Still on subsidy for pilgrims

On Thursday, August 4, 2016 the Central Bank of Nigeria issued a circular directing specially designated banks and financial institutions to sell forex to Hajj pilgrims at the discounted rate of N197 to a dollar. This is happening at a time of severe forex scarcity – the naira is currently trading at N310 and above N400 at the interbank and parallel markets respectively – and when manufacturers and genuine businesses are unable to get forex to buy necessary inputs and machines, the government is not only selling forex to pilgrims but also subsidising it by more than N200 – if we take the parallel rate at which most travellers and manufacturers get forex.

But this wasn’t a concession for Moslem pilgrims alone. Indeed, on July 12, 2015, the former Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission, Mr. John Kennedy-Opara, disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari approved a special exchange rate ( $1 to N160) for that year’s Christian pilgrimage to Israel.

Generally, we view this as an unfortunate 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 fraught with dangers and susceptible to abuse by banks and other finance houses.

Second, we believe the concession is exclusionary as it ignores those who do not belong to either of the religions they are being forced to subsidise.

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 pilgrimages 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, 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 government had finally gotten 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 interferences began during the Obasanjo military regime of 1976 – 1979 when buoyed by oil wealth – when Nigeria’s problem was not money but how to spend the money – the government began to centralise most functions and duties that had hitherto belonged to the states and regions. That was the period roads, schools, hospitals, universities etc that belonged to the states where taken over by the Federal Government. Not satisfied, the Obasanjo administration 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 compete to get their cuts from. 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.

We believe that for a president that contested an election on the platform of change; change from the culture of impunity, corruption and misuse of government funds, this is an unwise move and we urge him to respectfully reverse the decision. Religion is a personal and private affair and we urge the state to steer clear of it. We expect the government to channel all its efforts and resources towards revamping our public finance and the economy and not subsidising pilgrimages