British taxi driver still paid as Nigerian civil servant

When you quit your job, it seems logical that your salary stops paying. However, for some former Nigerian civil servants, this is not the case.

They have managed to find work elsewhere, sometimes even in another country, and still receive a salary from their former employer.

News of this reached the top and last week President Bola Tinubu ordered a crackdown.

“The guilty parties must repay the money they fraudulently collected,” he said.

Sabitu Adams, whose name we have changed to protect his identity, has not resigned from his position as a junior civil servant in a government agency and continues to receive his salary every month despite leaving Nigeria two years ago.

He now works as a taxi driver in Britain but told the BBC he was not concerned about losing his salary as he views Tinubu’s comments as an empty threat.

Mr Adams added that losing his monthly Nigerian salary of 150,000 naira ($100; £80) would not be a major setback as he earns much more as a taxi driver.

“When I heard about the president’s directive, I laughed because I know I’m doing better here — and I’m not worried,” the 36-year-old said.

But why didn’t he let the bureaucracy know that he had left?

“To be honest, I didn’t quit because I wanted to leave that door open in case I decided to go back to work in a few years.”

According to official statistics, like Adams, more than 3.6 million Nigerians have moved to other countries in the past two years.

Many young Nigerians see little prospect of making a good living in the country – a feeling exacerbated by the collapse in the value of the naira over the past year as a result of the reforms Mr Tinubu has implemented since becoming president.

It has become so common for young people to seek their fortunes outside the country that the term ‘japa’ has been coined to describe the phenomenon.

It is a word from the Yoruba language and means escape or flight.

Mr Tinubu said he was “struck by the revelations shared by the head of the civil service about employees who had moved abroad while receiving salaries without formally resigning”.

The president said that not only should the money be repaid, but those complicit in it should also be investigated.

“Their supervisors and department heads should also be punished for complicity in the fraud that took place under their watch,” he said.

And that might have been the case for Mr. Adams as well.

The UK taxi driver admitted that he was still getting paid thanks to people in his department: “I had a good relationship with my boss and he just let me go.”

In such cases, the salary is often divided between the manager, who remains silent, and the person who gets paid, possibly supplemented by an HR representative.

But for Mr. Adams it was even simpler. “In my case that was not the case, because my boss was a family member.”

So-called ‘ghost-working’ is a major problem in Nigeria. Despite several crackdowns, thousands of non-existent workers are believed to still be paid. There appear to be few checks and balances.

But this is the first time it has been suggested that people who have moved abroad will continue to receive their salaries on a large scale.

Auwal Yakasai, who retired in 2021 as Director in charge of Finance in the Kano State Ministry of Information, said he had heard of such cases.

“To be honest, I have never caught anyone red-handed,” Yakasai, who worked for the government for 32 years, told the BBC.

“But I’ve heard countless stories about such arrangements, where someone still receives a salary after moving or changing jobs.”

Since taking office in May last year, Mr Tinubu has promised to cut governance costs and eliminate waste.

In January, he ordered a 60% reduction in the number of official escorts at state and international events for himself and other government officials.

Nevertheless, some have noted that in Mr Tinubu’s government there is a lot of talk without much action.

As an example, they cite plans to buy new aircraft worth millions of dollars for Mr Tinubu and his deputy Kashim Shettima.

Another was when Mr Tinubu launched a new official residence for Vice President Shettima in the capital Abuja earlier this month, with a price tag of $13.6 million (£11 million).

And despite the president’s statements about the foreign ghost workers, he did not indicate what exactly he was going to do to tackle them and take action against those responsible.

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