Analytical Study of Nigeria’s Compliance with the United Nations Convention Against Corruption: A Public Law Assessment

Nigeria ratified the United Nations Convention Against Corruption in 2004, creating comprehensive treaty obligations to criminalise bribery, embezzlement, trading in influence, and illicit enrichment, and to establish prevention and asset recovery mechanisms. Nigeria's UNCAC compliance has been reviewed through the UNCAC Implementation Review Mechanism, with significant compliance gaps identified in its first and second review cycles. This study analytically examines Nigeria's compliance with the UNCAC, evaluating the legislative implementation status of UNCAC obligations, asset recovery enforcement performance, and institutional anti-corruption architecture alignment with UNCAC standards. A doctrinal and comparative methodology is applied, reviewing the UNCAC text, Nigeria's first and second UNCAC review cycle reports, the EFCC Act, the ICPC Act, the ACJA 2015, the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act 2022, and the GIABA Mutual Evaluation Report on Nigeria 2021. The study evaluates specific compliance gaps identified in UNCAC review reports and legislative responses. Available international anti-corruption law literature identifies illicit enrichment criminalisation failure, inadequate protection of reporting persons, and UNCAC asset recovery chapter non-compliance as the most analytically significant gaps. The UNCAC Compliance Framework and the Global Forum on Asset Recovery Standards provide the normative reference. Findings recommend priority legislative actions to close identified UNCAC compliance gaps. Keywords: UNCAC, anti-corruption compliance, asset recovery, EFCC, Nigeria.