When the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) recently announced that it had uncovered 908 fake workers and recovered ₦942 million from fraudulent salary payments, many Nigerians were shocked by the figures. Yet, beneath the headline lies a more disturbing truth: the ghost worker syndrome is only one branch of a much larger tree of institutional fraud that has flourished within public administration for decades.

The revelation that the Nigeria Police Force alone accounted for 570 suspected fake workers raises fundamental questions about governance, accountability and the credibility of Nigeria’s public payroll system. If those entrusted with enforcing the law can become the biggest victims—or beneficiaries—of payroll manipulation, then the problem is clearly systemic rather than accidental.

This is not merely about salaries paid to nonexistent employees. It is about a culture that has normalized fake agencies, phantom projects, fictitious procurements, abandoned policies and investigations that often generate headlines but rarely produce lasting justice.

Nigeria’s battle against ghost workers did not begin today. Successive governments have repeatedly promised to sanitize the public service.

During the civil service reforms of the 1970s and 1980s, audit exercises exposed thousands of fictitious names on payrolls. Similar discoveries emerged under the Structural Adjustment era, while democratic administrations after 1999 conducted verification exercises almost every four years. The introduction of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) was celebrated as the technological solution that would permanently eliminate payroll fraud.

Yet the ghosts have refused to disappear.

The latest ICPC findings prove that technology alone cannot defeat corruption when human beings control the data entering the system. Every fake worker represents forged documentation, compromised officials, weak supervision and deliberate collaboration across multiple offices.

The frightening implication is that ghost workers do not create themselves; they are created, protected and sustained by real people.

From ghost workers to ghost government

Payroll fraud is only the visible part of a broader governance crisis. Nigeria has gradually developed an ecosystem of what may be described as ghost government.

These include:

Ghost agencies that exist largely on paper or duplicate the functions of existing institutions.

Ghost policies announced with impressive ceremonies but never implemented.

Ghost procurements where contracts are awarded, funds released, but projects never materialize.

Ghost committees established to solve national problems before quietly disappearing.

Ghost investigations that produce dramatic hearings without convictions or institutional reforms.

The result is the same in every case: public money disappears while public confidence evaporates.

Recent years have witnessed parliamentary probes into questionable intervention councils, duplicated agencies, inflated procurement contracts and abandoned infrastructure. In many instances, investigative panels generated enormous publicity only for their reports to gather dust on official shelves. The absence of consequences encourages repetition.

Why the police topping the list matters

That the police recorded the highest number of suspected fake workers deserves special attention.

The Nigeria Police is one of Africa’s largest security institutions, with personnel spread across every state and local government. Its size makes payroll management complex, but complexity cannot become an excuse for weak accountability.

A distorted payroll has serious security implications. Money diverted to fictitious officers is money unavailable for genuine recruitment, modern equipment, insurance, housing and welfare for serving personnel. At a time when officers complain about poor working conditions and inadequate logistics, discovering hundreds of fake names on the payroll is both economically damaging and morally indefensible.

The same applies to ministries responsible for defence, health, works, power and foreign affairs. These are institutions directly connected to national development. Every naira stolen through payroll fraud reduces the capacity to deliver essential services.

The politics of promises

Nigeria has also perfected another expensive habit: announcing policies that rarely leave the podium.

Governments frequently unveil ambitious programmes with attractive names, glossy documents and impressive budgets. Citizens celebrate the launch, but implementation becomes inconsistent, funding disappears or political priorities change.

Whether in employment schemes, industrial development, housing initiatives or infrastructure programmes, the pattern is familiar. A new administration often abandons its predecessor’s projects, establishes another committee and introduces another policy without evaluating the previous one.

The country therefore accumulates policies instead of results.

A government that cannot distinguish between genuine workers and ghost employees is equally capable of budgeting for ghost programmes.

Procurement without projects

Public procurement remains one of the weakest links in governance.

International experience shows that payroll fraud and procurement fraud often share identical characteristics: forged records, inflated figures, collusion among officials and weak oversight.

Nigeria has witnessed countless examples of contracts fully or substantially paid for roads never completed, hospitals without equipment, schools existing only in budget documents and security projects abandoned after funds had been released.

The financial losses extend beyond money. Communities remain underdeveloped while citizens lose faith in government institutions.

Transparent procurement is therefore inseparable from payroll integrity. Both require reliable databases, independent verification and public access to information.

Why investigations fail

One of Nigeria’s greatest institutional weaknesses is the tendency to mistake investigation for justice.

Each scandal follows a predictable cycle

*Allegation emerges.

*Committee or investigative panel is announced.

*Public hearings dominate the media.

*Interim reports generate political controversy.

*The matter quietly fades away.

This cycle has repeated itself across procurement scandals, pension fraud, subsidy controversies and payroll manipulation. When investigations do not end in prosecution, asset recovery and institutional reform, they become public relations exercises rather than accountability mechanisms.

The ICPC deserves credit for recovering funds, but recovery alone is insufficient. Nigerians deserve to know who inserted the fake names, who approved the payments, who supervised the payroll and what disciplinary actions will follow.

Without individual accountability, another 908 ghost workers will eventually replace the current ones.

We, at Disclosure Newspaper, commend the ICPC for the uncovering of the payroll fraud and recovery of ₦942 million.

However, the true victory will come only when fake workers disappear alongside fake agencies, phantom procurements, abandoned policies and cosmetic investigations.

A nation cannot build a prosperous future on invisible people and imaginary projects. The ghosts haunting Nigeria’s government must finally be laid to rest—not by another investigative committee, but by courage, transparency and uncompromising justice.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigeria’s electoral umpire, pinned August,19th, 2026 as the date the presidential election campaign whistle will sound.

It means that politicians can officially begin their politicking. Political rallies, campaign meetings, visits, shopping for endorsements, banners, posters, explosive interviews and even brazen actions can now begin to happen.
This is because INEC whistle must have been sounded.

But these activities have been going on under other guise and this calls for worry.

Long before now, inflammatory comments are being dished out.
Posters are being erected in strategic places, giant bill boards are standing in some places despite some governors’ intolerable disposition towards opponents erecting bill boards. Billboards, flyers and posters adorn and litter many buildings, roundabouts, fences and any available wall in the cities and remotest far-flung villages. These call attention to impending political battles among political parties and aspirants on the long queues for power.

To observers, politicians are exploiting legal loopholes to heat up the polity, knowing that they can easily evade sanctions by the electoral agency.

In September, Nigerians were taken aback by the early campaigns under the guise of party meetings, party visits, empowerment programmes, endorsement and other social events, including birthdays and funerals, which they elevated into campaign platform.

Concerns mounted over premature campaigns across the six geo-political zones, states, senatorial districts, constituencies and local governments because political parties are in a hurry, and aspirants are impatient and unwilling to wait for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s whistle before throwing their hats in the ring.

In spite of these obvious infractions, the Professor Amupitan-led INEC could not bark not to talk of biting.

At the DISCLOSURE News, we are worried that now that the whistle is about to be blown, who will call the wild politicians to order? Who will wield the big stick?

It is important therefore that we don’t return to the third republic politics when some political camps referred to themselves as ‘Brigades’ and ‘Forces’.

A 21st century Nigeria is supposed to evolve into decent, civil, transformational campaigns anchored on ideas, innovations and character.

We are horrified by the downward descent and slide our politics and politicians of the day have become.

INEC as the regulator of our political contest should be more proactive in setting out rules that can attract decent people and men of honour into the contest.

When men of character and honour are scared away by what looks like a ruffian activity, that’s the same way the people will be shortchanged and good governance will continue to elude the good people of Nigeria.

We call on the authorities concern to muster the will power and do the needful.

As the campaigns hot up, we charge every stakeholders to be alive to their civic duty; monitor, flag bad behavior, bad commentary, condemn inflammatory comments, call out the culprits.

Professor Joash Amupitan has an ample opportunity to put his name on the sands of time. He is leading the INEC at a time the commission needs to do noble work to regain its prestige that has been tainted by previous administration’s of the commission.

He is at liberty to initiate policies, ideas, embrace technologies, programmes, innovations that can add value to the electoral process, transparency credibility of our polls and history will be very kind to him.

We also use this opportunity to urge Nigerians to participate in the electoral process. Power belongs to the people and the people, so determined, will actually demonstrate this maxim.

The electoral umpire has always said it lacks the capacity to prosecute electoral offenders.We have always clamoured for electoral offences tribunal but in the interim, we shift our gaze to the regular courts, the police and the ministry of justice not to act mute in the face of provocations that can actually set the country on fire.

Prevention, it is said, is better than cure.

The resignation of India’s Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, few days ago, following sustained protests by young people over the country’s education system offers an important lesson for Nigeria. Whether one agrees with the protesters or not, the minister accepted political responsibility for a crisis that had eroded public confidence. He stepped aside to allow the government to seek a solution.

In Nigeria, such an action is almost unheard of.

Over the years, Nigerian public officials have developed what appears to be an immunity to resignation. Even in the face of widespread public outrage, serious allegations of corruption, gross administrative failures, repeated violations of the rule of law, or nationwide protests, many public office holders cling to their positions until they are removed by the President, forced out by the courts, or complete their tenure.

This attitude has gradually weakened accountability and damaged public confidence in government.

Since the return to democratic rule in 1999, Nigeria has witnessed numerous crises that would have prompted resignations in many mature democracies. Yet resignation has become the exception rather than the rule.

During the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999–2007), allegations of corruption and abuse of office were levelled against several ministers and public officials. While a few eventually left office after investigations or presidential directives, voluntary resignation remained rare.

Under President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (2007–2010), the government promoted the rule of law more vigorously, but public officials still hardly accepted personal responsibility for failures within their ministries or agencies.

Outstandingly, President Yar’Adua took the road never taken by admitting that the process that brought him in was not credible. Even though he did not resign but it was a departure from the normal.

The administration of President Goodluck Jonathan (2010–2015) witnessed several national controversies. The 2012 fuel subsidy protests, which paralysed much of the country, reflected widespread dissatisfaction with government policies. Despite the enormous public backlash and questions surrounding the subsidy regime, there was no wave of resignations from top officials directly associated with the policy.

The same pattern continued during the government of President Muhammadu Buhari (2015–2023). The #EndSARS protests of 2020 exposed deep concerns about police brutality and governance. Although the demonstrations drew global attention and led to the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), very few senior political leaders accepted responsibility by resigning.

During the Buhari years, allegations involving corruption, insecurity, poor economic management, repeated fuel shortages, and prolonged strikes by university lecturers generated widespread criticism. Yet resignation remained almost absent from Nigeria’s political vocabulary.

Today, under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Nigerians continue to grapple with economic hardship, high inflation, rising unemployment, insecurity, and growing public frustration following major economic reforms, including fuel subsidy removal and exchange rate liberalisation.

Several ministers, heads of agencies, and public office holders have faced allegations of misconduct, procurement irregularities, abuse of office, or administrative failures. Others have overseen sectors where service delivery has steadily deteriorated. Yet hardly anyone voluntarily accepts responsibility by resigning to protect the integrity of public institutions or restore public confidence.

Instead, the common response has become denial, blame-shifting, prolonged court battles, political lobbying, or waiting for investigations to fade from public attention.

Nigeria has also witnessed repeated instances where court orders are ignored, judicial processes are delayed, and constitutional principles appear secondary to political interests. Public protests by labour unions, students, civil society organisations, and ordinary citizens have become regular features of national life. Yet government officials often behave as though public opinion carries no weight.

This culture creates dangerous consequences. It weakens accountability, destroys public trust, encourages corruption, discourages ethical leadership, and fuels public anger.

Many developed democracies have established a different political tradition.

In countries such as the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, and South Korea, ministers have resigned over examination failures, transport accidents, policy mistakes, financial scandals, plagiarism, ethical breaches, or failures within agencies under their supervision. In many cases, resignation does not necessarily imply criminal guilt. It simply reflects political responsibility.

Public office is viewed as a trust rather than a personal entitlement.

Nigeria urgently needs to cultivate the same democratic culture.

Resignation should never be interpreted as weakness. On the contrary, it often demonstrates courage, honour, and respect for public institutions. A leader who resigns when confidence has collapsed may preserve both personal reputation and institutional credibility.

The lesson from India is not merely that a minister resigned after protests. The deeper lesson is that democratic leadership requires sensitivity to public confidence. When trust is badly damaged, honour sometimes demands stepping aside.

Nigeria cannot build a strong democracy if political office holders treat resignation as an impossible option. Leadership is not measured only by the ability to obtain power; it is equally measured by the willingness to accept responsibility when governance fails.

A nation where leaders never resign risks normalising impunity. A nation where accountability becomes part of political culture strengthens democracy, restores public trust, and inspires future generations to see public service as a sacred responsibility rather than an opportunity for personal survival.

Nigeria deserves leaders who understand that the highest honour in public service is not merely remaining in office but protecting the integrity of the office itself.