By Mobolaji Sanusi
Precisely on September 7, 2023, in faraway India, President Bola Tinubu, GCFR, made a profound statement with a penetrating effect on our collective psyche as a nation. He said: “We are not poor in knowledge. We are not poor in human resources. We are only poor in management and leadership.” This statement exposes our collective guilt as partakers in the mismanagement of our commonwealth, human resources, and knowledge endowment.
Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher, made a classification depicting an understanding of why a nation can be poor in “management and leadership.” This student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle aptly captured societal men and their cherished values when he said: “There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honour, and lovers of gain.” Obviously, the problems bedeviling the country are largely due to the dominance of state institutions by men and cronies who, according to Plato, are inordinately “lovers of gain.” Pointedly, this explains why efficient management and remarkable leadership are inherently threatened in our jurisdiction.
Today, as never witnessed in the annals of this country, we live in a society that is largely inspired by systemic gain rather than patriotic fervour and hard work. Therein lies the problem of lack of respect for accountability, sound knowledge, probity, human capital, ease of doing business, and good leadership orientation. An aggregation of all these brings to the fore the corruptive effects requiring urgent meaningful action. And this urgent response remains the only way to stop our knowledge, rich human resource endowments, and wobbling institutions from further regressing into the abyss.
In our country today, corruption has become a routine recurrence in daily life. Ease of doing business has become so problematic that nothing can get done without negotiating bribes with officials in charge — at the detriment of the jobs to be done. So endemically institutionalized is corruption that being invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, is no longer perturbing to Nigerians. No matter the gravity of alleged graft by public officials or politically exposed persons, or the weight of evidence against them and their cronies, the disturbing impression in the public domain is that after quite a few visits to the anti-corruption agencies, the matter will, with the effluxion of time, fizzle out of public consciousness.
The intellectually versatile Tatalo Alamu aptly captured value degeneration and corrupt inclination in the country in his piece in The Nation newspaper titled “State Paralysis and Ethical Disorientation” of July 12, 2026, when he affirmatively stated: “In Nigeria, only fools play by the rules…” So many upright Nigerians have lost their positions while crooks have retained theirs or even got promoted for a “job well done.” What a country!
No wonder the law in this country is akin to cobwebs where the upright get stuck while the crooked and those who circumvent the rules easily get through. And sincerely, save for a few exceptions in high-profile cases, this ugly trend has been the sad reality of the country’s public/institutional life. To be corrupt is to be rewarded with higher official responsibilities. We no longer see stealing from the public till or collection of bribes before approving what is good for individuals and our collective wellbeing as something wrong.
Things have so degenerated that we now perceive the forceful demand and receipt of bribes/gratification as an ‘opportunity’ presented by the Almighty by occupants of positions who cart away whatever benefits can be seen or perceived at the expense of our collective growth.
Most people now have an avaricious ‘gain’ mentality of grabbing anything in sight, with attendant policy distortions, and believing that there will be no repercussions since the system can be easily manipulated. This has left a deep financial gouge on the public till, with the teeming populace left to bear the brunt of excruciating reforms by successive governments.
In recent times, yours sincerely has rigorously reflected on and welcomed the judiciary’s bold pronouncements on the issue of unexplained wealth brought before it by the anti-graft agencies. Abubakar Malami, SAN, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, recently forfeited 48 out of 57 identified properties across the North believed to have been acquired by him with unexplained income.
Godwin Emefiele, former Central Bank Governor, also forfeited millions of dollars, investment assets, a 753-unit housing estate in Abuja, and properties in choice locations in Lagos, among others, to the Federal Government. A private businesswoman, Ms. Aisha Achimugu, with alleged links to a governor, also forfeited N4.6 billion worth of jewelry, N4.3 billion worth of exotic cars, $50,000 and N30,000,000 cash in alleged unexplained income to the Federal Government. Also, the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos, early this week, affirmed the final forfeiture of multiple assets belonging to retired Major General Emmanuel Jebe Atewe to the Federal Government.
Until recently, and despite the apex court’s recognition of the state’s power to recover proceeds of crime even outside the strict confines of criminal conviction in Mohammed Abacha v. FRN (2006) 4 NWLR (Pt. 970) 239, such inspiring judgments looked like a rarity from the Bench.
But it is now heartwarming that such is becoming more tested, courtesy of a well-knit piece of legislation titled: The Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022. This legislation has its roots traceable to the United Kingdom’s unexplained wealth law that is governed by the Criminal Finances Act 2018. This Act introduced the Unexplained Wealth Orders, serving as a civil investigative tool requiring individuals, including politically exposed persons, to explain their wealth. Under the Act, such investigated persons are called upon to explain the legitimate source of any assets exceeding £50,000 once it is established that such assets exceed their declared lawful income.
While welcoming lawful but non-office-abusive engagements by especially politically exposed persons, the pilferage of our common patrimony by privileged elements and cronies remains condemned and can be drastically reduced if the current rate of novel anti-corruption judgments is sustained by the Bench.
Through this legislation and the courts’ decisions, properties and valuables suspected to have been procured through unlawful or illegitimate means should be objects of final forfeiture once such acquisitions cannot be satisfactorily defended. This much was affirmed in FRN v. Dairo (2015) LPELR-25906 (CA) where the court upheld forfeiture simply because the defendant failed to establish lawful acquisition of assets in contention.
Thanks to the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022, that allows for its prompt treatment of non-conviction-based forfeiture as distinct from criminal trials. In FRN v. Anache (2004) 14 NWLR (Pt. 894) 243, the court affirmed that forfeiture proceedings are civil in nature and distinct from criminal liability.
Now, this piece of legislation is the nemesis of those that litter the corridors of power and their cronies who fleece the nation’s till with reckless abandon.
To the undiscerning public, these forfeitures erroneously mean criminal convictions. They are not. The recent non-conviction forfeitures, in tandem with the Act, attract no criminal liability because they are civil in nature and perhaps a refined version of the plea bargain idea.
However, under this unexplained income law, whoever loses his properties through the non-conviction forfeiture procedure is not foreclosed from criminal prosecution once a prima facie case is established. But the need to pursue criminal prosecution is left to the discretion of the relevant authorities.
Like everything Nigerian, yours sincerely can only hope that this noble piece of legislation will not be unleashed on political opponents of whichever government is in power. Judging by Nigerians’ culture of entitlement, it is doubtful if anyone in the corridors of power, the Bench, institutions of government, civil service, legislature, military and also private enterprise and individuals can survive the scrutiny of this Act if applied stricto sensu.
Most Nigerians, especially those in power and in enterprises with something to do with government, live above their legitimate means of livelihood. This is why the Act must be applied with great circumspection by the powers that be of today and their allies in the relevant agencies of government. They must remember that the hunter of today might become the hunted tomorrow. Our political/institutional terrain is replete with such examples. That underscores the dynamism and ephemerality of power.
Again, all properties, money in different currencies, and other valuables being finally forfeited should not be re-looted by those who erroneously feel they are untouchable today. Such haughty thoughts have no historical value.
It is a good thing that the National Assembly this month has perfected a bill establishing a forfeited assets management agency that is named: “Proceeds of Crime Recovery and Management Agency” through passage of the Proceeds of Crime Act (Amendment) Bill. When fully brought to life after presidential assent, let it be known that the agency should not be manned by pliable men and women of any sitting government but by people with track records of discipline, integrity, principle and reasonable honesty of purpose, so as not to turn the place into a case of what the Yoruba people describe as “Ole gbe, ole gba” kind of situation.
The unexplained wealth law is good, if not for anything but as an effort in the right direction to erase the recurring era of impunity where proclivity for corruption in government and our institutional life is seen as nothing to be deprecated. There is a caveat for today’s men of power who are saddled with currently implementing the unexplained income law: The Act is a double-edged sword that must be handled with sincerity of purpose and ultimately, the fear of Almighty Allah.
Conclusively, lovers of ‘honour and of wisdom’ as opposed to lovers of ‘inordinate gains,’ according to Plato, are men that the nation requires to rid it of filthy rich influential men in and out of government with unexplained wealth that have been retarding our collective progress. And so shall it be…
–Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency, is currently managing partner at AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS. (WhatsApp Only – 07011117777