Hajj Gift to the Rich Pilgrims, Sallah Greetings to the Poor Masses -By Abdulkadir Salaudeen

Let this be a reminder. It is something we all know. Hajj is the fifth pillar of Islam. It is an obligatory act of worship; and that makes it a pillar. The Lord of creation Who makes Hajj compulsory for the Muslims, knows, in His infinite knowledge, that fingers are not equal. Thus, He makes the obligation a qualified obligation to exclude those who do not have the means. To put it differently, the obligation of Hajj is conditional upon one’s ability to make provision for it.

Hajj is a once-in-a-lifetime sacrifice expected only from those who have the means. Permit me to add this, it is highly rewarding. But our God, the Lord of mercy, is never unjust. To Himself, He forbids injustice. He does not favor the rich and abandons the poor. He does not only waive the obligation of Hajj for the poor without means, He stipulates some righteous deeds and rituals that are equivalent to Hajj in terms of reward. This fact is well known in the circle religious scholars. Thus, the poor may help themselves to perform Hajj—without actually going to Makkah—by other acts and/or means.

But suddenly, we find ourselves in a situation where the rich that need not be helped are helped from the taxpayers money to perform a religious act. This is a religious act that individual Muslims should be happy to foot the bill for themselves since it is a religious sacrifice. Rather, our governors partially foot the bill. Then, ironically, the poor that must (or should) be helped out of poverty by the government—and even by the rich—are left in the cold hands and embrace of poverty and hunger.

Our rulers in Nigeria and those clerics who urge them to spend public funds to subsidize Hajj are making religion to look oppressive and retrogressive to the masses and critical thinkers—people with critical and functioning minds. The rate at which Northern Muslim youth are derailing from Islam and inching towards atheism is alarming. This should be blamed on clerics who make religion look oppressive and illogical to the masses. They make religion look supportive of the selfishness and corruption of the ruling class and the rich.

For instance, the Federal Government subsidized Hajj last year by a whopping N90 billion. It was not only mismanaged, a large fraction of it was embezzled. Yet, some clerics, in the name of religion, defended the subsidy and the embezzlement that trailed it. I am not sure if the Federal Government subsidize Hajj this year. I am aware that some state governments, by other means, did. Though subsidy is not the word they used, it was reliably reported that some governors gifted money and other valuables to the pilgrims.

In a report by Daily Trust, Borno State paid the cost of sacrificial ram (hadiyya) for each of the pilgrims from the state—totalling 2,174 pilgrims. Who asked the governor to do that? That could not be God; or could He? His action was not also in tandem with any of the provisions in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; was it?

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu gifted each of the pilgrims 180 Riyals (equivalent of N74,870) totalling N98,454,050 for all of them. What concerns Sanwo-Olu about Muslim pilgrims such that he has to be so generous with gifts. Does Sanwo-Olu, a Christian, believe the Muslims are ‘children’ of God? Even if he believes so, as a Christian, is that how God, in the Bible, asks him to help his ‘children’? He abandoned the ‘children’ of God—Muslims who struggled to feed themselves on festival day—and gifted unsolicited minimum wage (N74, 840) to the wealthy pilgrims. This is a misplaced priority.

The Jigawa State has 930 pilgrims who were reportedly given 100 Riyals (approximately N43,000) each as “Happy Arafat gift.” But Sallah greetings were sent to the poor masses who could not make it to Hajj. While the rich pilgrims deserved monetary gift, one wonders why the poor masses only deserved Sallah greetings as gift. If this is what clerics tell our governors about Islam, they have done a grievous injustice to Islam—conceptually and practically.

With its 3,800 pilgrims, Kebbi State seems to be the state with the largest contingents of pilgrims for the 2025 Hajj. The State Goveror Nasir Idris approved 200 Riyals (approximately N86,000) to be disbursed to each of the 3,800 pilgrims. Perhaps, the governor has enriched the Kebbians so much so that poor people are no more visible in the state. He is now extending the state’s largesse to the rich. Well-done!

In that religious competition to ‘please’ God—by helping the pilgrims who deserve not to be financially helped—our ‘generous’ Governor from Sokoto State takes the lead. He is the winner. To each of the 3,200 pilgrims from Sokoto State, 1,000 Riyals (equivalent to N450,000) was gifted as Sallah gift by Governor Ahmed Aliyu. If well utilized, N450,000 can positively and completely change the life of an almaajiri. Let’s just imagine that 3,200 almajirai in Sokoto get this amount of money (N450,000) each, purposely to take them off the streets, that ugly spectacle of our streets in Sokoto—littered by dirty and wretched almajirai—will have some semblance of beauty. Can anyone tell me where to situate or locate Islam in all this?

The Governor of Kano State reportedly gave each of the 3,345 pilgrims from the state 50 Riyals (approximately N21,000) and promised them a large travel bag in preparation for their return journey home. Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf appears to be the least in this father Christmas-like gifts to the pilgrims. Even Governor Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, a Christian, did father Christmas better than him (though we do not know the cost of the additional large travel bags). This could be because our amiable and workaholic governor has a lot of projects to execute in Kano State. A source even said the token is from his pocket; not from government purse. If that is the case, his act might be commendable. It will certainly be more commendable if he had channelled his personal money to help those who genuinely need it.

All said, some of our rulers could be good leaders if they are well advised and surrounded by God-fearing clerics. Hopefully, we shall get it right one day. I wish our pilgrims happy return as they enjoy Sallah gifts from our governors.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen

salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com