No special forex for pilgrims

The Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission (NCPC), through its executive secretary, John Kennedy Opara, recently claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a special exchange rate for this year’s Christian pilgrims to Israel, so long as each prospective pilgrim is willing to purchase up to $10,000. According to Opara, “The president has approved $1 to N160 for the conventional exchange rate for this pilgrimage operation and he also agreed that he will continue to encourage us particularly as we drive to ensure self-sustenance, to make sure that the pilgrims are able to pay for the pilgrimages after removing government sponsorship.”

Since the Federal Government is yet to deny or confirm this claim two weeks after it was made public on July 12, we assume it is true. And we also assume, in the spirit of equity, that this would also be extended to Muslim pilgrims.

To say that we are disappointed by this unfortunate development is to put it kindly. This is a development that is fraught with many difficulties and dangers for the Nigerian state on many fronts.

First, it goes against the current efforts of government to revamp public finance, manage the exchange rate and inflation, and conserve foreign exchange. For a country struggling to survive amidst dwindling revenues, shortage of foreign exchange, pressure on the naira and inflation, this is an unwise move. Besides, it is not difficult to predict that the implementation is littered with dangers and susceptible to abuse by banks and other finance houses.

Second, we believe the concession is exclusionary as it ignores the generality of Nigerians, more especially those who do not belong to either of the religions to whom the president is being forced to grant subsidies.

Third, at a time when the general sentiment is in favour of removal of subsidies from even essential commodities like petrol, the state should not be seen to be reintroducing subsidy to a non-essential commodity like pilgrimage meant only for a privileged few. This is the classic case of the poor subsidising the rich and does not speak well of a government that claims to be pro-poor and pro-people.

Fourth, it violates the secular status of Nigeria. Religion is a private affair and should be left in the private realm and the state must not be seen to meddle in it. We know this is an ideal that is not yet accepted in most parts of country, especially in the North where state governments usually make provisions for religion and regularly build mosques as part of government’s responsibility to the people. This is a practice that should be discouraged and the Federal Government must not be seen to be plunging into it, especially after it had finally got rid of the practice of sponsoring people on pilgrimages.

We recall that in the past religion in Nigeria used to be a private or, at best, a regional affair. Federal Government interference in religion began during the Olusegun Obasanjo military regime of 1976-1979 when, buoyed by oil wealth, the government began to centralise most functions and duties that had hitherto belonged to the states and regions. That was the period when roads, schools, hospitals, universities and other facilities that belonged to the states were taken over by the Federal Government. Not satisfied, the Obasanjo regime began to organise, subsidise and subsequently sponsor pilgrimages. That kind of posturing led to the general impression that the national cake was at the federal level and states and ethnic formations thus began to compete to get their cuts. This led to the culture of unbridled corruption and theft of government funds which has plunged us into the mess we currently find ourselves in.

But this must stop. It is our considered view that, above all else, for a president that contested an election on the platform of change – change from the culture of impunity, corruption and misuse of government funds – the approval of special forex for pilgrims goes against commonsense and the realities of the time. We expect the government to channel all its efforts and resources towards revamping our public finance and the economy.