The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Stephen Oronsaye, said the biometric enrolment of pensioners embarked upon by his office has started to yield some of the desired results.
Mr. Oronsaye made this known when four suspected fake pensioners, three men and a woman, arrested at the Lagos Centre in the course of the exercise were paraded by the Police in Abuja.
This is great news and a cause for optimism in Nigeria. Many see the implementation of biometric identity management systems as enhancing government power over the people. As this article shows, they can also be implemented to increase the people's power over their government.
Ghost workers are a tried and true corruption technique. Their use impoverishes the society and undermines faith in democratic institutions.
It is difficult to overestimate the damage that corruption inflicts upon the world's poor. Biometric identity management systems can help restore the power of the people over their governments ensuring that scarce government resources are devoted to spurring economic and social development rather than lining the pockets of those who would violate the public trust for their own narrow interests.
Related thoughts and analysis of Nigerian ghost workers (with numbers) here.
