Nigeria, March 22 -- "When corruption is declared in advance and applauded, silence is no longer innocence."

Nigeria does not suffer from a shortage of anti-corruption laws; it suffers from institutions that have perfected the art of looking away. What is presented as accountability is often paperwork. What is called compliance is frequently fiction. And nowhere is this contradiction more visible than in the growing practice of anticipatory asset declaration - a quiet but devastating subversion of the asset declaration regime.

Anticipatory asset declaration is not complex. It is calculated. Incoming public officers declare assets they do not yet own - billions in cash, sprawling estates, foreign holdings - before assuming office. These ...