A REVIEW OF GOVERNMENT SPONSORED PILGRIMAGES IN NIGERIA
By James G. Pam, 10 January, 2018, jamespam2004@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION
Prior to
1975, Nigerian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia organised and paid for their trips
privately while Christian pilgrimage to Israel was unknown. But that position changed
with the establishment of a Muslim Pilgrims Board by the Yakubu Gowon military
government in that year. Five years later, in 1980, the Shehu Shagari civilian
government ensured there was equal treatment of the two dominant religions of Islam
and Christianity by establishing a Christian Pilgrims Board. These two dates
set the stage for the allocation of vast amounts of public funds and other
resources for the promotion of Muslim and Christian pilgrims to so-called holy
sites in Saudi Arabia, Israel and Rome.
From
spending a few million Naira in the 1970s and 1980s, it is estimated that the
three tiers of Government in the country jointly spent as much as N70 Billion
in 2015 on about 100,000 pilgrims. The country’s political leaders have prided
themselves in the past about the large numbers of pilgrims that they are able
to sponsor each year. These political leaders have not been able to show the
economic benefits of such expenditure. Only social and religious benefits,
which are difficult to quantify, are claimed by them.
In view of
the many other pressing demands on the lean resources of government, the sponsorship
of religious activities by government needs to be reviewed so that priorities
can be established. Such an exercise is the more necessary in view of dwindling
government revenues.
Pilgrimage
is defined as a journey undertaken for religious purposes. It is therefore
supposed to be a private affair because faith, which is the basis of religion,
is a matter of the individual heart. In total disregard of this principle, Nigerian
governments have taken it upon themselves to fully or partially pay for these
trips and to subsidise the cost of the foreign exchange needed by pilgrims for
their upkeep in the holy lands. This paper intends to look into the quantum of
funds expended by government, juxtapose this with alternative demands for such
funds and see if any justification for the expense can be established. In the
end, the paper will make recommendations as to the most appropriate use to
which public funds should be put.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
When in
1975 Gowon decided to sponsor pilgrimages, Nigeria was then receiving unexpectedly
high volumes of revenue from the sale of her crude oil resource. Money was then
not the country’s problem but how to spend it, in the words of the then Head of
State, Gowon. His government had just prosecuted a 30-month long Civil War
between 1966 and 1968 without internal or external borrowing. He had also just approved
civil service reforms, which included massive increases in the remuneration of
civil service salary plus several months’ arrears payment as recommended by the
Udoji Commission. The Shagari civilian government between 1979 and 1983 also
enjoyed this oil boom and so had no qualms spending public funds on religious
tourism.
By December
2015, the financial predicament of Nigeria was much different. The country had given
itself a Federal structure with a federal government at the centre, 36 State
governments, 774 Local Governments and a Federal Capital Territory Administration.
Each of these tiers of government has a large bureaucracy to maintain. We also
have a bicameral federal legislature comprising of 109 senators in the Upper (Red)
Chamber, the Senate, and 360 members in the Lower (Green) Chamber, the House of
Representatives.
According to
the 2014 Oronsanye Reforms Report, there are also about 508 Federal Ministries,
Departments and Agencies (MDAs) at federal level and a smaller number of their equivalents
at State and Local Government levels. In additional to this massive civil
service structure, the country’s main source of revenue – petroleum, has
recorded dwindling prices starting from the period of the global financial
meltdown in 2007/2008. Crude oil prices fluctuated between $130 and $30 per
barrel since then. In contrast, the population of the country has grown by about
130% between 1970, when it was put a 70 million, and an estimated 180 million
in 2018.
With the
scenario painted above, Nigerian leaders will be called upon in 2019 to make difficult,
but necessary decisions, to depart from the past. Available resources need to
be economically and judiciously utilised. One of the decisions that Local,
State and the Federal governments would have to make is whether to continue
sponsoring religious pilgrimages or not. Whether government should pull out of
the exercise completely or partially will have to be carefully considered. This
is the problem that this paper has set out to investigate. Relevant facts and
figures on pilgrimages will be gathered and analyzed viz-a-viz other
governmental and developmental indices in order to provide government with good
and reliable information for good decision-making.
THE CONCEPT OF RELIGIOUS PILGRIMAGE
Meaning of Pilgrimage
Not all
pilgrimages are religious in nature. A personal trip for the purpose of
shopping, rest, or other reasons, can be termed a pilgrimage. This paper will,
however, limit its discussion to pilgrimages undertaken for religious purposes
only.
Both the
Nigeria Christian Pilgrim Commission Act 2007 and the National Hajj Commission
Act 2006 do not define who a pilgrim is or what pilgrimage means. We are
therefore left to give the Nigerian pilgrimage and pilgrim the best definition
in line with the Nigerian usage and understanding of these terms. English
dictionaries define the word pilgrimage as “a journey to a holy place for
religious reasons.” They also define a pilgrim as “a person who travels to a
holy place for religious reasons.” We shall adopt these definitions for the
purposes of this paper.
Origins of the Christian religious pilgrimages
Elsner J.
And Rotherford I. (2005:4) said that there is evidence that religious pilgrimages
were undertaken both in Graeco-Roman antiquity and in ancient Christianity.
Also, according to Roseman (2004:75-76), Christian
narratives recount that James, the earthly brother of Jesus, travelled to the
Iberian Peninsula in the 1st Century AD to preach and was murdered
there. By the 9th Century AD, evidence surfaced to suggest that
James’ disciples went on pilgrimage to his grave, believed to be on top of a
hill near today’s city of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Other sources state
that the city actually had its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great. Today,
the city’s cathedral is called the Way of St. James and is a popular Catholic
pilgrimage site. These two sources thus suggest that Christian pilgrimage
predates the Muslim pilgrimage.
Origins of the Muslim religious pilgrimage
The founder
of Islam, Prophet Mohammed (SAW), was born in 570 AD and he died in 632 AD. By
the time he died he had firmly established Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia as
holy sites to be physically visited at least once in the life time of every
adherent to the Islamic faith.
However,
an Islamic website, missionislam.com,
explains that what Mohammed did was to restore the hajj to its initial pure
form as practiced by Abraham. The site says, “the hajj and its rites were first
ordained by God in the time of the Prophet Abraham and he was the one who was
entrusted by God to build the Kaaba - the House of God - along with his son
Ishmael at Makkah. God described the Kaaba and its building in the
following quaranic verse:”
“And remember when We showed Abraham the site
of the [Sacred] House [saying]: Associate not anything [in worship with Me and
purify My House for those who circumambulate it [i.e. perform Tawaaf] and those
who stand up for prayer and those who bow down and make prostration [in prayer
etc.].” (Quran 22:26) (Parenthesis added).
The website
further expounds as follows: “After building the Kaaba, Abraham would come to
Makkah to perform Hajj every year, and after his death, this practice was
continued by his son. However, gradually with the passage of time, both
the form and the goal of the Hajj rites were changed. As idolatry spread
throughout Arabia, the Kaaba lost its purity and idols were placed inside
it. Its walls became covered with poems and paintings, including one of
Jesus and his mother, Mary. Eventually over 360 idols came to be placed around
the Kaaba. Prophet Mohammed also put a stop to the practice of circling the
Kaaba in a state of nudity and the argument that the pagans put forward to
justify this ritual was sharply rebutted. In this way, all the pre-Islamic
practices, which were based in ignorance, were abolished and Hajj was once more
made a model of piety, fear of God, purity, simplicity and austerity.” The
suggestion is therefore made that the Kaaba and the exercises carried out
during the Muslim hajj predate Islam itself.
More details about the hajj
The annual Muslim
pilgrimage called the hajj literally
means ‘to set out for a place.’ It is a five-day period during which Muslims
from all over the world gather to perform one of five religious obligations in
Islam. In 2018 alone, over two million persons performed the Hajj, thereby
qualifying it as the world’s largest human gathering.
Muslims are
expected to perform the Hajj at least once in their lifetime, provided they have the physical wellbeing and financial capacity
to pay for the trip and to support their families back at home. The state of
being physically and financially capable of performing the Hajj is called istita'ah in Arabic language. A
Muslim who meets this condition is called a mustati.
The concept
of istita’ah is exhaustively treated
by Ali-Agan (2013). He says that physical health to personally undertake the
journey and financial capability to pay (not beg or be sponsored) for the trip,
are absolute conditions in Islam for the qualification of a mustati. He concludes that pilgrimage
sponsorship by anybody at all violates the requirements of good health and
financial capability in Islam. He is therefore an advocate for the cessation of
government sponsorship of pilgrims all over the world.
Hanga
(1999) establishes the Quranic basis of the hajj, its significance and purpose
in the following words: “The Muslim pilgrimage hajj is the observance of specific acts in places in and around the
sacred city of Mecca in Arabia at the end of each Muslim year during the
twelfth lunar month of Zhul-Hajj. The observances of hajj are based on the Holy Qur’an
(2:196-203, 3:96-97, 22:26-30) and the sunnah, which contains the personal
practices of the Prophet Muhammad, (may the Peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him). They commemorate certain events in the lives of the Prophet Ibrahim,
his wife, Hagar, and their son, Prophet Ismail, (peace upon them).
The main
object of the hajj, as in any other
form of Islamic worship, is to create the spirit of submission to God and to
nourish spiritual joy. The spirit of the hajj
is the spirit of total sacrifice.” Hanga, therefore, restates five essential of
the hajj - the holy site to be
visited by Muslim pilgrims, the time of the year that the hajj should be undertaken, the scriptural authority for the
performance of the hajj and the
objectives of the exercise.
Brief Review Of Related Scholarly Works On Religious
Pilgrimages
At this
juncture, we shall briefly review past works of some scholars on the subject of
government sponsorship of a purely personal religious activity as the pilgrimage.
This review is being undertaken to ensure that we have a working knowledge of
the ideas and opinions of others on our subject of discussion. Time and space
will allow us to review the work of only three scholars.
1. Ashiegbu and Achunike (2014): In a paper titled, “Religion
and Tourism in Nigeria,” the joint authors surveyed the faith-based activities
of Nigerians including pilgrimages by Muslims, Christians and African
Traditional Religionists and found that Nigerians were deeply involved in
religious tourism. They opined that though Nigeria is a secular state, its Governments
are sponsoring religious pilgrimages to other countries in a discriminatory
manner. African Traditional Religionists are not being accorded commensurate attention
by government. They recommended that government should discontinue the
sponsorship of pilgrims so as to maintain balance and peace in the polity.
2. Hanga (1999): Hanga was a Director of Research and Planning
with the Kano State Pilgrims Welfare Board. He wrote on, “The Hajj Experience
in Nigeria: Challenges, Constraints and Drawbacks.” He gave a brief history of
the hajj performance in the colonial
period, 1861 to 1960, and compared the journey by road and by air. He concluded
by commenting on the hajj past,
present and future as follows: (1) Many of the difficulties that have crippled
the effectiveness of successive pilgrimage organizations stem from their lack
of autonomy and their total dependence on the Government. (2) Nigeria’s
constitutional framework does not completely separate religion and politics and
it does not prevent an active governmental role in pilgrimage management. (3) Government
must continue to be involved in the hajj
affairs for the same reasons that brought it in in the first instance. Its
involvement should, however, be divested from politics. (4) Sensitive matters
such as the appointment of airlines for airlift of pilgrims, the fixing of air fares
for the pilgrimage, the appointment of Pilgrims Welfare Board officials and the
deployment or recruitment of full and part-time staff of the Board must be
de-politicized.
3. Abimbola Adelakun: He
published in an online paper as follows: “Take away
the myth these sacred places have cultivated about themselves and we will find
there is nothing ‘holy’ about holy lands. They are fallible human societies who
need the revenue from religious tourism. Israel is an openly racist society
that will not touch black people with antiseptic gloves, and Saudi Arabia adds
sexism to its shortcomings. There is no logic to government sponsoring people
on something as personal as pilgrimages. I consider the beneficiaries no
different from those who pay tithe from stolen wealth. If people cannot use
their own money to fund their own religious inclinations, they can as well
forget it. Saudi Arabia, last year (2013) made US$18.6 billion from
pilgrimages.” He therefore is of the opinion that government should have no
part in pilgrimages.
Muslim Pilgrimage Global Statistics
These statistics will enable us to appreciate the
popularity of the hajj worldwide. Less
than ten thousand pilgrims performed the Hajj prior to the Second World War.
However, there has been an astronomical increase in the numbers of pilgrims
since then. Table 1 shows a 2,824% growth in these numbers between 1920 and
2014.
Table 1: Local,
Foreign and Total Number of Muslim Pilgrims 1920 - 2014
|
Year
|
Local Saudi Arabian Pilgrims
|
Foreign Pilgrims
|
Total
|
|
1920
|
-
|
58,584
|
58,584
|
|
1921
|
-
|
57,255
|
57,255
|
|
1922
|
-
|
56,319
|
56,319
|
|
1950
|
-
|
100,000
|
100,000
|
|
1995
|
|
910,157
|
910,157
|
|
1996
|
784,769
|
1,080,465
|
1,865,234
|
|
1997
|
774,260
|
1,168,591
|
1,942,851
|
|
1998
|
699,770
|
1,132,344
|
1,832,114
|
|
1999
|
775,268
|
1,056,730
|
1,831,998
|
|
2000
|
466,430
|
1,267,355
|
1,733,785
|
|
2001
|
440,808
|
1,363,992
|
1,804,800
|
|
2002
|
590,576
|
1,354,184
|
1,944,760
|
|
2003
|
493,230
|
1,431,012
|
1,924,242
|
|
2004
|
473,004
|
1,419,706
|
1,892,710
|
|
2005
|
1,030,000
|
1,534,769
|
2,560,000
|
|
2006
|
573,147
|
1,557,447
|
2,130,594
|
|
2007
|
746,511
|
1,707,814
|
2,454,325
|
|
2008
|
-
|
1,729,841
|
1,729,841
|
|
2009
|
154,000
|
1,613,000
|
2,521,000
|
|
2010
|
989,798
|
1,799,601
|
2,854,345
|
|
2011
|
1,099,522
|
1,828,195
|
2,927,717
|
|
2012
|
1,408,641
|
1,752,932
|
3,161,573
|
|
2013
|
700,000
|
1,379,531
|
2,061,573
|
|
2014
|
700,000
|
1,389,053
|
2,089,053
|
Source: Field study
The Nigerian Experience
The first pilgrim to be sponsored at government expense was Alhaji Isa Kaita
in 1954 (Enwerem 1995). The practice is now the vogue for the Federal, State
and Local Governments of Nigeria. Agencies like the Nigerian Army have joined
the fray.
Below are amounts that 6 States budgeted in 2013 and 2014 to sponsor
pilgrims.
Niger state: According to the former Commissioner of Religious Affairs in Niger
state, Shehu Haruna, sponsoring religious pilgrimages is a big affair in the State.
Niger State in 2013 spent about N5.1 billion to subsidize both Muslim and
Christian pilgrims from the State in six years. The former governor of Niger
state, Babangida Aliyu, defended the state for spending such a huge amount
on pilgrims because it was the only benefit some residents of the State were
getting from the Government. The bulk of the money was spent on so-called
“operational duties” and the provision of hotel accommodation for the pilgrims
close to the Grand Mosque in Mecca.
Lagos State: The government of Lagos State in its 2015 budget reduced its
allocation to the Ministry of Home Affairs and Culture, the Ministry charged
with the responsibility to plan, devise and implement the State policies on
home affairs and culture, including Christian and Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Boards.
The Ministry got N41.9 million in 2015, compared to N45.3 million in
2014. The Board got a total sum of N8.0 million in 2015, compared to N11.4
million in 2014. Further breakdown shows that Lagos State Ministry of Home
Affairs and Culture allocated N4.6 million and N3.5 million to the Christian
and Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Boards respectively.
Edo State: Edo State budgeted a whopping N40 million to cater for both Christian
and Muslim pilgrims welfare boards in 2014. Each pilgrims’ board got N20
million apiece. This was also the case in 2013. However, statistics showed that
in 2013 and 2014, 100% of the allocated sum went to overhead costs.
Benue State: The Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board in Benue state was allocated N151.6
million to cater for Muslim pilgrimages in 2013. Out of this sum, overhead
costs got N146.4 million and personnel costs got N5.1 million. The Christian
welfare board got more funds. N211.1 million was committed to sponsoring
residents who went to the Holy land in 2013. Overhead costs gulped N205.7
million while personnel costs got N5.4 million.
Kaduna State: Kaduna State Government budgeted N49.4 billion for pilgrimages in 2013.
N24.1 million was approved for the Christian Pilgrims while N25.3 was approved
for Muslim pilgrims. In 2014 the
allocation was raised to N51.0 million and 800 pilgrims were sponsored. Kaduna
State Local Governments sponsored another 1,600 pilgrims. Total Kaduna State
expenditure was just under N1.5 billion in 2014. However, the new Kaduna State Governor,
Malam Nasir el-Rufai, has decided to discontinue using public funds to sponsor
pilgrims to Makkah and Jerusalem. The Nigerian Hajj Commission allocated 5,200
pilgrim slots to the State for the 2015 exercise. He therefore cancelled his
predecessor’s N221 million allocated for the sponsorship of 2015 pilgrims.
Instead, he will sponsor 116 personnel to the holy land to assist with medical
and other logistical services only. The new Governor said this step will help
in blocking corrupt apertures used by previous administrations to drain the State’s
scarce resources.
Plateau
State: The Governor of Plateau State, Barr. Simon Lalong,
sponsored 1,262 Muslim pilgrims from the State for the 2015 hajj exercise. At N540,000
per pilgrim and another $500 BTA per pilgrim at the rate of exchange of
N197:$1, the total expenditure that the State government incurred was about N806
million.
Foreign Exchange Subsidy For Pilgrimage
Another cost
centre not discussed much is the Federal Government’s subsidy on the actual
cost of the trip and the cost of the foreign exchange required for the upkeep
of the pilgrims in the holy lands. The Federal Government alone bears these
extra expenses. States Governments and Local Governments do not have any say on
the amount a Nigerian can travel with as Basic Travel Allowance (BTA) or the
exchange rate to be applied when pilgrims purchase foreign currencies for the
trip.
In 2013 the
Federal Government approved a concessionary rate of N146 to one American Dollar
for the pilgrimages that year. The official exchange rate then was N158:$1.
Government also approved $810 as year’s BTA for each pilgrim. After these
concessions, Government again slashed the actual cost of the trip, which covers
air fare and 11 days maintenance in the holy lands, by 12% over the previous
year’s cost. The cost of the hajj trip in 2013 was therefore N358,000 as
against N406,150 in 2012. Readers should note that this same cost element was
N460,000 two years earlier in 2011. Opara, the Secretary General of the
Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission (NCPC) personally announced the 2013
concessions because the same quantum of subsidies would be enjoyed by Christian
pilgrims (Odili.net 2013). Odili.net (2013), and online blog, also argued that pilgrimage is a personal affair and has so far brought
nothing positive to bear on the administration of the country and the moral
life of Nigerians.
Government Promises of Discontinuation
Late
President Yar Adua’s Minister of Information, John Odey, announced in 2007 that
Government would discontinue the sponsorship of pilgrimages with effect from
2008 because it was causing a huge a drain on the country’s resources. However, this plan was later abandoned following an outcry
by religious leaders and other interest groups against the policy decision.
President
Jonathan was under pressure to withdraw Federal funds from religious activities
but he instead allocated more funds to them year after year. The NCPC enjoyed
more under him and even extended the exercise to two more countries, Italy and
Greece, for reasons best known to their officials.
Several
State Governors have also announced that they too would phase out the
sponsorship of pilgrimage, but none of them have kept their word to date. Seriake
Dickson of Bayelsa State and Oduaghan of Delta State fall into this class. Some
of the newly elected Governors in 2015 have already made the similar
declarations. El Rufai of Kaduna State, Al Makura of Nassarawa State and
Ganduje of Kano State have all condemned government sponsorship of pilgrimages
and vowed to end it. But they have all continued allocating the practice.
President
Buhari has not frowned at the practice since he assumed office. About 110,000
Nigerian pilgrims with an accompanying cost tag of about N70 billion have
continued to be sponsored each year in the last three years.
Nigeria’s
main source of income, petroleum, has suffered hiccups; corruption is still
very high within the public sector; fighting the Boko Haram insurgency, armed
bandits and herdsmen have been demanding for additional funds; unemployment has
been rising thus pauperizing the populace; the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) has advised Nigeria to remove subsidy from petrol. All these should
inform us to be prudent in our expenditure. Is there still room for spending of
uneconomic religious tourism?
Christian Pilgrimage to Israel, Italy and Greece
In a paper titled,
“Pilgrimage: A tool for National Peace Building”, delivered to the Guild of
Tourism Journalists at Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja, in September 2012, Opara,
Executive Secretary of NCPC, expressed the opinion that some pilgrims were yet
to understand the importance of embarking on the Christian pilgrimage. He said,
“We go on pilgrimage to a land with a lot of spiritual promise. It should be a
journey that will lead to spiritual transformation of the individual and help
one’s closeness to God. It will help pilgrims to fear God and respect the sanctity
of human lives. Pilgrimage is serious business and not a travel jaunt as
envisaged in some quarters. It is time to pray for the nation and to be upright
as Christians.”
Opara further
argued that the need for spiritual rebirth and moral transformation will
eventually rub off on the pilgrim and the society and that the yearly spiritual
exercise to Israel and Rome is for those who are spiritually rich but
materially poor. Pilgrimage is supposed to serve as a faith booster and not a
mere tourist trip as most pilgrims regard it. At the same venue, Opara
announced that the scope of the Christian pilgrimage has been expanded to
include Rome and Greece. The problem that arises is that these benefits cannot
be quantified in economic terms and so the expenditure on pilgrimages by
government remains debatable.
Asaju, a
cleric and paper presenter at the NCPC 2012 Retreat disagreed with Opara. He
said, “No country has any business sponsoring anyone to Jerusalem. We are
depleting the economy and the funds of the country by doing so. Individuals
must be able to send themselves on pilgrimage and not depend on government for
sponsorship. Those who go on pilgrimage go on denial with their heads bowed and
on their knees asking God for forgiveness.”
Government funding
of Christian pilgrims is more recent than that of Muslim pilgrims. Ali-Agan
(2013) opines that Christian pilgrimages have no biblical support and that
Nigerian Christians started going on pilgrimage just to get even with Muslims.
He said the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) actually sued the Federal
Government to demand that the sponsorship of Muslim pilgrims be stopped.
However, when they could not dissuade the Federal Government from the practice,
they demanded for their share of the bonanza and got it. He quotes the enabling
Act that establishes the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission as declaring
that the Christian pilgrimage does not make one a Christian or more spiritual.
He added that Israel considers the annual visitors to their country as tourists
and not pilgrims.
The Canonicity Of Christian Pilgrimage To Jerusalem And Italy:
Christians
are divided as to whether there is an injunction in the Bible justifying the
undertaking of a pilgrimage. Most Christians cannot find such an injunction in
the bible and, therefore, do not bother to undertake the religious journey and
are opposed to government sponsorship of it.
However, Opara,
the Secretary General of NCPC, is of a different opinion. He even cites Bible
passages to establish the canonicity of Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
While addressing the Guild of Tourism Journalists in 2012, he is quoted as
saying, “It’s an act ordained by God Almighty in the Bible. And it is
imperative to emphasize at this juncture that contrary to the misconception
from some quarters that pilgrimage is a sort of jamboree, it is an act clearly
spelt out in Psalm 122:6, which says, “May those who love you be secure”; and
in Zechariah 8:22, which says, “And many peoples and powerful nations will come
to Jerusalem to seek the LORD Almighty and to entreat him”; and in Zechariah
14:16-17, which says, “All nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year
after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty. If any of the peoples
of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD Almighty,
they will have no rain.” ”
Israel, Italy
and Greece do not seem to attach such spiritual significance to the exercise.
They view it purely as religious tourism and are happy to support it for its commercial
benefits to their countries. They have therefore licensed as many tour guides in
their countries as are interested in handling the so-called pilgrims purely for
the financial gain in it.
Some
Nigerians have argued that since we do not operate a theocratic government, we
need to separate state from religion. The State should not dabble into religion
and vice versa. They believe that Nigeria is a secular nation. Section 10 of
the 1999 Constitution guarantees freedom of worship, association and expression
to all Nigerians, while Section 38 bars all governments from in the country
from adopting one religion as State religion and they should not promote
religious practices religion. Government sponsorship of religious pilgrimages
is therefore going on in flagrant violation of our Constitution.
Growing Resentment Toward Government Sponsorship Of Pilgrimages:
The
Oronsaye Presidential Committee on the Restructuring and Rationalization of
Government Ministries, Departments & Agencies (MDAs), which was set up by
the Jonathan administration in 2012 made the following two recommendations
among many others:
(1) That the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria and the Nigerian Christian
Pilgrims Commission be abolished and their functions transferred to a
department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
(2) That
government should stop sponsoring pilgrims and pilgrimages with effect from the
2012 Fiscal year.
The Committee hinged these recommendations on its finding that the
Federal Government expended N6.449 billion on sponsorship of the personal
spiritual exercise between 2007 and 2011 though Nigeria is a secular country.
The amount does not include what the 36 State governments, the Federal Capital
Territory (FCT) and the Local Governments expend on the exercise annually. The
combined national expense is about N70 billion. However, in the White Paper released in 2014, Government rejected both
recommendations. President Jonathan, instead, decided to personally start going
for the pilgrimage at the expense of the presidency.
The 2014
National Conference recommended the stoppage of the use of public funds for
promoting pilgrimages by all governments in the country. The delegates’
argument was that the business of religion is not government business and so
governments should hands-off pilgrimages except to provide enabling legislation
for interested Nigerians to be able to perform their religious obligations. At
best, the various pilgrims’ board should only assist in administrative matters of
technical nature like allocating available spaces to intending pilgrims and
ensuring that our pilgrims know the laws of the countries they are going to.
Governor
Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, whose government sponsored just over 400
Christian pilgrims in 2012, announced that his State would gradually withdraw
from such sponsorship. He explained that his government’s decision was informed
by competing developmental needs of the state. Ironically, the Executive
Secretary of the NCPC, Kennedy Opara, on the same day informed Governor Dickson
that his State had been allocated a whooping 1,006 slots for the 2013 exercise.
The Niger State Governor, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, announced
that his State would no longer sponsor pilgrims in view of other competing
demands for state resources (Allafrica.com). Governor Oshionmole made a similar
announcement.
Ashiegbu and Achunike (2014) reviewed the
way in which Nigerians practice their faith-based activities in a country that
is poverty-stricken, with many religious upheavals recorded in the past and
some ongoing, without any tangible evidence of the benefits of these religious
activities and yet governments sponsors these activities with tax payers’
money. They argued that Nigeria is a secular state and that it discriminates
against other religions like the African Traditional Religions who have never
enjoyed public funds to o promote their faith. They therefore concluded their
analysis by recommending that Nigerian governments should stop sponsoring
pilgrimages and other faith-based travels for its citizens so as to maintain a balance
and achieve lasting peace.
Non-Muslims
and non-Christians in Nigeria, especially traditional religionists, are not
happy that they are being sidelined by Government while public funds are spent on
Muslims and Christians and nothing is given to them. They want Government to
realise that there are more than two faiths in the country. They want all
faiths to be treated equally by the various Governments in the country.
From
experience, Government sponsorship of pilgrimages has been politicised. Favored
and lucky individuals are hand-picked, without any qualifying criteria except
political patronage or outright favouritism. Many individuals have been so
‘favored’ or so ‘lucky’ several times and have performed the pilgrimage more
than once, while millions will never be so ‘favored’ or ‘lucky’.
State
Governors have been known to tell selected pilgrims to pray for their electoral
victories while in the holy lands. Funds allocated by various governments have
also been known to be pilfered by officials of the pilgrimage boards. Also, in
view of the increasing number of religious upheavals in the country and cases
of mega theft of public funds, it is doubtful if these pilgrimages have had a
positive effect on the morality of the beneficiaries. Transparency
International has rated Nigeria very low on the integrity scale as a nation. It
is arguable, but possible, that Nigeria’s worst vice is religious intolerance.
SOME IMPLICATIONS
Discriminatory Tendencies In Government Sponsorship
Included in
his report to President Jonathan on the 2012 Christian pilgrimage, the
Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Chairman, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor,
complained that seven States in the country refused to sponsor Christian
pilgrims that year. The seven discriminating States were Jigawa, Kano, Sokoto,
Katsina, Zamfara, Benue and Gombe States. While some of these States sponsored
Muslim pilgrims, they refused to sponsor a single Christian pilgrim without
offering reasons for this discriminatory policy.
Oritsejafor
introduced another dimension to the constitutionality of Government-sponsored
pilgrimages when he said that States were constitutionally allowed to choose
whether to sponsor pilgrims or not, but that they were constitutionally wrong
to sponsor pilgrims of one religion and not those of other religions. He argued
that it amounted to religious discrimination, which the country’s Constitution
has outlawed.
Bishop
Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto and the former Zamfara
State Governor, Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, disagreed on whether States should
continue the sponsorship of religious pilgrimages or not in their individual submissions
to the 7th Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendment in Asaba,
Delta State, in 2012. Kukah contended that States should stop the practice of
funding religious pilgrimages because the country did not have a “religious
insufficiency” problem but a “constitutional justice inadequacy” problem. Yerima
countered by saying that States should not be stopped from sponsoring religious
pilgrimages as long as they can afford it.
Yerima thereafter
put forward an interesting proposal to the Senate Committee on Constitutional
Amendment. He said that there is need to amend the Constitution so that the
absolute freedom of all religions may be guaranteed. That means that he is of
the opinion that the 1999 Constitution does not guarantee absolute religious
freedom in its present form. Sections 10, 38, 275 to 280 do not go far enough, in
his opinion. These Sections specifically guarantee freedom of religion, of association
and of speech, and they provide for Sharia Courts of Appeal in States that want
them, the appointment of Islamic Khadis for the Sharia Courts, and for Customary
Courts of Appeal in States. It is no wonder that he, Governor Yerima, led 11 other
States to adopted Sharia Law as State Law in direct contravention of the
earlier quoted sections of our Constitution.
Cost
Implications
In 2008,
the Federal Government spent N34 billion to promote both Muslim and Christian
pilgrimages. In 2010, 85,000 Muslims and 25,000 Christians participated in the
pilgrimage exercise with about 85,000 of them depending on Federal, State and
Local Government sponsorship at the cost of N47 billion.
In 2011 the
cost of sponsoring each pilgrim to Saudi Arabia was between N460,000 and
N540,000. Therefore, the total amount expended by the FGN on the 26,235
pilgrims it sponsored was between N12 billion and N14 billion. Of the remaining
58,765 pilgrims sponsored by States and Local Governments, between N27 billion
and N31.7 billion was spent bringing the total for that year to at least N37
billion.
In 2012,
Sokoto State alone expended N1.0
Billion on Muslim pilgrims, while Plateau State spent N300 million on their 400
pilgrims.
In 2013 and
2014 President Goodluck Jonathan personally undertook the Christian pilgrimage to
Israel. It was reported that for the 2013 pilgrimage 19 Christian Governors
travelled with him. Each of these dignitaries travels with a retinue of
staffers ranging from security personnel, to baggage handlers, to medical
personnel, to personal aides, and so on. The combined cost of such an
‘executive' trip may not be easy to compute but would in billions of Naira.
This ‘executive’ trip was repeated by President Jonathan in 2014.
In 2015 about
N70 Billion was expended by all out governments who sponsored 90,000 pilgrims
out of that year’s 85,000 Muslim pilgrims and 25,000 Christian pilgrims. This
sum is just slightly short of the entire annual budget of Bauchi State, N128
billion, and Kogi State, N110 billion, that year.
Expenditure on
pilgrimages varies widely across States and Local Governments. It depends on
the number of pilgrims sponsored. For example, in 2011, out of the 58,765
pilgrims sponsored by States and Local Governments, the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) allocated 4,322
to Niger State, 3,896 to Lagos State, 3,115 to the Federal Capital Territory
(FCT) and 50 each to Ebonyi, Abia and Akwa-Ibom States.
Legal
Implications
There is an
ongoing debate among Nigerian scholars as to whether Nigeria is a secular state
or not. Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution (as amended) appears to contain conflicting
provisions for the practice of religion in the country. Section 10 says, “The Government of the
Federation or of a State shall not adopt any religion as State religion.” Some
have concluded, based on this provision, that the country is a secular state.
This group includs Ashiegbu and Achunike (2014).
Others
interpret Section 10 to mean that the country is a multi-religious country in
which governments may promote, sponsor, neglect or treat religion as they wish,
provided they do not declare one of them as an official state religion. This
view could be acceptable provided the government treats all religions equally.
For example, sponsor the same number of pilgrims for all religions, not just
Christian and Muslim pilgrims, or spend the same amount of government funds on
all the religions that exist in the country. The former group believes that it
is unconstitutional for government to sponsor pilgrimages while the latter group
does not see anything wrong with it.
Okeke (2013)
defined secularity as, “a system of social organisation that does not allow
religion to influence government.” In his opinion, government should not show
any interest at all in any or all religious activities.” Okeke would therefore
classify the Nigerian Constitution as making the country a secular state.
Others argue that unless the Constitution directly says that the country is
secular, then it is not.
Section
38(1) says, “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience
and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief.” This section
establishes the freedom of religion and freedom to change one’s religion.
However, some religions have provisions embedded in their doctrines that do not
permit change of religion. This section of our Constitution is therefore mere cosmetic
dressing as far as they are concerned.
Monsignor
(Prof.) Obiora Ike, a delegate to the 2014 National Conference who represented
Enugu State and was a member of the Committee on Religion, explained that the
Nigerian 1999 Constitution contains a clause which says, “Nigeria is a secular
country under God”, but we could not find such a clause in the 1999
Constitution.
Odili (2012), a blogger, complained about the discriminatory stance of
Nigerian governments in view of the fact that there is clearly a plethora of
other religions to which Nigerians subscribe, yet they patronise only two of them
– Islam and Christianity. In his opinion, excluding these other religions from
government patronage contravenes Section 15, sub-section 4 of the Nigerian 1999
Constitution, which provides that the State shall foster a feeling of belonging
and involvement among the various peoples of the Federation.
Victoria N.
Opara, a barrister, filed a suit in her personal capacity as a Nigerian against the
Federal Government of Nigeria in 2013 in the Federal High Court, Port
Harcourt, Rivers State. She challenged the legality and
constitutionality of the Nigeria Christian Commission Act by which the Nigeria
Pilgrims Commission was established. Her suit, No. FHC/PH/CS/83/2013,
challenged the legality and the constitutionality of the Federal Government’s and
the various States Governments’ use of public funds, which are meant for
developmental purposes, for the sponsorship and financing of
individuals and groups to go on religious pilgrimage. Opara sought for a
declaration by the Court that will nullify the establishment of
the various pilgrims’ commissions in the country because their creation contravened
the Nigerian 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (As
amended).
Economic Implications
While
writing in Sahara Reporters, an online newspaper, Idumage John opined that pilgrimages to holy places do not translate to economic growth and that Nigeria
is wrestling with power supply and the provision of social amenities. He
concludes that it is immoral for government to spend tax payers’ money to
sponsor the pilgrimages of a few people and that Nigeria should address the
challenges it has in education, health and social services.
Inconsistency
of Government Policy
Heads of various governments in Nigeria
have handled pilgrimage sponsorship as they wished and not as dictated by any
coherent government policy. They sponsor the number of persons they wish and the
religion they favor. They advance different reasons for their decisions to
sponsor or not to sponsor.
CONCLUSION
Muslims pilgrimage is an obligation for
Muslims who can afford it at least once in their life time. Christian
pilgrimage, however, is not obligatory for Christians. The spirit of the
Nigerian Constitution is clearly against the direct involvement of government
and its agencies in religious activity. Government sponsorship of pilgrims is
therefore a violation of the 1999 Constitution.
Government has not been able to justify
its direct sponsorship of pilgrims who only want to perform a personal
spiritual exercise. In other words, the sponsorship has no benefit to the
State. All benefits cited have been ephemeral, spiritual and personal. There is
also no evidence to show that these personal and spiritual benefits have
positively touched the lives of Nigerians as our crime rate has continued to
rise.
Public funds are meant for public use
and not sectional or private use. Governments in Nigeria are therefore in
violation of the simple tenets of governance. The application of public funds
to pay for pilgrimages amounts to a criminal misallocation of resources.
In view of the many pressing demands on
scarce government resources, the funds expended on pilgrimage sponsorship can
be better utilised in other sectors of the economy.
RECOMMENDATIONS
This study has established the criminality
and purposelessness of spending public funds on an esoteric phenomenon as
religious tourism. The obvious recommendation to make at this juncture is that
all Nigerian governments must stop the practice of spending scarce public
resources on pilgrimages forthwith.
References
1999 Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria (As amended)
2014 National Conference Final Report
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Abu-Bakr Imam Ali-Agan, The
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