The Ghosts Amongst Us In Nigeria By Prince Charles Dickson

“I don’t suppose you have to believe
in ghosts to know that we are all
haunted, all of us, by things we can
see and feel and guess at, and many
more things that we can’t.”― Beth
Gutcheon, More Than You Know “
…the ghosts you chase you never
catch.”― John Malkovich
I am sure many of my readers had
predicted this, on seeing my topic–
this must be about Jonathan and his
ghosts of Yobe/Borno. The ghosts he
won’t negotiate with and the same
ghosts being killed by STF, JTF and
other Fs.
I am sure many believe my
admonition would be asking to know
what has happened to the hundreds
of ghosts caught by the Department
of State Security.
Well in a ghost society like ours, one
may not be far off with such
assumptions, though for now I would
leave Jonathan’s ghosts and dwell on
the other ghosts amongst us.
Perhaps I should have a working
definition of ghosts in this context, a
being so often talked about but very
few can claim to have seen, these
ghosts we never catch…
These ghosts are in low and high
places in Nigeria, they have over the
years found our clime a conducive
working environment–they have been
responsible for ‘missing’ files, ships,
planes and monies (especially sums
in millions and billions). Need I tell
us, one of the characters of a ghost
or ghosts are their ability to appear
and disappear.
So next time you feel exasperated
about the Nigerian conundrum,
especially corruption i.e. stolen
funds–take it that the ghosts are it, if
not how do you explain how thieves
disappear.
For example it is regular sight to see
two policemen for lack of duty follow
a man to go arrest a boy who
allegedly made his daughter
pregnant. But yet an entire police with
legislative, executive powers and a
warrant cannot get a certain Maina
ala pension?
Permit me to tell us the real ghosts’
stories, some years I read an essay
on “Ghosts” from the work The Word
by H. W. Percival. Published in 1913.
Harold Waldwin Percival was a
Theosophist and writer, famous for
his magnum opus Thinking and
Destiny.
In 1904 he began publishing The
Word, “A monthly magazine devoted
to Philosophy, Science, Religion,
Eastern thought, Occultism,
Theosophy, and the Brotherhood of
Humanity.
I was a fan for academic reasons; in
this particular essay he opined “No
country is free from the belief in
ghosts. In some parts of the world
much time is given to ghosts; in
other parts, few people think about
them. Ghosts have a strong hold on
the minds of the people of Europe,
Asia, and Africa…”
I substitute Africa for Nigeria. He went
on to further say, “Ghosts frequent
certain localities more than they do
others…At certain times the belief in
ghosts is wider spread than at
others.”
I cannot but agree with him, so let me
prove him right.
Gov. Jang of Plateau told me in 2011
the state government lost about 800
million naira to ‘ghost workers’ in the
state civil service.
That was before a ‘ghost’
commissioner was discovered.
Recently with no fewer than 5,000
ghost workers on its payroll, out of
the state’s total workforce of 21,000,
only about 50 percent, it implies one
in every four workers were ghosts.
The Chairman of the Zamfara State
workers’ verification committee,
Ahmed Abubakar, told the same tales
that more than 7,000 ghosts were on
the government’s payroll.
He lamented that more than 50 per
cent of the Government House staff
members comprised of mainly “the
ghost and redundant” workers. About
20,000 ghost workers was detected
on the payroll of the 25 local
government areas in Niger State,
according to the Commissioner for
Local Government Affairs, Garba
Tagwai.
No fewer than 140 ghost were
unmasked by the Kano State
Government in the state’s Civil
Service during the on-going
personnel verification exercise, while
in Bayelsa a LGA staff audit
committee constituted by the
chairman of Sagbama Local
Government Area of Bayelsa State,
discovered the existence of 500 ghost
and dead workers on the payroll of
the council.
And the state itself under former
Gov. Sylva discovered that the state
civil service had 11, 132 ghost
workers who have been gulping
N293.7 million monthly, translating to
N3.524 billion annually.
Lagos has its own share, as the Office
of the Auditor-General for Local
Governments in the state said they
were able to stop the payment of over
N82 million to ghost workers, and
deceased pensioners for the years
2010 and 2011. They even arrested
some of the ghosts (sic).
Last year, the HoR said a build up of
ghost wages that helped swell the
2012 federal payroll, delayed the
passage of the national budget. And
this year State Minister for Finance
Yerima Ngama, announced that
45,000 ghost workers who earned
more than N100 billion, had been
discovered on the pay roll of the
Federal Government after auditing
251 Federal Ministries, Departments,
and Agencies, MDAs out of 572, these
are ‘ghosty discoveries’…
With all the ghost tales told, records
kept and books written about ghosts,
there seems to be no order as to
kinds and varieties of ghosts. No
classification of ghosts has been
given. No information of a science of
ghosts is at hand, that if one sees a
ghost he might know what kind of a
ghost it is. One may learn to know
and be unafraid of ghosts as of his
shadows without giving them too
much attention or being unduly
influenced by them.
So its strange how these ghosts are
discovered, how these ghosts serve
the living–where are these ghosts
locked when caught. In Nigeria it is
ghosts everywhere you go. Ghost
robbers, ghost kidnappers, ghost
rapists, ghost security agents, and
ghost governments.
A case of ‘who done it’, not me, not
you–then blame it on the ghosts, if
your wife misbehaves, it’s her ghost,
politicians steal, they have only
‘ghosted’ away with the money,
ghosts that move subsidy funds,
ghosts schools, ghosts and more
ghosts, are we ready to exorcise
these ghosts in our national life, only
time will tell.

Prince Charles Dickson
Editor, burningpot.com
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