RismadarVoice Reporters
September 29, 2026
Senior Advocate of Nigeria Wahab Shittu has identified unexplained wealth as a factor hindering Nigeria’s development, calling for stronger mechanisms to identify and recover assets acquired through illicit means.
Shittu spoke on Monday during the public presentation of his three-volume book, Unexplained Wealth: A Trilogy of Nigerian Financial Law, at the Oriental Hotel in Lagos.
He said Nigeria possesses significant human and natural resources but argued that the country’s development is undermined when wealth is diverted through means that cannot be legitimately explained.
“No country can progress if that country is faced with unexplained wealth. This country is very rich in terms of human and natural resources, but the bulk of our wealth is being siphoned away through unexplained means,” Shittu said.
The Senior Advocate, however, cautioned against automatically associating wealth with criminality, stressing that legitimate wealth acquisition is not an offence.
According to him, scrutiny should instead focus on assets or income suspected to have been acquired unlawfully or whose sources cannot reasonably be explained.
“Wealth acquisition in itself is not a crime. Being rich is not necessarily a crime. But what is a crime and indefensible is illicit acquisition of wealth, or that which defies logical explanation,” he said.
Shittu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, said the three-volume publication was designed as a reference material for anti-corruption agencies, investigators, prosecutors, judges, legal practitioners and members of the public.
He said his interest in the subject was influenced his interest in the subjectluding a case involving a former local government chairman in Kogi State whose assets allegedly exceeded his legitimate income.
Shittu said the case eventually reached the Supreme Court and addressed circumstances in which a person may be required to account for assets or income exceeding legitimate earnings.
He also recalled being invited by the National Judicial Institute, in collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, to address judges on unexplained wealth.
According to him, subsequent research led him to conclude that Nigeria lacked a dedicated unexplained-wealth legislative framework comparable to mechanisms operating in some other jurisdictions.
Shittu described the publication as an effort to examine the legal doctrine surrounding unexplained wealth and its potential application within Nigeria’s legal system.
He argued that investigators, prosecutors and courts must follow proper legal procedures to ensure that illicit assets can be addressed without exposing innocent people to unjust accusations or punishment.
“What we need to do is not to label people anyhow or fight anti-corruption in the pages of newspapers. It is to enthrone a regime of credibility throughout the prosecution process and ensure that our country is sanitised, our commonwealth is not siphoned away by thieves and that those who are innocent are not unjustly labelled,” he said.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo chaired the event, which was also attended by former Lagos State University Vice-Chancellor, Prof Olanrewaju Fagbohun, SAN; President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya; and the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II.
