Not just 'Hajj' but also 'Hajj'

The embezzlement of the hajj subsidy funds reveals the hidden motive behind all religious crises in Nigeria.

National Hajj Commission of Nigeria

I bet you are familiar with the word "Hajj" especially if you are Muslim or a Nigerian who is familiar with the annual pilgrimage to Mecca by Muslims. But you may not be familiar with the second ‘Hajj’ used in the headline of this essay. I was not too. I just want a play on word after the idea of this essay occured to me. I feel there could be a word that sounds like Hajj but means greed which is what motivates all religious crisis in Nigeria as the essay will show presently, ‘Hajj’ is the reason for the stealing in the National Hajj Commission and the reason for agitation among Muslims generally especially Muslims in the North of Nigeria where the religion has taken firmer root. By myself I didn't find any word and as a last minute effort I turned to Meta AI and it turned out to be fruitful. Meta gave "Hajj" as a word that takes the same sound with ‘Hajj' which is the annual prigrilmage to Mecca. This ‘Hajj’ according to Meta AI does not exactly mean greed but it means excessive desire. It met my desire, it describes what is going on in the Hajj racket, it describes why the Muslims in the North will not take no for an answer in anything that concerns the performance of this annual religious pilgrimage. It describes what is also going on in the annual pilgrimage of Christians to Jerusalem, a journey that is not ordered in the Christian faith but which can cause havoc in the nation if not allowed. This desire is not driven by love for God or Allah but by greed, ‘Hajj’ the unbridled desire for wealth, excessive desire which is the mother of greed, the ‘Hajj’ in Nigerians.

This year, 2024 was especially troublesome for Bola Tinubu, the president of the nation. Any president that leads this nation especially if he is from the south leads at the pleasure of the north. Why? The north has become an entity that must be managed with great care because of its tendency to flare up at the slightest provocation because of decades of entitlement. Since the pogrom that killed hundreds of thousands of Igbo after the January 1966 coup, southern rulers of Nigeria and they have been very few, have learnt to pander to the north. Not even ex-military man, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a southerner could do much in Nigeria until his second term when he knew he would not be seeking election again. The north stalls whatever it does not want, however beneficial it is to the generality of Nigerians. Bola Tinubu won his election by a general appeal in the north. He had come in with an unpopular agenda that he calls a reform but which is inflicting much pain on Nigerians especially in the north which is generally the poorest segment of Nigeria. Tinubu's so called reform has meant astronomical increase in prices, especially food prices which has caused hunger in the nation. Several plans of palliatives have not helped because of its shoddy arrangement and the well-known endemic corruption in Nigeria. There is also ever decreasing value of the naira relative to the dollar.

For those who felt that the higher cost of making the pilgrimage because of the floating of the naira will discourage the annual massive movement from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia; they were soon to be disappointed. Even though the holy Quran does not make it compulsory for a Muslim to embark on the journey except he has the means, for the Nigerian going on Hajj is a must whether or not he couldn't afford it. It has become the means by which politicians and government officials use the money of the state to bribe Muslims. Local governments, state governments, and even the federal government spend humongous amount yearly to sponsor Muslims on the pilgrimage. This year, it required between 4 million naira and 8 million naira to make the pigrilmage depending on whether the intending pilgrim benefits from government subsidy. One of the cornerstones of Tinubu's so called reform was the removal of subsidy on fuel, a removal which has meant many Nigerians could no longer drive their cars because of very high cost of petrol which more often than not is not available despite the fact that the nation is oil rich.

So the government of Bola Tinubu was in a quandary. The Muslim north piled pressure while the south that has been grinding its teeth over the subsidy removal watched what the president will do. At last President Tinubu like any southern leader would do eventually bowed to the pressure and threats from the north. The Hajj would be subsidized by a whooping 90 billion naira. By a government that removed subsidy on fuel which benefits the generality of Nigerians, north and south, this was a caving in too many. And hundreds of Nigerian Muslims north and south, poor and rich filed out to Saudi Arabia even unsure of what they were going to eat when they returned home. But ‘Hajj’ happened to these travellers. ‘Hajj’ in the officials that handled the subsidy affected very negatively the ‘Hajj’ of these 2865 pilgrims. They were to be housed and fed in Mecca but this did not happen. Rather, because of shortage of care, many were said to have slept outside on the streets, despite the subsidy. Thirty pilgrims died and there were reports of large scale stealing of the 90 billion naira subsidy.

The House of Representatives decided to probe the ‘Hajj’ in the officials. On 1st November, 2024, an Ad hoc committee, headed by Sada Soli Jibiya, APC Katsina was set up. The House committee invited the new Chairman of the National Hajj Commission, Professor Abdullahi Saleh Usman. He could not honour the invitation because he was said to be in Saudi Arabia. Another appointment was agreed with him for 11th November, 2024. When he failed to honour the agreed second sitting, a livid Chairman of the Ad hoc committee, Sada Soli phoned and told him that the Committee will not take kindly to his absence and threatened to invoke the provisions of the law which will compel him to attend. After the threat, Professor Saleh, Chairman of the Hajj Commission, sauntered into the meeting hall leaning on a walking stick and looking frail as a man who has had a stroke. Earlier Prof Saleh though in the federal capital territory had sent Prince Olanrewaju Elegusi, the Commission's commissioner for operations to represent him. At the meeting Professor Saleh agreed with Sada Soli that the Hajj Commission which he superintends is enmeshed in sleaze. According to reports, most of the subsidy like the subsidy on fuel had been siphoned into private pockets. Nigerians are very religious but as it happens at NAHCO it is often pretentious religiosity. They frequent Mecca and Jerusalem but they are greedy. As the president of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio revealed to the nation few months ago during the #Endbadgovernance protests, Nigerian officials 'eat' the nation's resources. An activists group, The Media Support Team, THAT, had requested the House of Representatives to probe the former Chairman of NAHCO, Jalal Ahmed Arabi and leave alone the current Chairman Professor Saleh who was only appointed in October after President Tinubu sacked Arabi. Jalal Arabi who was deployed from his position as permanent secretary at the presidency to the Hajj Commission was a guest of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC for about five days, thereafter he was released and later sacked obviously as a result of negative findings of the EFCC concerning his management of NAHCO. Not much has been heard of him again giving the feeling in the populace that the anti-graft agency might have abandoned his case. If that is the case, then the 'eating’ by Arabi and his colleagues at NAHCO has been swept under the carpet.

The embezzlement of the hajj subsidy funds reveals the hidden motive behind all religious crises in Nigeria. The noise usually about religious deprivation is not so much about religious fervour but about the corrupt money that accrue to officials who organize those religious observances. Officials and religious leaders who make noise and induce the people to riot are not necessarily driven by religion but by greed; by ‘Hajj.’ Were President Bola Tinubu to have refused the ‘Hajj’ subsidy, the whole north would have been engulfed in violent protests. Despite the hajj subsidy, the north was still not satisfied as shown in the #Endbadgovernance protests which took place between August 1 and 10th August and which was seized upon by some elites in the north to get the youth to call for military intervention. It has been revealed that some elements in the north who have been feeding fat on the treasury used the youths as canon fodder to perpetrate the mayhem. It was the ‘Hajj’ in them that drove them and not zeal for Allah.

It is time therefore for the progressive North to expose the lies embedded in the evil use of religion to fend for greed, for the ‘Hajj’ of the elites in the north. This has been exposed by this ‘Hajj’ corruption. Unfortunately, despite years of stealing by politicians of all hues, especially in the north, of money that is supposed to alleviate backwardness of the poor there, the north is still multidimensionally poor, the poorest in the country and educationally disadvantaged. If Jalal Arabi is not punished it will further strengthen the belief of the south that the north is untouchable and the whole exercise of the Ad hoc Committee of the House of Representatives is nothing but a hoax. It will confirm as another evidence that in the animal farm of Nigeria some animals are more equal than others.

It must be stated emphatically that Nigeria is a secular state and religion whether Christianity or Islam or Animism must be left to the individual. It must be entrenched strongly in the constitution that Nigeria is a secular state and nobody should have a right to declare or adopt a state religion in any part of the nation. Consequence for violation must be made so grave like loss of office by whoever did. Pilgrimage to Mecca or Jerusalem must never again be subsidized. All those going on pilgrimage must have their money, procure visa by themselves, and buy their tickets and undertake all arrangements for their stay during the pilgrimage. The only assistance to be rendered must be the usual consular services provided by Nigerian embassies. Government must henceforth have no hand in any religious pilgrimage. Fortunately, the Bible does not teach that adherents must visit Jerusalem on pilgrimage and Islam did not make ‘Hajj’ a must.

Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos

The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect Metro Newsletter’s editorial stance.