{"id":18781,"date":"2024-07-02T16:03:12","date_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=18781"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:25:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:25:23","slug":"the-uk-taxi-driver-still-being-paid-as-a-nigerian-civil-servant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=18781","title":{"rendered":"The UK taxi driver still being paid as a Nigerian civil servant"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>4 Minute, 12 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

If you leave your job, it would seem logical that your salary would stop being paid, but not so for a number of former Nigerian civil servants.<\/p>\n

They have managed to be employed elsewhere \u2013 sometimes in another country entirely \u2013 and yet continue to receive a wage from their former workplace.<\/p>\n

News of this has reached the top and last week President Bola Tinubu ordered a crackdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe culprits must be made to refund the money they have fraudulently collected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sabitu Adams, whose name we have changed to protect his identity, has not resigned from his position as a junior official at a government agency and still gets paid each month, despite leaving Nigeria two years ago.<\/p>\n

He now works as a taxi driver in the UK, but told the BBC that he was not worried about losing the salary as he sees Mr Tinubu\u2019s comments as an empty threat.<\/p>\n

Mr Adams added that the loss of his monthly Nigerian salary of 150,000 naira ($100; \u00a380) would not be a great hardship, as he earns a lot more driving a taxi.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I heard about the president\u2019s directive, I smiled because I know I am doing better here \u2013 and not worried,\u201d the 36-year-old said.<\/p>\n

But why not make it clear to the civil service that he had left?<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest I didn\u2019t resign because I wanted to leave that door open in case I choose to go back to my job after a few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nigeria\u2019s President Bola Tinubu ordered a crackdown into those getting paid in the civil service for doing no work<\/p>\n

Like Mr Adams, more than 3.6 million Nigerians have relocated to other countries over the last two years, according to official statistics.<\/p>\n

Many young Nigerians see little prospect of earning a good living in the country \u2013 a feeling exacerbated by the collapse in the value of the naira over the past year following the reforms introduced by Mr Tinubu since he became president.<\/p>\n

It has become so common for young people to seek their fortunes outside the country, the term \u201cjapa\u201d has been coined to describe the phenomenon.<\/p>\n

It is a word from the Yoruba language meaning to escape or flee.<\/p>\n

Mr Tinubu said he was \u201cstruck by the revelations the head of the civil service shared regarding employees who had relocated abroad while drawing salaries without formally resigning\u201d.<\/p>\n

The President said that not only should the money be repaid but those who were complicit in allowing it to happened should be investigated too.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir supervisors and department heads must also be punished for aiding and abetting the fraud under their watch,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And this may have been the case for Mr Adams.<\/p>\n

The UK-based taxi driver admitted that he continued to be paid thanks to those in his department: \u201cI had a good understanding with my boss and he just let me leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Often in such cases the salary is divided between the supervisor who keeps quiet and the person being paid, maybe along with an HR representative.<\/p>\n

But for Mr Adams it was even easier. \u201cIn my case it wasn\u2019t like that as my boss was a relative.\u201d<\/p>\n

The collapse in the value of the naira over the past year is pushing more young Nigerians to seek opportunities elsewhere<\/p>\n

So-called \u201cghost-working\u201d is a major problem in Nigeria. Despite several crackdowns it is believed that thousands of non-existent workers are still being paid. There appear to be very few checks and balances in place.<\/p>\n

But this is the first time it has been suggested that people who have moved abroad are continuing to be paid their salaries on a large scale.<\/p>\n

Auwal Yakasai, who retired as a director in charge of finance at Kano state\u2019s information ministry in 2021, said he had heard of such cases.<\/p>\n

\u201dTo be honest I have never caught anyone red-handed,\u201d Mr Yakasai, who worked for the government for 32 years, told the BBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I have heard numerous stories of such arrangements, where someone would still be receiving [a] salary after relocating or changing their place of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since he took office in May last year, Mr Tinubu has pledged to reduce the cost of governance and cut wastage.<\/p>\n

In January, he directed that all official entourages to state and international events for himself and other government officials be slashed by 60%.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, some have noted that there is much talk in Mr Tinubu\u2019s administration without much action.<\/p>\n

They cite plans to buy new planes worth millions of dollars for Mr Tinubu and his deputy Kashim Shettima as an example.<\/p>\n

Another was when Mr Tinubu earlier this month launched a new official residence for Vice-President Shettima in the capital, Abuja, with a price tag of $13.6m (\u00a311m).<\/p>\n

And despite the president\u2019s statement about the foreign ghost-workers, he did not say exactly what he was doing to crack down on them and take action against those responsible.<\/p>

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If you leave your job, it would seem logical that your salary would stop being paid, but not so for a number of former Nigerian civil servants. They have managed… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"yes","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18781"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18801,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18781\/revisions\/18801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}