NPF’s ghost police

NIGERIANS should be alarmed by last week’s revelation by the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, regarding the findings of the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA). Addressing journalists and members of the public at a Facebook live session, the honourable minister disclosed, much to the astonishment of her audience, that there are 80,000 ghost workers on the payroll of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). The minister further revealed that payment of basic salaries and additional retirement-related compensations to these non-existent police officers sets the Federal Government back to the tune of N22.3 billion per month.

To put the minister’s numbers in perspective: if the total staff strength of the NPF is 371,000, and there are 80, 000 ghost officers on the payroll, it means that at least 25 per of the entire establishment is non-existent. Further, a monthly gross salary of over N22 billion to the same non-existence officers means that, annually, the Federal Government pours more than a quarter billion naira down the rain. This is totally egregious. It is both a serious fiscal matter and a security matter, and the Senate and House of Representatives should summon the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris Kpotum, to explain what is going on in the force.

• FG discovers 78,315 ghost policemen

When the idea of bringing the payroll of the police force under the automated Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) platform was first mooted, protests broke out in different parts of the country. Only last month, there were coordinated protests in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, and Port Harcourt, Rivers State, respectively. The protesters argued,  quite unpersuasively, that the proposed changes would jeopardise the smooth running of police operations as well as lead to delays in the payment of monthly salaries.

In hindsight, and especially given the dubiousness of their claims, it would seem that the protesters were doing everything possible to preserve the status quo ante. Who organised the protests and what did the protesters know? What do people in the highest echelons of the accounts section of the police force know and when did they know it? Our questions are based on the totally reasonable assumption that it is impossible for such a huge amount of money to be paid into actual accounts for people who only exist on paper, and for those in leadership positions across the force not to know about it. Mrs. Adeosun has promised that, once the Augean stables at the police have been cleaned, her ministry’s audit team will move to other government agencies. We enthusiastically support her mission to curb wastage in these establishments and look forward to future reports of the audit team.

This scandal does not portray the NPF in a good light, and its leading officers deserve every opprobrium that is poured on them by members of a cynical public. Yet, Nigerians would be deluding themselves if they assume that this problem is limited to the police. Over the past two decades, there has hardly been a single government establishment where similar problems have not been reported. Nor should the phenomenon of ghost workers be considered in isolation. On the contrary, it is a pointer to a terrible sickness that lodges firmly in the Nigerian psyche. Until  the nation cures that sickness, all the energies aimed at building a just and prosperous country will be in vain.