The recent disclosure by the Abia State governor, Alex Otti, that some medical doctors who are no longer in the state’s employ nonetheless remain on its payroll and continue to draw monthly salaries is a reminder of the system-gaming and moral turpitude that continues to hold the country down. The governor made the sad disclosure while speaking at the first Abia State Council on Health meeting on the theme of “Providing an Accessible, Affordable and Quality Healthcare System for the New Abia,” which held at the International Conference Centre, Umuahia. Said the governor : “We are in the process of recruiting new skilled birth attendants to improve healthcare service delivery in the state. Furthermore, our ongoing digitisation of the Abia State civil service has uncovered some staff that have left their duty post for greener pastures, yet still receive remuneration from the government. While the criminality involved in this is going to be addressed by the relevant agencies of government, the important thing here is that we do not have the number of hands that were hitherto reported. We are working hard to fill these gaps.”

The disclosure brings to mind two of the problems confronting the country. One is the continued emigration of highly skilled doctors, nurses, and associated medical personnel to various western destinations, particularly, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. According to the International College of Surgeons, Nigerian Section ICS-NS, the country has lost no fewer than 6,221 doctors to the United Kingdom alone in the last six years. The other problem is that of ghost workers, something that governments at different levels have struggled to stamp out. In 2019, an investigative Committee set up by the Federal Ministry of Finance revealed that the Federal Government was paying over 23,000 ghost workers more than N5 billion monthly. More than N100 billion is believed to be lost annually to ghost worker fraud in the country. The news coming out of Abia speaks to a worrying fusion of the two problems.

It is difficult to imagine something like this being pulled off without the cooperation of actors at various levels of leadership in the state. Accordingly, the first thing the state government has to do is conduct an investigation to determine the people involved in this theft of taxpayer money and mete out punishment to them as warranted. Not only that, the state government should go the extra mile and reach out to the current employers of the doctors implicated in this scam. It is important that such employers be made aware of the moral dubiety of individuals they have presumably gone out of their way to recruit.

That said, the deeper and more troubling story here goes beyond the doctors as individuals; on the contrary, it is about the ill will and vindictiveness that most Nigerians exhibit when it comes to the state specifically, and the common good more broadly. Otherwise, why would a doctor already being handsomely compensated outside the country device a means to stay on the payroll in Nigeria? Clearly, that person has to know that what they are doing is wrong. And why is it that, despite the epidemic of religiosity in the country, many Nigerians still finds it difficult to do the right thing?

Governor Otti has promised to get to the root of the matter and fish out those responsible for this indefensible situation. We support him wholeheartedly. Nevertheless, we worry that what is at stake here goes beyond a single investigation in one corner of the country. Like Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has said, something appears to be broken in the Nigerian society, and the salary-collecting ‘japa’ doctors of Abia State are yet another demonstration.

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