Our People

Meet Our Board

Juliet Ibekaku-Nwagwu

Founder and Executive Director

JULIET IBEKAKU-NWAGWU, LL.B., LL.M., M.A – Founder and Executive Director of the African Center for Governance, Asset Recovery, and Sustainable Development. She is currently a Postgraduate Researcher, at the Department of Law, School of Law, Politics, and Sociology, University of Sussex, UK.

She became a Barrister and Solicitor thirty-two years ago, specialising in law and development with more than twenty-three years of experience in international cooperation in the recovery and return of proceeds of crime for sustainable development, and governance. Her international criminal law experience is focused on financial intelligence, financial crimes, transnational anti-corruption, regulatory compliance on counter-financing of terrorism/anti-money laundering and anti-bribery, illicit financial flows (IFF), sanctions regime, and justice sector reform. She has worked with governments, anti-corruption commissions, multilateral, bilateral, regional organisations, and civil society organisations to foster social development and good governance across Africa. Previous roles held include: Adviser to the President of Nigeria; Director of Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit; Legal Expert, Commonwealth Secretariat (ECOWAS/GIABA), Assistant Director, EFCC; National Program Coordinator, UNODC; Program Officer, USAID (Nigeria).

She is a certified Compliance and Risk management expert, a Fellow of the Compliance Institute of Nigeria (FCIN) and the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists She is the Convenor of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association's anti-corruption subcommittee, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) 's anti-money laundering committee, and an Advisory Board member of the International Institute for Justice and Rule of Malta, Europe.

Mr. Jideani Agabaidu

Chairman - Board of Directors

Mr. Jideani Agabaidu

Chairman - Board of Directors

Mr. Jideani Agabaidu is a Governance, Risk, and Compliance Specialist with a background in Law, Ethics, Management, and Public Sector reform. He has more than twenty years’ experience in legal practice and development.

Mr. Agabaidu is a graduate of the Ethics Institute of South Africa, the Zurich International Compliance Academy Switzerland, Terrorism Studies from the University of St. Andrews Scotland – UK, and Corporate Governance from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. He holds a Master's degree in Legislative Drafting and is a postgraduate researcher at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) program of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife. He serves as Director General of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and the African Center Board of Directors Chairman.

His areas of specialisation include legislative drafting, democratic governance, public accountability, and anti-corruption reforms.

Hadassah Esther Igoche-Agbaje

Legal Adviser

Hadassah Esther Igoche-Agbaje

Legal Adviser

Hadassah Esther Igoche-Agbaje is the Legal Adviser of the African Centre. She is currently a Managing Partner at BJ Attorneys - a team of Regulatory Compliance Experts and Professionals. She holds memberships in the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Compliance Institute of Nigeria, and the Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA). Hadassah also serves as the Co-Chair of the Young Lawyers of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association (YCLA). Her expertise spans corporate, civil and criminal litigation, consumer protection, labour law, asset recovery, legislative drafting, research, and regulatory compliance. Her legal career includes roles in public service, private practice, and civil society engagement. Notably, she contributed to the research and review of key legislation, including the Proceeds of Crime Act 2022 and the Electoral Act 2022. Hadassah is also a member of various committees within the CLA, including the Public Administration Committee, the Human Rights and Rule of Law Committee, and the Anti-Corruption Sub-Committee.

Dr. Muhammed Tawfiq Ladan

Advisory Board Member

Dr. Muhammed Tawfiq Ladan

Advisory Board Member

Dr. Muhammed Tawfiq Ladan is a distinguished Professor of Law with a Ph.D obtained in 1997. He has 37 years of experience in higher education teaching and research. He specialises in various fields of law, including comparative regional economic integration, public international law, environmental law, energy law, and human rights law.

Professor Ladan is a member of several prestigious organisations such as the World Jurist Association, USA; ECOWAS Regional and Country Rapporteur on Climate Change Litigation; member of the Global Rapporteurs on Climate Change of the Columbia Law School Sabin Centre, USA; member Panel of Reviewers of the Draft 2023 Global Report on UNSDG; member of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law; Association of African Environmental Law Scholars; a Hubert Humphrey Fellow, USA, and member, Nigerian Society of International Law. He has held significant positions, including Deputy Dean of Law at ABU-Zaria and Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. He has played a pivotal role in Nigeria's justice sector reform. As the Deputy Chairman of the National Technical Experts Working Group, he was instrumental in drafting and facilitating the adoption of the National Policy on Justice and the development of the Justice Sector Reform Action Plan from 2017 to 2019 Justice Sector Action Plan—the Action Plan aimed to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the justice system in Nigeria. Dr. Ladan has consulted for international organizations with focus on capacity building for federal and state legislators on constitutional law and human rights protection. His efforts reflect his dedication to improving the justice system and ensuring it aligns with international standards and best practices. He has consulted for numerous international organizations like UNEP, UNODC, UNDP, and UNICEF, and has authored over 16 books, 80 journal articles, and 100 conference papers. His work is widely cited and he serves on the advisory boards of various NGOs focused on development and advocacy. His works reflect his broad expertise and commitment to advancing legal scholarship in these critical areas.

Amath Soumare

Advisory Board Member

Amath Soumare

Advisory Board Member

Mr. Soumare is a financial crime expert with more than 20 years of experience in international and sub-regional organizations such as the World Bank, European Union, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering and Counter-Financing of Terrorism Regional Group (GIABA). He has significantly impacted his role at GIABA (Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa). His responsibilities included organizing and coordinating studies, annual reports, and mutual evaluation reports for all 15 ECOWAS member countries. He has extensive experience in project management and developing procedure manuals. Additionally, he played a crucial role in establishing and organizing Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) procedures and processes both within GIABA and in various ECOWAS member countries. As Director of Studies at GIABA, he coordinated several internal studies and research projects, including the analysis of risks and control measures related to corruption and money laundering in West Africa, evaluation of the effectiveness of AML/CFT measures in member states, development of strategies to enhance the implementation of AML/CFT standards. His work was instrumental in strengthening the region's capacity to combat financial crimes. He is the founding President of SOPEL International / CANE EXECUTIVE and KEYWORDS Technologies. He holds two postgraduate doctorates in Economic Intelligence and Development from the University Marne La Vallée, France and Project Monitoring and Evaluation from the Illinois State University, IL, Chicago, USA).

Brook Horowitz

Advisory Board Member

Brook Horowitz

Advisory Board Member

Brook Horowitz is an experienced professional promoting responsible business practices and combating corruption. He holds advanced degrees from Harvard and Cambridge and is fluent in multiple languages. Currently, he serves as the CEO of IBLF Global and Executive Director of Culture of Business Ltd. His career includes significant roles with international organizations like U.K Department for International Development (DFID), now referred to as the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the B20, focusing on business integrity and sustainability. His extensive experience spans various leadership positions at General Electric and the International Business Leaders Forum. He has advised companies on anti-corruption and human rights compliance and led many international project teams in some of the world's most challenging markets, such as Vietnam, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and China. Through IBLF Global, Mr. Horowitz has facilitated public-private dialogues that bring together policy leaders and practitioners to find practical solutions to corruption. These dialogues have resulted in capacity-building programs for local companies in various regions, including Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. He has been involved in several collective action initiatives, such as the B20 Collective Action Hub and anti-corruption toolkits for SMEs. These initiatives have provided concrete outputs and policy recommendations to the G20, helping to shape global standards for business integrity. He has authored several publications on anti-corruption and integrity in global supply chains, various government research papers, and training manuals.

Meet Our Staff

Obialunanma Nnaobi-Ayodele

Deputy Project Director

Obialunanma Nnaobi-Ayodele

Deputy Project Director

Nma Nnaobi-Ayodele is the Deputy Project Director of the African Center. She is an experienced programme manager, development strategist, and researcher with over a decade of experience in strategic development and policy analysis. She specializes in governance, monitoring and evaluation, strategic framework development, research, project design and management, and public policy analysis. She holds a B.Sc. in Accountancy from the University of Nigeria and a Master’s in International Business Management from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. She is a 2017 Fellow of President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) and currently serves as the Co-Chair (Non-State Actors) of the National Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership in Nigeria.