A male Nigerian civil servant who left the country for the United Kingdom in 2022 has revealed that he still receives his monthly salary despite not showing up at work.
The 36-year-old UK taxi driver, who will be referred to as Daniel due to the sensitivity of the matter, told the BBC as reported on Sunday that he receives N150,000 monthly from his place of work in Nigeria, all thanks to a mutual understanding with his boss.
Recently, the Federal Government vowed a crackdown on Nigerian government workers who had relocated abroad but still received salaries.
On Saturday, 22 June 2024, President Bola Tinubu, while expressing dismay at the revelations by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation regarding employees who had relocated abroad while drawing salaries without formally resigning, ordered that the “culprits must be made to refund the money they have fraudulently collected.
President Tinubu said, “Their supervisors and department heads must also be punished for aiding and abetting the fraud under their watch”, adding that his administration would ensure “those responsible are held accountable and restitution is made”.
Non-government workers have continued to enjoy free money as they get paid without being enlisted in the nation’s civil service.
In some other cases, people who have either quit their government jobs or relocated overseas still receive the tranche.
Daniel, a junior official at a government agency, was unbothered by the President’s directive, citing that what he currently earns in the UK is higher than the salary he gets from the government.
He said, “When I heard about the president’s directive, I smiled because I know I am doing better here – and not worried”.
When asked why he refused to resign from his position after relocating abroad, Daniel said he thought he would probably return after spending some years abroad.
“To be honest, I didn’t resign because I wanted to leave that door open in case I chose to go back to my job after a few years”, he retorted.
Daniel is one of several Nigerians who have relocated abroad but still receive their monthly pay from the coffers of the Federal Government.
In June 2022, the Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Dr. Dasuki Arabi, disclosed that the Federal Government-backed Integration Personnel and Payroll Information System had exposed and eliminated about 70,000 ghost workers in the civil service system.
Arabi added that the government had saved at least N220 billion, and N10 trillion through the Treasury Single Account since it was fully implemented by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Daniel continues to enjoy the ‘free money’ he hasn’t been working for for the past two years as he said, “I had a good understanding with my boss and he just let me leave”.
In typical situations, ghost workers usually strike deals with their superiors to conceal the act, and then share the salaries.
As for Daniel, it’s a different ball game as he said, “In my case, it wasn’t like that as my boss was a relative”.
