CAN anyone please come forward with facts and figures on the dividends of state-sponsored pilgrimage? I will speak only for myself. Beyond a few goldcoloured teeth here and there, the title of JP (for Jerusalem Pilgrim) or an appellation announcing that you have indeed visited the holy land, branded caps, some rare souvenir grains and not a few inflated egos, there is little else to justify the billions of taxpayers’ cash shoveled into the
annual pilgrimage ritual. Saudi Arabians and Israelis, who cope with the horde of the world’s pilgrims every year, including a significant mass from Nigeria, love their well-ordered countries. The Saudis relish their functional infrastructure. The Israelis pride themselves on the transformation of a once arid land
into a green, prosperous nation. What do their Nigerian guests thump their chests for? Pretty little, indeed. And what do the state governments, which sponsor them, celebrate? Um, um and more um! That is why the Akinwunmi Ambode administration in Lagos State deserves praise, as does the Abubakar Bello government in Niger State. Lagos announced this week that it will no longer pay out state money to pilgrims going
to Mecca or Jerusalem. Similar words have also issued from Minna, the Niger State capital.
It is about time, too. Every year the states, from Sokoto to Bayelsa, fork out billions of nairas covering pilgrims’ flight
tickets, meals and whatnot on a religious exercise that is purely and exclusively personal. One unconfirmed report
said that Niger State paid as much as over N5b in such sponsorship in one year just over two back. Governor Bello
has questioned the logic in paying as much as N1m per pilgrim per year. Governor Ambode has similar worries.
They are both right. Such cash from across the states in one year over five years would probably be enough to scale
back the infrastructure deficits that have made nonsense of the entire country and its people. There are no clean public water sources to speak of. Therefore, youths have no idea what a public tap looks like. Most borehole facilities are no more than deep wells whose water is not fit for drinking.
Any wonder why water-borne diseases ravage the country? Roads remain woeful, in fact, public enemy No 1. It is
doubtful if the hospitals are any better than mere consulting clinics, as someone labelled them years ago. It is also
beyond debate that in the clinics these days, the consultants are few and far between considering the huge number of ailing people seeking diagnoses and treatment. Public school infrastructure has so decayed that almost everyone
wants to have as little as possible to do with them. But the tragedy is that the private institutions, except those of the
rich churches, are also decaying, leaving one with hardly any choice as to which to send one’s kids, that is, supposing
the cash were there.
Apart from the woeful infrastructure narrative, the states are broke, unable to pay monthly salaries, an obligation
that is otherwise basic. This required the painful intervention of the newly-formed Buhari administration which had
to bail out the cash-strapped constituents. Even in the best of times, all the states had was little more than the federal
government would allocate from the oil cash vault. Now the central government is struggling for breath, its oil revenue
down to a mere pittance. To whom will the states run for cash?
As in almost everything Nigerian, opinions are divided as to whether or not Government should stop the pilgrimage
sponsorship. So many want it to stop but some also made a case for its perpetuity. Olumba Olumba Obu,
leader of the Brotherhood of the Star and Crescent, reportedly wants Government to keep sponsoring pilgrims but
he also wants the pilgrim contingent to be expanded and diversified to include worshippers of other religions, not
merely Christians and Muslims. O. O. O. did not, however, name the other faithful he deemed deserving of the sponsorship cover, nor did he mention which destination they would be headed in the event of their inclusion in the
annual party.
Another pro-sponsorship respondent was quoted as essentially arguing that pilgrims go to the holy lands to
pray and renew their spirituality, a disposition that enhances their prayers and makes for a better country.
While it is impossible for me to make light of the efficacy of prayer or of its national value, I think it is incontestable
that ours remains a very religiously volatile nation, in which we often hack down one another on matters relating
to faith and ethnicity. As I tapped out this piece, a colleague called on the telephone to report one of such clashes in a
part of the country whose soil has soaked much of its inhabitants’ blood.
I am persuaded that if our faith is any good or better, it is not because Government pays our way to Mecca or
Jerusalem. Neither is our interpersonal relationship or national cohesion any smoother on account of the annual
flight to other people’s lands. For Muslims, the pilgrimage is only the fifth obligation;
even then, it is for those who can afford it, not those who rely on state sponsorship. For Christians, it is not mentioned
at all. Also, after doling all that money, Government commits much resources into ensuring through talks and
workshops that the pilgrims do not defect or annoy their hosts in any way especially by breaking their laws.
Before the next pilgrims’ flight to Mecca or Jerusalem, every state government should hands off all pilgrimages
and make some restitution even if only by a public broadcast saying they are sorry for wasting the people’s money
for so long
