Isn’t Kaduna Pilgrims’ Sponsorship a Resuscitation of Religio-Political Hypocrisy? -By Abdulkadir Salaudeen

Kaduna State is probably the most cosmopolitan state in the North. Its motto was initially “The Liberal State” before it was changed to “Center of Learning”. The two epithets fitly describe Kaduna. It is both a liberal state and a center of learning. Its cosmopolitanism reflects its liberalism and scholarship.

In Kaduna State, one finds people from different ethnic backgrounds working as civil servants while retaining their ethnic identities. A Yoruba, a Tiv, a Nupe, or an Igbo does not need to pretend to be a Hausa or a Gbagyi to get a state government job. The state is so liberal and cosmopolitan that it embraces everyone.

It is in the same Kaduna State that what I consider one of the ugliest and dirtiest practices was stopped. It was stopped during the regime of the most controversial governor who is arguably the most stubborn and most influential politician in the state.

If using taxpayers’ money to sponsor pilgrims was the ugliest practice stopped, the controversial governor who put a stop to it needs no introduction. He is Mallam Nasiru El-Rufai.

El-Rufai has been described as a ‘short devil’ by some (he is even the Devil to some). Conversely, many of his admirers almost consider him a saint. Yet, he is seen as the finest administrator in Kaduna State in some quarters. While a group of analysts would argue that he destroyed Kaduna and disunited its people, another group would say he built Kaduna and should be seen as the father of modern Kaduna. They could all be right or wrong. That is not the focus of this piece.

My focus is questioning the moral justification of using taxpayers’ money to sponsor the rich for pilgrimage. If it is argued the poor benefit too, I would still question the ethics of using public funds for this. I have devoted many columns to condemning this practice, which is a total misplacement of priority, and I will continue to do so, God willing.

El-Rufai stopped that nonsense during his administration. Many clerics from the state’s two major religions were upset, but El-Rufai did not give a damn. However, the dirty practice has reared its ugly head again under the current administration. Governor Uba Sani has reportedly restored the pilgrimage programme in Kaduna State. Most national dailies reported it as a Christian pilgrimage. It was marked with the approval of sponsorship for 50 intending Christian pilgrims after an 11-year suspension.

We read that Christian faithful in the state have welcomed the development, which they described as “a strong statement of fairness, equity, and inclusive governance.” Going by the way the media reported it, many who are not well informed would think El-Rufai stopped Christian pilgrimage and continued sponsoring Muslim pilgrims. What El-Rufai did was that he stopped all pilgrimage sponsorship (both Christian and Muslim). He considered it a waste. It is indeed a waste.

There are questions here begging for answers. What benefits accrued to Nigeria and Nigerians when government sends people to perform pilgrimage? How does that lead to, or ensure, the protection of life and property which is the major function of government? Section 14 (2) (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) declares unequivocally that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.”

In Kaduna State, and across Nigeria, joblessness is a badge of disgrace most graduates and non-graduates carry. Government-owned hospitals are major transit points to graveyards. Patients admitted to these hospitals have little hope of survival. School labs are ill-equipped. Teachers, even when paid, live wretched lives. Civil servants are impoverished. Exceptions are the few who ‘know their way’. People sell their property, not to replace them with better ones, but to pay ransom to kidnappers, hoping to reunite with kidnapped loved ones. Yet, we have governments that think they are fulfilling their electoral promises and constitutional mandate by sending people on pilgrimage.

Who did this to us? A friend of mine insists Nigeria is cursed; it is bewitched and under a spell. He insists Nigeria’s case is not ordinary. If we assume my friend is right, why didn’t the thousands of pilgrims sponsored by the Nigerian government to Makkah and Jerusalem help break the spell with their supplications?

It is because of the spiritual emptiness of the sponsorship. The sponsorship has nothing to do with religion but everything to do with politics. Theologically speaking, I don’t think God approves of governments spending so much on pilgrimage while most citizens wallow in poverty and struggle to survive amid hunger. Let our clerics, Christian and Muslim, refute this claim with scripture. They should, using the scripture, explain and justify the moral and religious rationale behind government-sponsored pilgrimage.

It is also unfortunate that government sponsorship of pilgrims is not about governance. Rather, it is the antithesis of good governance — a hallmark of bad governance. That is religio-political hypocrisy — a political action in religious garb. One might approve state pilgrimage sponsorship amid plenty, not in a country as poor as Nigeria. When living in opulence and abundance, it may be a way to spend excess cash when government has enough money but does not know what else to do with money.

Did Kaduna State Government just approve sponsoring 50 Christian pilgrims? Let’s see how many Muslim pilgrims get sponsored. If 50 Muslims are sponsored, Muslims will cry marginalization, claiming they are the majority in Kaduna and deserve more than 50. If more than 50 Muslims are sponsored, Christians will cry foul. If Muslims are not sponsored at all, Governor Uba Sani would be seen as the most accommodating governor to Christians by the Christians. Then, Muslims would begin to doubt his Muslimness or call him a hypocrite and sellout.

My prayer is religion will not destroy us. When religion overrides common sense in political economy and general administration, expect a calamitous economy and unending poverty. We thought El-Rufai ultimately ended that religio-political hypocrisy called state sponsorship of pilgrims in Kaduna — the liberal state and center of learning. We are wrong. Uba Sani, in the name of politics, has resuscitated it.

To digress a bit and conclude, I heard Kano’s Hisbah arrested Muslims for eating in public during fasting hours. If true, wonderful. But those who executed the arrest need a reality check — a factory reset of their thinking process. If this was done in the name of religion, something is wrong with our understanding and practice of religion. Ramadan Mubarak.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen 

salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com