How N6.2 m gave civil servant national honour

In a rare fit, a federal civil servant did what many people  would find difficult to do these days of serious financial squeeze. Muhammad Tahir Zakari returned 6.2 million Naira mistakenly credited to his account at a time he had only 400 Naira left. He got rewarded for that Godly act.

The account balance of 41-year-old Muhammad Tahir Zakari was in red that fateful Friday. His family of 10 was running out of food and N400 balance can hardly do much.

Chubby cheeked Zakari, a staff of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, on secondment from information had just completed his ablution for the Magrib (dusk) prayer near his residence at Anguwan Juma in Mararaba, a border town between Nasarawa State and the federal capital.  His phone alerted him of a message. That reminded him to switch off the phone whose noise could be pesky during prayers.

After saying the Magrib prayer, Zakari switched on his phone and was taken aback by what he saw, the number six and a slew of zeros far beyond the number of digits he is used to. He stared at the phone, but couldn’t come to terms with the figures. The unfamiliar figure confused him. He concluded that his account was credited with just six thousand naira instead of N62, 414.69 being his monthly take home. “What did I do that my office will send me 6,000 naira,” he wondered. He asked one of his friends, Alhaji Kabiru, to help him out. Alhaji Kabiru explained to him that he was mistaken, that his account had been credited with 6.2 million naira.

His friends at the mosque advised him to confirm the money with his bank and take the matter up with his ministry. He agreed. But he decided to sound out his wife, Nana Asma’u’s view on the  step he wanted to take. He told her that God had accepted their prayers, their toils have ended. But she didn’t buy the idea of claiming the strange seven digit amount coming into her husband’s account as manna from heaven. She told him that it is not the way God helps people. If God wants to help you, she said, He would give you the means to make money. God will not just drop money for you from nowhere.

Her words gave him confidence in the course of action he wanted to take. He confirmed the inflated balance with his bank and decided to return the money “because that money, I don’t even have the dream of having it. I know the money is from somewhere definitely, if they want to reconcile their account, it will not balance.

“So, I was expecting money to settle my family problems. That was the reason why immediately I got to the bank on Monday. I didn’t hesitate to withdraw my 62,000 naira to make sure that it is with me.

“I bought a medium size bag of rice, a bag of semolina, palm oil, groundnut oil and salt for my family. If I collect my salary now between today and tomorrow, it will finish. Then we will continue with it.”

Asked how he would cope without money, “we are surviving through the grace of God,” he said with a giggle, “because I have a relatively large family and you know how far N62,000 can go. We are just thanking God.”

He went to the Assistant Director in charge of salary in the Federal Ministry of Information. He showed him the debit alert. The surprised Assistant Director directed him to the office of the Accountant General of the Federation.

He met the Deputy Director, Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System simply identified as Mr. Ayo and showed him the excess payment. From there, he sent him to the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System, NIBBS where it was confirmed that it was only 62,000 that was paid into his account. They asked him to return the salary he had withdrawn so that they can withdraw the excess money credited to his account and repost his actual salary. The NIBBS deposited his salary into the account and withdrew the 6.2 million naira.

He said: “the Deputy Director said he was going to give me something to exonerate me maybe in the future. I said ‘thank you sir’.

He wrote a commendation letter commending me for returning a payment made in error into my account in November 2011. He sent it to my Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Information. From there they processed it and sent a notification to the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC); the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC); notified the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and   Head of Service of what I had done.”

Weekly Trust reports that then the Secretary to the Government of the Federation’s office requested for Zakari’s CV, two passport photographs. He did that and was told that the President wanted to confer on him the National Honour award of the Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR).

“I was happy,” he said of his reaction to the news that MFR was going to be conferred on him. “If I did not return the money, maybe I would end up in prison.

“It is not that I don’t want money. I want money. We are not wretched in my family.” On why he should return money that was given to him without him asking for it, Zakari insisted: “I decided to return it, because it is not my money. It is for something. It is for somebody, definitely. I have that fear because my religion taught me that anything that is not yours don’t put eyes on it. You should return it to the owner. I knew somebody owned the money. And even if nobody owns, it is the government’s.”