The ugly face of ghost employees, certificate forgers and illiterate workers made another indecent appearance in Kogi State when a committee set up by the government to screen and review workers complaints discovered that 874 workers used forged credentials to gain employment into the civil service. The committees report also revealed that some public servants, with excellent results could neither read nor write. Even worse, some of them spoke through an interpreter when they appeared before the committee.Another shocking disclosure was that the payroll was saturated with names of students and pupils of highly placed citizens of the state who were not on the states employ but are used to drain resources that would have been used to service genuine employees.Kogi State may be a test case but certainly not the only state confronted by this obnoxious conduct that has continued to not only under- develop the states having such challenges, but also create daunting problems for them in terms of huge overheads and unresolved emolument issues. Even more complicated is the fact that the money that would have been used in providing infrastructure and other social services is siphoned through this drain pipe into the pockets of a few.Similar problems exist at the federal level with its attendant repercussion on the overall advancement of government procedures and processes. The irony is that these are problems intentionally created by those in high positions who also parade themselves as leaders and elders. They are the politically exposed personalities either actively as participants or passively as godfathers. Either way, through this unpatriotic act they succeed in making themselves real cogs in the wheel of progress in the effective and efficient administration of the polity. They see it as political patronage which in their warped perception enables them to recoup what they imagine as their investment in the process that produced the administration in power.For them, there are no moral issues involved. It is all part of the political game from which they expect to benefit. The tragedy of this situation is that the same people are the ones that make the loudest noise in pointing out the supposed nonperformance of the government in power.In our opinion, we think it is time the real culprits in this unending cycle of shame are exposed. This malady has persisted because, beyond sacking those whose names appear on the payroll, nothing is done to fish out those so called highly placed individuals and make examples of them. The government knows that it works as a syndicate and until the ring is broken, the sore will continue to fester.The governments at all levels battling with this and similar issues must summon the courage to unveil the mask shielding these acts of perfidy so that the public will see and know those persons for who they actually are. Those students and pupils on the payroll as ghost workers as well as the illiterate staff with first class credentials are mere puns in the unholy political chess game. They may not be aware of the implication of what they got themselves into as the money, in the form of wages, when it comes, goes into the pocket of whoever is sponsoring them as they are left with little stipends if at all.With the prevailing economic recession, Kogi State government and every other government at any level, has very good reason to do the needful to weed out this tare choking the wheat. There is, in our view, a compelling justification to end the roguery that is threatening the welfare of the people. It is on record that some incumbent governors had lost elections because of unpaid salaries of workers who may, to all intents, belong to the category just exposed by the committee in Kogi State. To that extent, the governor should have a personal interest in tackling the matter once and for all. In taking any such decisions that may require stepping on sore and sensitive toes, the governor must be ready for the political backlash. But he should be satisfied that he is serving the overall public interest and the people will be there for him all the way. The stench must be cleansed at any cost.
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