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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II and former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo have outlined different concerns over Nigeria’s approach to unexplained wealth and the broader fight against corruption.
Their views emerged in Lagos at the presentation of Unexplained Wealth: A Trilogy of Nigerian Financial Law, a three-volume publication written by anti-corruption lawyer Dr Wahab Shittu (SAN).
Obasanjo, who presided over the event, concentrated on the effect of corruption on ordinary Nigerians and national development.
He argued that the diversion of public resources ultimately places a heavier burden on citizens, particularly those already living in poverty.
Describing corruption as “development’s greatest, deadly peril,” Obasanjo also said unexplained wealth was “anti-social, anti-development and anti-progress.”
“Those who suffer most in the corrupt society are the poor. And it makes them poorer,” the former president said.
He maintained that sustained development would remain difficult if corruption continued to undermine public institutions and the economy.
Obasanjo also pointed to measures introduced during his administration to strengthen Nigeria’s anti-corruption architecture, including the establishment of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Sanusi, however, drew attention to the manner in which anti-corruption laws are enforced, arguing that legislation alone would not solve the problem.
The Emir said investigators, prosecutors and members of the judiciary must be able to apply the law without political considerations influencing who is investigated or prosecuted.
“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 consequently called for greater consistency and fairness in the enforcement of laws dealing with corruption and unexplained wealth.
Osinbajo’s position, delivered at the event by his former Chief of Staff, Ade Ipaye, focused on the need to protect people who acquired their property legitimately.
The former Vice President said efforts to recover suspected illicit assets should be grounded in constitutional safeguards and should not automatically put legitimate property at risk.
Nigeria, he said, requires “a clear, fair, and constitutionally sound approach” to asset recovery.
Also speaking, the book reviewer, Professor Olanrewaju Fagbohun (SAN), warned against assuming that an individual’s inability to produce conventional documentation automatically meant the person had acquired wealth illegally.
Fagbohun said the enforcement of unexplained wealth provisions must take into account Nigeria’s large informal economy, where legitimate transactions may not always generate the type of documentation associated with formal businesses.
For Shittu, the central challenge is creating an effective system that can separate legitimate prosperity from illicit enrichment.
The author stressed that reliable records are essential to determining how assets were acquired, warning that weak documentation could lead to widespread suspicion without sufficient evidence to establish wrongdoing.
“Making wealth, becoming rich, is not a crime. It’s not a crime at all. But becoming rich and making wealth dubiously is a crime,” Shittu said.
He called for a system that would give legitimate asset owners an opportunity to establish the source of their wealth while enabling authorities to identify and recover assets acquired through unlawful means.
“The fight against corruption is won not on the day the thief is convicted, but on the day the honest man is believed,” Shittu said.
