BECAUSE of the pervasive corruption within Nigeria’s civil service, some critics refer to them as evil servants. In response, the accused typically retort that they are nothing of the sort and that their corrupt colleagues merely lack something called emotional intelligence. Regardless of where you stand in the debate, it is clear that corruption thrives within the civil service because of the general lack of consequences that pervades governmental operations in the country, and we have made this point time and again. Sadly, the case seems to be getting worse. On Saturday, June 22, President Bola Tinubu, while expressing dismay at the revelations by the Head of Service (HoS) of the Federation regarding employees who had relocated abroad and were drawing salaries without formally resigning, ordered that the culprits be made to refund the money they had fraudulently collected. The president also directed that the culprits’ supervisors and departmental heads be punished for aiding and abetting the fraud while they were in charge. Tinubu gave the directive at the award night organised by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF) to commemorate the 2024 Civil Service Week.
His words: “During my recent visit to South Africa, I kept abreast of the week’s activities. I was particularly struck by the revelations shared by the Head of the Civil Service regarding employees who had relocated abroad while drawing salaries without formally resigning. It is heartening to hear that measures have been taken to address this issue, but we must ensure those responsible are held accountable and restitution is made. The culprits must be made to refund the money they have fraudulently collected.” As if to reinforce the veracity of the allegations, a Nigerian civil servant who left the country for the United Kingdom in 2022 was recently quoted in a media report as saying that he still received his monthly salary despite not showing up for work. The 36-year-old UK taxi driver, referred to simply as Daniel due to the sensitivity of the matter, told the BBC that he and his boss in Nigeria came to a mutual understanding, and he was still receiving N150,000 monthly from his place of work. This makes the Federal Government’s avowed crackdown on abroad-based civil servants illegally drawing salaries all the more remarkable.
It has often been said that in Nigeria, anything goes. That perhaps explains the terrible development under reference. Nigeria, the poverty capital of the world, operates a bloated civil service structure that brings into bold relief the perversity of the entire governance framework, which is often no more than a superstructure erected on the people’s pain. Nigeria’s civil service, rotten to the bone, has been companion with a rapacious, primitively acquisitive political leadership for a long time, and stories of anti-graft operations by the government are mere puff of air. Or why has it taken so long for the leadership of the civil service to discover the corrupt practice under reference? Which serious country allows corrupt and criminally minded civil servants to keep receiving salaries long after they should have been exited from the payroll? How can the country develop with such heamorrhage of national funds? And to think that the Head of Service described Nigeria’s civil service, the outfit tolerating such crime, as the best in the world! It certainly seems that those in leadership take Nigerians for granted. What criteria did she use?
Apparently, the practice has been existing for a long time, and no one has so far had the courage to do anything concrete about it. The case of the unknown UK taxi driver confirms this assumption very poignantly. Sadly, the country seemingly has to be thankful that the unnamed driver gave the useful information that has strengthened the case of the critics of Nigeria’s civil service system. By the way, who are the syndicates behind this pernicious practice? They are probably highly connected and spread across sections of the civil service. Given that in the same civil service, people long dead are still collecting salaries, it is clear that its rhetoric notwithstanding, the leadership has not exactly covered itself in glory. Taxpayers’ money is being wasted at will.
The fact that the Head of Service of the Federation attested to the collection of salaries by certain workers who had left the service, with the president expressing surprise at that attestation and directing that those involved should be made to return all the salaries illegally collected while those who aided their criminal behaviour should be fished out for punishment, is a testament to the lack of strict procedure and accountability in the running of the service. It is difficult to understand how people who are no more in the country’s employ can continue to be paid if the relevant procedures are being followed. Those running the service have to hold themselves responsible for the current lapses and do everything to reverse the situation. They must get to the bottom of the apparent lack of accountability within the service. This is the way to ensure that the present negative situation is not perpetuated. Mere rhetoric won’t cut it.
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