to work, however, he said Nigeria would need reliable financial records, functional land registries, credible tax administration, competent forensic investigations, inter-agency data sharing and judicial safeguards against selective enforcement.

A broader institutional question

The debate at the book launch therefore went beyond whether Nigeria should introduce unexplained wealth orders.

It raised a broader question about the architecture of financial justice: whether enforcement can be effective when the same institutional systems needed to establish illicit wealth are themselves incomplete or fragmented.

Shittu called for the National Assembly to enact an Unexplained Wealth Orders Act and said a draft had been included in the first volume of the trilogy, alongside a proposed Nigeria Antigraft Commission Bill.

He also urged lawmakers to address issues arising from the English model, including costs exposure for enforcement authorities, statutory time limits on interim restraint and the absence of an express standard for an adequate explanation of wealth.

He called for lifestyle audits and stronger links among existing government records, including identity numbers, BVNs, company filings, land registries and tax records.

To the judiciary and anti-corruption agencies, he urged proportionality in the use of forfeiture powers.

For Shittu, the objective was not merely to make it easier for the State to seize suspected illicit assets, but to create an environment in which legitimate wealth could be demonstrated.

“The defence of legitimate wealth is not a favour to the rich. It is a public service,” he said.

The event also celebrated Shittu’s career as a lawyer, prosecutor, teacher and scholar.

Professor Akin Oyebode described his career as a success story, while Professor Abiola Sanni, SAN, praised his academic record and ability to combine teaching, legal practice and scholarship.

Sanni described Shittu as a lecturer, legal practitioner, SAN, scholar, human rights advocate and public intellectual who had nevertheless found time to produce a three-volume work.

Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, also recalled that he and his wife, Funmi Falana, had recommended Shittu for a prosecutorial role at the EFCC.

Falana said the EFCC had approached him to serve as a prosecutor but that he declined and instead recommended Shittu.

He congratulated the author on what he described as his “magnum opus” and praised his contribution to legal scholarship.

Former Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, said the books could provide guidance to politicians, public officials and anti-corruption agencies by clarifying the legal consequences of financial conduct.

Amosun said the publication would also help reduce the burden on anti-corruption agencies by providing greater clarity on financial and legal issues.

He said, “You have taken the burden off all these agencies because people now have the opportunity for interpretation. I know what you are going to produce will help all of us.

“Our democracy and the growth of governance itself will improve because one thing that brings resolve is knowledge. It won’t resolve it totally, but it will put our politicians and everybody on their toes.

“When you do this, this is the repercussion. You cannot just front-load and do all those things that you tell us. There are several things that you come and lecture us to say, ‘This is this, this is what you do, this is what you don’t do.’

“So, you have taken the burden off even all these agencies that are charged with the responsibility of fighting corruption because they do not even have to do everything themselves. Many people now will be put on their toes. They will know that when you do this, there are consequences.”

Amosun also said the publication would provide clearer guidance to anti-corruption agencies, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission.

He added, “I think EFCC, ICPC, they are set with this reality, so people will know their limits, the dos and the don’ts.”

Former Ogun State Governor, Senator Gbenga Daniel, described unexplained wealth as one of Nigeria’s major challenges, while former Minister of Works and ex-Senator, Dayo Adeyeye, similarly said the practice of celebrating people whose sources of wealth were unclear remained a serious national concern.

But the dominant legal message from the launch was not simply that unexplained wealth must be pursued.

It was that the pursuit must operate within a system capable of distinguishing suspicion from proof, illicit assets from legitimate property, and weak documentation from unlawful acquisition.

That distinction, running through Shittu’s trilogy and echoed by Sanusi, Osinbajo and Fagbohun, pushes the debate beyond whether Nigeria needs tougher anti-corruption laws.

It raises the harder question of whether Nigeria can build the institutional records, safeguards and judicial processes required to make those laws both effective and fair.

And, in Shittu’s formulation, the ultimate test of the system may not be measured only by the number of corrupt persons convicted or assets recovered, but by whether a citizen who has acquired wealth lawfully can also prove it.

“The fight against corruption is won not on the day the thief is convicted, but on the day the honest man is believed,” he said.