Why Nigeria’s Fight Against Corruption Must Confront Civil Service
By Oyewole Sarumi
In the grand theatre of Nigerian public discourse, the narrative of corruption has long been dominated by two principal actors: the kleptocratic military general and the avaricious politician. For decades, these figures have been cast as the primary villains in the nation’s tragic story of arrested development. They are the faces on the news, the subjects of sensational trials, and the symbols of a plundered commonwealth. Yet, this focus, while not entirely misplaced, is dangerously incomplete. It overlooks the vast, intricate, and powerful machinery that enables, facilitates, and often perpetuates this grand larceny: the Nigerian Civil Service.
Corruption and Nigeria, as someone aptly put it, often appear as inseparable as Siamese twins. However, the connective tissue, the very organ that allows the lifeblood of illicit funds to flow between the political class and the treasury, is the bureaucracy. These are the “go-betweens,” the ubiquitous and seemingly innocuous civil servants who constitute what can be described as the “permanent government.” While elected officials and military rulers are transient, the civil service endures, possessing the institutional memory, procedural knowledge, and discretionary power to either uphold or subvert the national interest.
The evidence, once you begin to look, is overwhelming. Former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo identified the core of the issue when he described the subversion of the system by privileged civil servants for personal gain as “the greatest tragedy that a nation could experience.” More recently, the assertion by EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede that a significant portion of the palatial homes in Abuja’s elite districts of Asokoro and Maitama are owned by civil servants is not a revelation but a confirmation of a deeply entrenched reality. These are individuals whose legitimate salaries cannot possibly account for their opulent lifestyles, complete with foreign-educated children and offshore assets. They are, as one commentator bluntly stated, wealthy Nigerians with “no known businesses, no IP attached to their names or not known to have inherited their wealth.”
This article argues that any genuine attempt to combat corruption and foster national development in Nigeria must pivot its searchlight intensely onto the civil service. We will move beyond the headlines to dissect the anatomy of bureaucratic corruption, explore the systemic weaknesses that allow it to fester, and quantify its devastating impact on service delivery and economic growth. Most importantly, we will outline a comprehensive, technologically driven blueprint for reform, proposing that the digitalization of government processes is not merely an administrative upgrade but a fundamental necessity for national survival. The termites, as you called them, have been eating at the foundations of the Nigerian state for too long; it is time to rebuild with transparency, accountability, and steel.
The Anatomy of Bureaucratic Corruption: How the System is Gamed
To understand the scale of the problem, one must appreciate the sophisticated and varied mechanisms through which civil servants exploit their positions. This is not simply about petty bribery at a government counter; it is a systemic manipulation of state processes for monumental personal enrichment. The methods are deeply embedded in the day-to-day functions of governance.
First and foremost is the corruption within public procurement and contract management. This remains the largest single conduit for looting the treasury. A civil servant in a position of authority, whether a Director of Procurement, a Permanent Secretary, or an agency head, holds immense power. The process begins with deliberate over-inflation of contract sums. A road that should cost ₦500 million is awarded for ₦2 billion. The ₦1.5 billion difference is not a mathematical error; it is a pre-calculated sum to be shared among the approving political officeholder, the conniving officials in the ministry, and the contractor, who is often a front. The civil servants are the architects of this process; they prepare the bid documents, evaluate the tenders (often in favour of pre-selected, non-qualified companies), and process the payment vouchers. Their signature is the key that unlocks the treasury. The result is a landscape littered with abandoned projects, shoddy infrastructure, and a perpetual drain on national resources.
A closely related mechanism is budget padding and the manipulation of recurrent expenditure. Each year, the national and state budgets are prepared not just as financial plans, but as opportunities for plunder. Civil servants, in collaboration with legislators, insert fictitious projects or “ghost” line items into the budget. Funds are allocated for training programs that never happen, for the purchase of equipment that is never delivered, and for the maintenance of offices that are already dilapidated. This is the world of the “Atomic Energy Commission” and “Nuclear Regulatory Authority” in a country without nuclear reactors, as highlighted by Bámidélé Adémólá-Olátéjú. These agencies, and countless others like them, often become little more than “conduits for bureaucratic corruption,” absorbing billions in budgetary allocations with no discernible output or benefit to the Nigerian people.
Perhaps the most infamous technique is payroll fraud, epitomized by the “ghost worker” phenomenon. For decades, civil servants have populated official payrolls with non-existent employees, collecting their salaries month after month. The introduction of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) was designed to eliminate this by centralizing payroll and requiring biometric verification. While it initially exposed tens of thousands of ghost workers, the system has itself been compromised. Corrupt officials have found ways to manipulate the IPPIS database, creating new ghosts or keeping old ones, demonstrating that a technological solution without institutional integrity is a house built on sand.
Furthermore, there is the pervasive issue of regulatory extortion and the weaponization of discretionary power. Civil servants are gatekeepers. They issue permits, licenses, waivers, and approvals that are essential for commerce and daily life. This power to grant or deny is easily converted into a tollgate for personal enrichment. From the customs officer who arbitrarily assigns tariffs to the land registry official who hides a file until a “facilitation fee” is paid, the system is rigged. This creates a cripplingly high cost of doing business, stifles entrepreneurship, and ensures that only those willing to play the corrupt game can succeed. As Gabriel Favor Eke noted, the “cumbersome administrative procedure” is not always a sign of inefficiency; it is often a deliberately crafted obstacle course designed to elicit bribes.
The Root Causes: Why Corruption Festers in the Civil Service
The persistence of this deep-seated corruption is not due to a unique moral failing of the Nigerian civil servant. Rather, it is the product of a flawed system with weak institutions, perverse incentives, and a near-total absence of accountability.
A primary enabler is the weak institutional framework and the culture of impunity. The institutions designed to provide oversight—the Code of Conduct Bureau, the Public Complaints Commission, and even internal audit units—are often underfunded, understaffed, and politically compromised. When a high-ranking civil servant is investigated, the process is frequently scuttled by powerful patrons. The successful prosecution of a Permanent Secretary or a Director is so rare that it is headline news, rather than a routine function of the justice system. This lack of consequences creates a low-risk, high-reward environment that is ideal for corruption.
This is compounded by a culture of opacity, shielded by antiquated laws like the Official Secrets Act. This act, a relic of the colonial era, criminalizes the disclosure of government information, effectively providing a legal shield for illicit activities. While the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act of 2011 was intended to counteract this, its implementation has been frustrated by the very bureaucracy it seeks to make transparent. Requests are routinely denied under nebulous “national security” pretences, or simply ignored, perpetuating the darkness in which corruption thrives.
As someone rightly points out, nepotism and the distortion of the Federal Character principle are also significant contributors. In a meritocratic system, an official’s loyalty is to the state and their professional ethics. However, when recruitment, promotion, and postings are based on ethnic, religious, or familial connections, loyalty shifts to the patron who secured the position. This creates a network of complicity where corrupt acts are overlooked in exchange for group loyalty, and professional competence is sacrificed at the altar of patronage. The service becomes bloated with individuals who are not qualified for their roles but are protected by their connections, making them both ineffective and prone to corruption.
Finally, the very “permanence” of the civil service creates a moral hazard. Unlike a politician who faces the electorate every four years, a civil servant has security of tenure until retirement. This security, when not matched by rigorous performance management and strict disciplinary measures, can breed a sense of untouchability. They witness political masters come and go, knowing that they will remain to preside over the institutional memory and the levers of power, making them the indispensable partners for any politician wishing to exploit the system.
C. The Devastating Impact on National Development
The consequences of this bureaucratic corruption are not abstract; they are the lived reality of 200 million Nigerians. As Segun Adeniyi argued, “there is nothing that one can accuse the political class of for which the civil service can be exonerated.” They are, indeed, culpable in the rot.
The most immediate impact is the catastrophic decay of public services. When the budget for a primary healthcare centre is padded and the remaining funds are stolen by officials, the result is a clinic with no drugs, no electricity, and no doctor. When funds for maintaining federal roads are siphoned off through ghost contracts, the result is a network of death traps that claim lives and cripple commerce. When millions of dollars are budgeted for space agencies with no tangible returns, those are funds that could have revitalized the education system or provided clean water to rural communities. The corruption within the service is a direct tax on the poor and a primary driver of Nigeria’s abysmal human development indices.
Economically, the impact is equally severe. It stifles investment and suffocates growth. Foreign investors are deterred by the high costs and unpredictability of dealing with a corrupt bureaucracy. Local entrepreneurs are crushed by extortion and the inability to get basic permits without paying hefty bribes. The system creates an anti-competitive environment where success is determined not by innovation and efficiency, but by connections and the willingness to engage in corrupt practices.
Ultimately, this erodes the most precious commodity of any nation: public trust. When citizens see officials living like kings on public funds while they struggle in poverty, they become deeply cynical about governance. This erodes the social contract, discourages tax compliance, and fosters a sense of alienation from the state. It creates a vicious cycle where citizens feel justified in breaking the law because they believe the state itself is fundamentally illegitimate and criminal.
A Blueprint for Digital Reformation: The Path to a New Civil Service
The challenge is immense, but not insurmountable. The solution lies in a radical and comprehensive reform agenda, with digitalization as its spearhead. Technology is not a panacea, but it is the most powerful weapon available to introduce transparency, dismantle corrupt networks, and enforce accountability. This must be a multi-pronged strategy implemented with unwavering political will.
Foundational Digital Infrastructure: Treasury Single Account (TSA) and Integrated Financial Management: The journey began with the TSA, which consolidated government revenue into a single account, making it harder for MDAs to hide funds in commercial banks. This must be deepened. Nigeria needs a fully Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) that connects the entire public financial management cycle in real-time. This system would link budgeting (what was planned), expenditure (what was released), procurement (what was bought), and auditing (what was verified) on a single, transparent platform. Every single naira’s journey must be traceable from the budget line to the final vendor’s bank account, eliminating opportunities for diversion.
End-to-End E-Procurement: The cesspool of contract fraud must be drained by implementing a mandatory, end-to-end electronic procurement system. This means every stage of the procurement process—from tender advertisement to bid submission, evaluation, and contract award—is conducted online on a public portal managed by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP). This removes subjective human interference, automates evaluation based on pre-set criteria, and, crucially, makes the entire process visible to the public. The names of bidding companies, their directors, the bid amounts, and the eventual winner should be public information.
Biometric Certainty and Payroll Overhaul: The fight against ghost workers requires moving beyond the current IPPIS. The goal must be a single, unified citizen database linking the National Identity Number (NIN), the Bank Verification Number (BVN), and the civil service payroll. Every payment to a government employee or pensioner must be tied to a biometrically verified, unique identity. This would make the creation of a “ghost” worker a technical impossibility.
Digital Service Delivery and The Elimination of Tollgates: All routine government services—business registration, driver’s licenses, passports, building permits, tax clearance certificates—must be migrated to online portals. This involves creating simple online application forms, integrating secure digital payment gateways (like Paystack or Flutterwave) to eliminate cash handling, and providing a transparent tracking system for applicants. I think Remita being used presently served the same purpose. When a citizen can apply for and receive a permit from their computer without ever meeting an official, the primary opportunity for extortion is eliminated.
Radical Transparency through Open Data: The government must embrace a policy of “transparent by default.” This involves creating a central “Transparency Portal” where every MDA is legally mandated to publish its detailed budget, monthly expenditure, all awarded contracts above a certain threshold, and performance reports in a user-friendly, machine-readable format. This empowers civil society organizations, journalists, and ordinary citizens to act as an army of digital watchdogs, scrutinizing public spending and holding officials accountable.
Digital Performance Management and a Rebirth of Meritocracy: The culture of impunity must be replaced with a culture of performance. Digital tools can be used to set clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for every department and even individual civil servants. Promotions, bonuses, and career advancement should be tied to these measurable, digitally tracked metrics, not seniority or patronage. This would begin the slow but essential process of rebuilding a professional, merit-based civil service.
Conclusion:
The narrative that casts Nigerian civil servants as incorrigible “evil servants” or “termites” eating the nation from within is a product of profound public frustration. While it captures the destructive impact of their actions, it risks oversimplifying the problem. The core issue is a system that enables and often rewards corrupt behaviour while punishing integrity. To change the outcome, we must fundamentally re-engineer the system.
Beaming a searchlight is no longer enough. The fight requires decisive action. The properties in Asokoro and Maitama, and across the world, funded by illicit wealth must be investigated, seized, and the owners prosecuted with vigour. Life must be made unbearable for those who have chosen to betray the public trust. However, punishment alone is not a strategy. The goal must be to create a new civil service—one where the loopholes for corruption are sealed by technology, where transparency is the default, and where accountability is inescapable.
The digital transformation outlined above is not a futuristic dream; the technologies exist, and the models have been proven elsewhere. What has been lacking is the political will to dismantle a system that benefits a powerful few. A reformed, efficient, and transparent civil service is the true backbone of a functional state. By transforming it from a conduit of corruption into an engine of efficient and honest service delivery, Nigeria can finally begin the process of converting its immense potential into tangible progress for all its citizens. The task is to turn the permanent government into a force for permanent good.
Prof. Sarumi is the Chief Strategic Officer, LMS DT Consulting, Faculty, Prowess University, US, and ICLED Business School, and writes from Lagos, Nigeria. He is also a consultant in TVET and indigenous education systems, affiliated with the Global Adaptive Apprenticeship Model (GAAM) research consortium. Tel. 234 803 304 1421, Email: [email protected].
