If you quit your job, it seems logical that your salary will stop paying. However, this does not apply to a number of former Nigerian civil servants.
They have managed to find work elsewhere – sometimes in a completely different country – and still receive wages from their former workplace.
News of this reached the top and last week the president said Bola Tinubu ordered a crackdown.
“The perpetrators must repay the money they fraudulently collected,” he said.
Sabitu Adams, whose name we have changed to protect his identity, has not resigned as a junior civil servant in any 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,” he said.
But why didn’t he let the officials know that he had left?
“To be honest, I didn’t quit because I wanted to keep the door open in case I ended up returning to my job after 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 few prospects of earning a decent living in the country – a feeling exacerbated by the collapse in the value of the naira over the past year as a result of reforms implemented by Mr Tinubu 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 ‘to escape’ or ‘to flee’.
Mr Tinubu said he was “struck by the revelations shared by the head of the civil service about employees who 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 must also be punished for being complicit in the fraud that occurred under their watch,” he said.
And that might have been the case for Mr. Adams as well.
The British taxi driver admitted he was still being paid thanks to those in his department: “I had a good relationship with my boss and he just let me leave.”
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 easier. “In my case it wasn’t, 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 getting 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 Chief Financial Officer at the Kano State Ministry of Information, said he had heard of such cases.
“To be honest, I have never caught anyone red-handed,” Mr Yakasai, who worked for the government for 32 years, told the BBC.
“But I have heard countless stories about such schemes, where someone still [a] salary after moving or changing workplace.”
Since taking office in May last year, Mr Tinubu has promised to reduce 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.
Yet some have noted that within Mr Tinubu’s government there is much talk but little action.
As an example, they cite plans to buy new aircraft worth millions of dollars for Mr Tinubu and his deputy Kashim Shettima.
Another example was the opening of a new official residence for Vice President Shettima in the capital Abuja earlier this month. The price of this was 13.6 million dollars (11 million pounds).
And despite the president’s statement about the foreign ghost workers, he didn’t say exactly what he was doing to crack down on them and take action against those responsible.
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