Earlier this month, President Muhammadu Buhari declared that the federal government will no longer bankroll pilgrimages as religion is a private affair. Nasarawa State governor Tanko Al-Makura has also suspended all forms of government sponsorship for pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia as part of a clampdown on reckless spending.
This week, the Kano State Government said that its embargo on the sponsorship of pilgrims was fully in place as it was also designed to ensure sanity and plug resource linkages. Mallam Abba Yakubu, the executive secretary of the Kano State Pilgrims Welfare Board, said that the board uncovered N1.5bn (£4.78m) spent by the last administration on free trips to the holy land, regretting that such resources could have be used for provision of social infrastructure.
Mallam Yakubu added: "Government has stopped sponsorship of pilgrims in Kano due to malpractice and fraud that characterised the system. We discovered that the previous government spent over N1.5bn on this as they turned the process to a jamboree where some people made a lot of money.”
Like President Buhari, Mallam Yakubu insisted that a spiritual obligation such as hajj was only mandated for Muslims who are financially capable. He noted that a limited number of professionals including media staff, health workers, Islamic clerics, environmentalists, men of hisbah boards and staff of the pilgrims boards have been shortlisted for the 2015 operation.
He added that that government has approved N240m (£763,734) to subsidise the accommodation of pilgrims from the state in the holy land. Religious pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem account for about 1% of Nigeria's annual budget.
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