My learned friends, it is a hard thing to say in a room of one’s own profession, but it must be said: no grand corruption succeeds without professional enablers. The launderer needs a lawyer. The looter needs an accountant. The fraudster needs a banker who looks away.
The privilege of our profession — the confidence clients repose in us — was never meant to be a cloak for crime. The gatekeeper who opens the gate to the thief is not a bystander; he is an accomplice.
I call on the Bar to treat anti-money-laundering obligations not as bureaucratic irritation but as professional honour. Know your client. Question the source of funds. Refuse the brief that smells of blood.
The day Nigerian professionals close their doors to illicit finance is the day the corrupt run out of places to hide. That day can begin in this hall.