THE latest discovery by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) about the rot in public payroll is galling. While millions of young Nigerians wander from office to office in search of employment, hundreds of names that are being used to draw salaries from the public purse do not belong to actual workers. They belong to ghost workers. What a sad irony! This is really not a new development but another instance of corruption in Nigeria’s seemingly endless catalogue of unethical practices in public offices. It is an indictment of a system which creates lacunas through which government money can disappear with astonishing ease while citizens are told that there are not enough resources to employ real and willing workers.
According to the ICPC, 908 suspected ghost workers were uncovered across several federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), leading to the recovery of approximately N942 million allegedly paid through fraudulent payroll arrangements. According to the commission, its investigation, which was launched in 2024, followed irregularities detected in pension payments to names allegedly inserted into government payroll systems to siphon public funds. As hinted by the commission’s chairman, Musa Adamu Aliyu (SAN), the investigation covered at least 50 federal MDAs, with the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) recording 570 – the highest number of suspected ghost workers. Other institutions allegedly involved in the said fraud include the National Water Resources Authority, the Federal Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Power, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, the Federal Ministry of Health and the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.
A more disturbing aspect of these allegations is that some public officials allegedly enrolled their relatives and associates in government payrolls and appropriated the salaries. In one cited case, a suspect allegedly inserted the names of his wife, son and mother-in-law while also being paid the salaries of 12 other workers! Irrefutably, this is a very sad occurrence that erodes the moral foundations of public service. Nigerians have been regaled with variations of ghost-worker stories many times. The tragedy is that the country has become almost accustomed to such revelations which should provoke national debate. Governments announce the discovery of ghost workers, recover some money, issue statements, and then the public moves on to the next scandal. Meanwhile, the mechanism that made the fraud possible remains intact. As Margaret Atwood states in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ (1985), ‘Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.’ Nigeria cannot continue to normalise or ignore payroll fraud through collective indifference. Each fresh discovery should provoke reform rather than resignation.
The ICPC deserves commendation for uncovering the alleged fraud, but it must not rest on its laurels. The exercise should be continuous, systematic and nationwide. Payroll auditing should not be conducted only after irregularities have become sufficiently large to attract attention. It should be an institutional routine backed by technology, independent verification and demand for personal accountability. There must be consequences. A society in which the proceeds of corruption are more certain than the punishment for corruption effectively invites theft. If perpetrators repeatedly escape with mere embarrassment, administrative transfers or prolonged litigation, the lesson to the next generation of fraudsters is obvious: the public treasury remains a low-risk target. The ICPC must therefore pursue cases to their logical conclusion. Recovery of stolen funds is welcome, but recovery alone is insufficient. Those found culpable must face appropriate sanctions after due process. Public officers must understand that the payroll is not a private inheritance. Investigation should also be extended to the armed forces and other security institutions where the integrity of personnel records is particularly important. The same scrutiny should reach federal universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and other higher institutions. No institution should be exempt merely because its payroll system is considered sensitive or complex.
Importantly, scrutiny must go beyond fishing out ghost workers. The terms of reference of the ICPC and other anti-graft bodies should include interrogation of documents to unravel salary padding, payroll inflation and other forms of personnel fraud. If the officials responsible for compiling, authenticating and transmitting salary records fail repeatedly to detect fictitious employees, duplicated identities or inexplicable payments, then Nigerians are bound to complain about incompetence, negligence and collusion. The contributory pension system also deserves scrutiny. The ICPC should investigate the likelihood of collusion amongst pension administrators, payroll officers and officials of MDAs. Pension records, personnel databases and payroll systems should be cross-checked rigorously. The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation should equally receive particular attention. If the federal payroll architecture is the vault through which public funds pass, the custodians of that vault must be beyond reproach.
The moral absurdity of ghost workers is difficult to overstate. Nigeria has millions of unemployed and underemployed citizens, many of them qualified, energetic and desperate for the opportunity to serve. Yet fictitious employees – names without bodies, salaries without labour, beneficiaries without service – occupy government payrolls for years. This is a betrayal of both the unemployed and the honest public servants. As the pursuit of money becomes detached from conscience and public duty, institutions become instruments of private enrichment. Nigeria cannot afford such institutionalised leakage. Every naira diverted to a ghost worker is money unavailable for schools, hospitals, roads, security, water and employment. A ghost worker may have no physical existence, but the damage is painfully real. Arundhati Roy writes in ‘The Cost of Living’ (1999): ‘Another world is not only possible, she is on her way.’ For Nigeria, that better future can only be on its way when public institutions are governed by integrity, transparency and an unwavering commitment to justice.
The ICPC should widen its dragnet, deepen its investigation and publish periodic progress reports. It should work with the Office of the Accountant-General, the civil service authorities, pension institutions and other relevant agencies to emplace a payroll system in which every beneficiary can be independently verified. Modern technology should be devised for monthly clearance and salary checkers. The country must move from episodic outrage to permanent vigilance. We commend the ICPC for unmasking the 908 suspected ghost workers. But this is only the beginning. The commission must follow the money, identify the facilitators, examine the lacuna that enabled the alleged fraud and ensure that the recovered funds do not become the end of the story. Culprits should be prosecuted. Nigeria must exorcise the system that keeps creating ghost workers.