Fix Us First, Not Our Churches, Mosques, and Palaces -By Abdulkadir Salaudeen

If you think you have seen it all, the Nigerian government has a way of telling you there is still more to come — you haven’t seen anything yet. Or in common street language: “una never see anything.”

The 2026 annual budget is riddled with unthinkable items. At first glance, some of them look ridiculous. At a second glance, they are laughably ridiculous. They are jokes taken too far — a direct assault on Nigerians’ intelligence. Does this current government even think Nigerians are intelligent at all?

When hundreds of Nigerians are in kidnappers’ dens, with the only offence of being Nigerian. When hundreds of families have emptied their life savings and sold hard-earned property to rescue loved ones from marauding bandits. When inflation has eaten so deep into salaries that take-home pay is now useless. When farmers are being killed like guinea pigs in a lab experiment. When graduates roam the streets aimlessly and hopelessly because the system creates no jobs — except for those lucky enough to get government grants to sell akara, agbado, and kulikuli.

When… when… when Nigerians who are too resilient to commit suicide are leaving the country in droves to seek green pastures — not greener pastures — elsewhere, because the country is not green at all, the Tinubu government plans to renovate our churches, mosques, and palaces.

Many have interpreted this differently, and it is difficult to find any positive reading. I interpret it to mean government is saying:
“Don’t think we are here to solve your problems. Don’t think we are in power to serve you. Don’t think we owe you anything. Don’t think insecurity gives us sleepless nights. We sought power, and will continue to seek power, only for the sake of power — not to solve any of your problems.

“To solve your problems, we will renovate your houses of worship. We will renovate your churches and your mosques. We know you are religious people, so we will help you communicate with your God, the Alpha and the Omega. Since we believe only God can solve your problems, we have stopped thinking about your plight. You can cry to your Creator.

“We have the support of the clerics on this. They have told us emphatically that no matter how hard we try, our best will never be good enough because of your sins. Because you are sinners whose sins are affecting the machinery of government and the effectiveness of governance, we have concluded that the best we can do to help you is to renovate your churches and mosques. Once we are done, hurry up and seek your Lord’s forgiveness. He is, as our clerics told us, ever forgiving.”

Clerics who think like the government have reacted to the budgetary allocation for renovating churches and mosques. They are not disappointed that the Muslim-Muslim government made provision for the renovation of religious buildings for the first time in history. They are disappointed because the allocation to mosque renovation is far higher than that for churches.

The Northern Christian Association of Nigeria, NCAN, has spoken. It can tolerate the nonsense. What it cannot tolerate is the hypocrisy of the disparity in allocation. It asked the Federal Government to explain the wide gap in the allocation of about N8.05bn for church and mosque projects in the 2026 Appropriation Bill.

In a statement issued on Monday by its Chairman, Rev. Joseph Hayab, the NCAN demanded to know why N1.91bn was earmarked for seven church-related projects, while approximately N6.14bn was allocated to 52 mosque-related projects.

“How long will Nigerians continue to read stories that expose the hypocrisy of our leaders?” Hayab asked. I am tired too. I don’t know how long. He continued: “Partiality, lack of equity, and unequal treatment of citizens by government and political leaders are among the major factors responsible for division, distrust, segregation, and the absence of genuine unity and love among Nigerians.”

The bigoted Christians will reason like Hayab. They will clap for him for speaking the obvious, for speaking on behalf of the Church. The bigoted Muslims will call Hayab a hypocrite, not the Muslim-Muslim government. They will argue that Muslims are the majority in Nigeria and use that to justify the unequal allocation. They may even add, “This is a Muslim-Muslim government. Christians should wait for their turn when there will be a Christian-Christian government.”

“I pray that one day Nigeria will have a Christian-Christian ticket, and it will win. That’s what I pray to see.”

That prayer isn’t mine. I won’t waste my saliva on such nonsense. The entire notion of Muslim-Muslim/Christian-Christian government has never made an iota of sense to me. That prayer belongs to Abdullahi Sule, the Governor of Nasarawa State.

If the ridiculous allocation had favoured churches more than mosques, Muslims would have rejected it too. They would have lamented that the wife of the Muslim-Muslim President, Iya Alakara, is a pastor. That the budget was written in the Redeemed Christian Church of God. That the whole Muslim-Muslim ticket is a ruse and a camouflage. That it is actually a Christian-Christian government because Tinubu is not really a Muslim and Shettima is not Muslim enough.

This is how we are wired. This is how unfortunate we are. This is how our clerics think.

I don’t know why the “clerical class” among traditionalists is silent. I don’t know why they are not protesting being left out. I don’t know why they don’t think major shrines, like the Okija Shrine, also deserve renovation. I don’t know why Hayab, who insists our Constitution recognises every Nigerian as equal before the law, fails to see the hypocrisy in allocating zero to shrine renovation. Are idol worshippers not Nigerian enough? Are they not paying tax? Are they not citizens enough to benefit from the ridiculous allocation we are now bickering over as “unfair”?

If the Muslim-Muslim government genuinely wants to apply religion to governance to enhance development, this column is not against it. My co-authors and I discussed a religious approach to development in our 2025 paper titled “Unethical Factors Contributing to Nigeria’s Economic Underdevelopment: Analysis from an Islamic Perspective”, published in the UAE by Al Qasimia University Journal of Islamic Economics, 5(2), 43-72.

In that paper, we identified budget padding and frivolous allocations — with emphasis on the 2024 national budget — as major stumbling blocks to development. We cited many instances of inappropriate and ridiculous allocations, hoping government would avoid them in future budgets. We were naive.
Is the government even interested in research outputs from Nigerian universities? If you want to waste all your research trying to make Nigeria progress, become a lecturer in a Nigerian university. That is one of my biggest regrets as an academic.

In that same paper, we quoted “writerholic” columnist Olusegun Adeniyi of ThisDay, who has consistently written about Nigeria’s annual budget. Adeniyi calls it “the distribution of political spoils.” Lamenting the damage budget padding has done to development, Adeniyi writes: “I have also repeatedly referenced a Twitter thread by Laolu Samuel-Biyi who once concluded: ‘If you want to keep hope alive in Nigeria, don’t look at the budget.’” (See page 52).

For those of us who have chosen to always look at the 2026 budget, any hope that Nigeria will develop, with this kind of attitude towards budget, must be clinically dead in us. Anyone who understands the importance of an annual budget cannot sanely keep hope alive after reading the 2026 budget. It is the most ridiculous budget yet. I have only focused on the religious angle here to make religious bigots see clearly, but there are many other abnormalities in the budget.

Palaces are also slated for renovation. This is expected in a budget that falls in an election year. The roles of clerics and traditional rulers in electioneering cannot be overemphasized. With the renovation of churches, mosques, and palaces, our traditional rulers and clerics will start singing Ọmọ Ologo. Nigerians must reject irrationality from all quarters: churches, mosques, and palaces.

Many believe Nigerian lawmakers are behind some of these ridiculous insertions. It is also possible they were written at the Bourdillon School of Political Strategy.

Whoever is behind these nauseating items is less important. My plea to the Nigerian government, under the leadership of the Jagaban of Borgu Land, is simple: Fix Nigerians first, before renovating our churches, mosques, and palaces.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com