By Zacchaeus Ozovehe, Lokoja
The concept of “ghost workers” in Nigeria public service has over the years gained more prominence despite attempts (whether genuine or not) by both present and past leaders to rid it off entirely. The perpetrators of this crime against the state seemed to be determined like “Eneke” the bird in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” which
vowed not to perch since man has learnt to shoot without missing by continuing to devise various ways of looting the treasury.
In Nigeria, the first major task that is always before a novel administration has always been staff verification to authenticate the real work force and possibly catch the ever elusive ‘ghosts’ for prosecution. Kogi state, the confluence state or confluence of opportunities as many would call, has had her fair dose of various staff screening with its attendant untold grinding and gnashing of teeth by her work force.
Apparently disturbed by increased monthly wage bill from N1.6 billion to N3.2 billion in 2009, the then governor of the state, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris engaged the service of a consultant, the Sally Tibot Consulting firm to audit the
state civil servants and come out with reasonable numbers and give recommendation on how to sustain sizeable
workforce. With the commencement of the staff screening exercise, the government which paid a sum of N70 million to the consultant was however expecting a good result from the exercise, but the cartel within the system devised
other means (just like eneke, the bird) of frustrating the screening exercise. Civil servants with questionable
credentials demonized the Chief Executive Officer of Sally Tibot Consulting firm, Ms. Saadat Otun Bakrin, and called her all sorts of names.
At the end of the five months exercise, the consultant discovered a lot of startling revelations and submitted the report and recommendations. The report was however left on the shelf to gather dust for what many believe, was political reason as the 2011 governorship contest was fast approaching then.
The rots in the state civil service continued to add more flesh. Enlistment into many ministries was either based on political patronage or senior officers would just sit back in their various offices to concoct and conjure imaginary names into payroll for their selfish interest. The immediate hard knock of these unwholesome attitudes could not be felt much then because allocation from federation account was relatively stable and prices of crude oil at international market was at its zenith.
Then, with the abysmal failure of the administration of Alhaji Ibrahim Idris to reposition Kogi State civil service, the civil servants in 2011 saw a messaiah in Idris Wada, a reverred Captain. Expectedly, the captain at the height of his administration conducted a lot of staff screening exercises. The last staff screening exercise was carried out by a
committee headed by a Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Deborah Ogunmola, which recommended that over 6,500
should be relieved of their work for not genuinely employed. Wada, in what analysts regarded as a strategic move to win the hearts of electorates for second term lack political will to implement the recommendations of the screening
committee. Rather, there was geometric progression in the volume of staff such that at the end of his tenure, a total of 39,000 humans and ghosts were on payroll.
Starting from his inauguration on 27th January, 2016, Alhaji Yahaya Bello has been very vocal on his resolve to right the wrongs in the state civil service and judiciously use the state resources for greater good of all.According to him, “There is no greater evil than Corruption and nothing champions that evil more than Impunity… Corruption and Impunity made sure our people repeatedly arrived at a promised future and found it bereft of substance, or the promised better life.
Let it be recorded today that future generations will not be given reason to count the incoming Administration among those who reveled in Corruption or Impunity. We will be different by the Grace of God. We must and will be that generation of Leaders who made the entirety of Kogi’s Resources work for the entirety of Kogi’s People”
While about N3 billion was needed to service the whopping 39,000 workers, the monthly allocation from the federation account dwindled between N2 billion and N2.2 billion in the first quarter of the year. Bello had announced that the summation of these figures and the epileptic Internally Generated Revenue (which was put at about N500 million monthly) was not even enough to pay salaries, hence the need to ascertain the actual workforce.
At the inauguration of the screening committee few weeks after taking the mantle of leadership in the state, Bello vowed that his administration will not only be known for salary payment without infrastructural development. To this end, Heads of departments, Permanent Secretaries, Directors and some top civil servants in the state were sent on compulsory leave before the audit committee headed by Brigadier Paul Okutimo embarked on the onerous task of getting rid of the ‘ghosts’.
The governor in a maiden visit to his homeland on 2nd April disclosed that the screening committee had so far made startling revelations about rots in the civil service. According to him, there was a discovery of one person putting as many as 300 ghosts workers on the payroll of a Local Government. The story of non existent schools with Principals, teachers and other staff purportedly receiving salary from the state government equally filtered in. Some persons who were allegedly receiving salaries from four or five different ministries were fished out.
However, at the height of the screening exercise, the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) accused Bello of reeling out anti-worker policies. The state NLC chairman, Comrade Onu Edoka had on this year’s Workers Day celebration declared that since Bello assumed position as the governor, the civil service had been virtually closed
down as a result of unending screening exercises. He noted that top civil servants who should ordinarily provide direction for the public service to operate have been on compulsory leave for over three months.
By and large, the screening exercise has come and gone. The wide acceptance of the exercise across the three senatorial districts of the state is a pointer that civil servants are poised for possible repositioning and overhauling of the system. It is therefore hoped that the screening results and recommendations which the state earnestly await, will not be jettisonned. Full and unbiased implementation is keenly expected of the government.
