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OPINION: FG’s N90 Billion Hajj Politics

Published

2 years ago

April 1, 2024

By Lasisi Olagunju

From Lagos, one Ayinde Salihu wrote to the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of the Northern Region, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, on 19 January, 1964, describing the premier as the “Prophet of Nigeria.” The man wanted the Sardauna to take him to Mecca for Hajj. Buliyaminu Oladiti Fadairo wrote from Ibadan on 21 January, 1964, saluting the Sardauna as “Nigerian Holiest Father.” It was his way of massaging the big man’s ego so that he would make him a pilgrim in that year’s Hajj. Same day from Kabba, Aruna Agbana wrote begging the Sardauna to sponsor his pilgrimage to Mecca “in the name of Allah and Annabi Muhammadu, the Holy Prophet…and in the name of Usman Dan Fodio…” The Sardauna had a standard response for all of them: “Pilgrimage is not obligatory if one has no means…” American professor of history, Mathew M. Heaton, has all the above in his ‘Ahmadu Bello and the Politics of Pilgrimage’. It is a chapter in his book on ‘Decolonising the Hajj’ published in 2023.

What the Sardauna said about pilgrimage not being “obligatory if one has no means” is the correct injunction prescribed in Islam. But, the injunction might be canonically true in 1964, it is no longer so today. Never mind that John Bunyan in ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ says “what God says is best, is best though all the men in the world are against it.” The poet just wasted words. There are egregious carts everywhere today for the pilgrim to ride in short-circuiting faith and its precepts. They say the times determine what law to keep. They say that at every point in time, what the world carries is the child the times birth for it.

The way we fart while pricing irú (locust beans) is not the way we should fart while buying salt. But now, there are no limits to misbehaviour. Everywhere stinks. We shit in holy places and receive effusive thank you from the guardian priests. If he were alive, the powerful Sardauna would not have resisted the pressure to pay today – and remain relevant. A multitude of Nigerians (Muslim and Christian) desire the bliss of paradise which may be in holy pilgrimages but everyone wants someone else to pay for it. And they get it. ‘FG bows to pressure, approves N90 billion subsidy for Hajj fares’ was how The Guardian headlined its report on a payment of subsidy for Hajj. I read it in other papers also. The payment is unprecedented in the hugeness of the figure. And the government has not said the media lied. Hajj is an obligation which applies under clearly stated conditions – these include financial and physical capability. But now, every year, pressure, threats, and blackmail are rained on presidents and governors to sponsor pilgrims. And they cave in to do what is wrong. They forget that they were elected to say no to irregularities; that sometimes, resistance may be politically inexpedient and tough, but in resisting wrong lies victory. “Dark clouds bring waters, when bright bring none” – Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress again. Robbing the Peter of millions of Nigerians to foot the bill of elitist Paul is a mark of the beast. But it is the new normal. Governments sponsor thousands to Mecca and Jerusalem in exchange for political support.

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I call the Nigerian elite culture which allowed this payment an ‘Aj’ìfà’ culture. Aj’ìfà is that person who grows fat reaping big where he sows little – or reaps without sowing at all. Someone else said elsewhere that Nigeria is an “Aj’òfé society.” That somebody is Ladun Anise, late professor of political science, who explains in a 1979 journal article that the word Aj’òfé is a Yoruba word meaning ‘free-loader’ or ‘parasite.’” I nodded as I read his further explanation that “an aj’òfe society carries a parasitic culture; builds its expectations on what the government can and must do (for them) with no sense of individual or group responsibility…It is a culture in which people are determined to turn constrained privileges into fundamental constitutional rights or even the precepts of natural law.” I understand that some of the intending pilgrims are threatening to pull out of this year’s hajj unless the government pays the balance of N1.9 million for them. The country is a fallen elephant before a pack of cleavers.

We married a wife in the month of famine and in that same month of lack, she decided to use pounded yam to build a house. What name would you give that kind of wife? What baby would the woman birth, and what will the name be? The question is elegantly answered in the original Yoruba version of that proverb: Ìyàwó tí a fé l’ósù agà tí n fi’yán mo’lé, yóò-báa-níbè lorúko omo rè yóo máa jé. ‘Yo-ba-nibe’ (e go meet am there), the reserved name for the expected product of the conjugal error, forebodes tragic delivery. I thought our husbands said the country was broke and all subsidies should go -and was gone. Now we know they lied. The Federal Government that said no to what benefitted 200 million Nigerians last May has released N90 billion to subsidise the purse of about 50,000 persons (or of their rich sponsors) so that they could make a personal religious journey to Saudi Arabia. It is a subsidy for politics.

What you value is what you invest your riches in. A wealthy man with a million slaves dies, but in his wardrobe is found one lone dress (Oun tó ndun ni níí pò l’órò eni. Ológún erú kú, aso o rè kù ìkan soso). That is my people’s proverb for otherwise wise men with deliberately misplaced priorities. We’ve always known that politics pays better than education in Nigeria. The N90 billion Hajj subsidy is higher than the combined 2024 budgets of the University of Ibadan (N23.4billion), Obafemi Awolowo University (N17.1 billion), Ahmadu Bello University (N29.2 billion) and the University of Lagos (N19.4billion). So, what is the matter prioritized here? The government did not spend that money for religion. It was for politics and the need to avoid the political consequences of hurting Nigeria’s powerful entrepreneurs of pilgrimage.

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The Obafemi Awolowo government of the old Western Region set up Nigeria’s first Pilgrims Welfare Board vide Western Regional Gazette No. 39, vol. 7 of 5th June, 1958. The board’s existence was dictated by the need to attend to issues of welfare of hajj pilgrims from Western Nigeria. The northern region followed that example seven years later in 1965. Both boards were restricted by law to collecting Hajj fares from intending pilgrims, arranging passports for them, helping intending pilgrims to get visas and other consular interventions, assisting them with flight tickets and with vaccination, getting them comfortable accommodation and transportation in Saudi Arabia – all at their own expense. The limit of the responsibilities of the boards was the limit of government involvement in Hajj operations. Apart from one VIP Hajj flight per year involving the Sardauna and selected members of the northern elite, there are no records of any government-sponsored Hajj trip for anybody in any of the regions.

What is the official explanation (reason) for the Federal Government’s release of that subsidy for the Hajj? Each of the 48,414 intending pilgrims was initially supposed to pay N3.5 million, then it was jacked up to N4.9 million when the dollar raced past the strength of our sense. N4.9 million is a huge amount in this season of want. There was an outcry which the anti-subsidy government in Abuja heard and doused with a subsidy coolant which translated to N1.6 million per pilgrim. This N90 billion pilgrimage subsidy paid by this government I could not find anywhere in the 2024 budget of the Federal Government. Even in the pads and paddings, it is absent. So, where did the president conjure that humongous sum from?

Even after that intervention, there are further subsidies to pay. Because the forex crisis has set every plan ablaze, the total hajj fees payable is no longer N4.9 million per pilgrim. The hajj commission last week raised the fare by a further N1,918,032.91 blaming forex volatility. The amount is now N6.8 million per pilgrim. The arithmetic is well explained in a report by the Daily Trust some days ago which quoted a Hajj commission source: “By the previous calculation, the N90 billion given by the Federal Government can only subsidise 19,000 intending pilgrims by ₦3.5 million. But by spreading it on 50,000 pilgrims, it (the subsidy) reduced it (the shortfall) to N1.9 million. This means that the federal government has subsidised each pilgrim by ₦1.6 million…” There is still a shortfall of N1.9 million which each of the pilgrims has to pay. But they may not pay anything. Some state governments are paying it for them.

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A friend asked when this culture of using public funds to fund private religious acts started. It is difficult to know but it didn’t start with this regime. When a head would go bad, it starts its descent gradually, unnoticed. What I know is that there used to be pride in people using their hard-earned money to go to Mecca. O.E. Tangban in his ‘The Hajj and the Nigerian Economy’ (1991) traces this tradition of going to Mecca and notes that at the very beginning “ordinary people went on Hajj by land routes across Chad to Sudan and then by boat to Jeddah” – with their hard-earned money. Even big men did. Dunama, the second Muslim Mai (king) of Kanemi – what we know today as Borno – followed that route. History says he was the first around here to go on pilgrimage to Mecca. He went the first time and came back. He went the second time and returned in peace. He went the third time and perished in an accident in the Red Sea. There is no record that he stole from the poor to fund his Hajj.

Nigerians are a very religious people. You would think being this religious coheres with piety. Some of those whose Hajj fees we’ve just paid have gone to Mecca in many and repeated times – like Abiku. Indeed, for some, it is business – legit and illegit. A lot goes with pilgrimages – to Saudi Arabia and to Israel – which mocks the reason and essence of pilgrimage. On the current Hajj list will be mistresses, paramours and concubines of some ‘pious’ persons of influence. I witnessed a case some years ago. We are using scarce funds to sponsor the good and the bad and the very ugly. Some of the officials particularly hate the smell of roses. It is a chain. The known faces are mere masks of the very big men of religion who preach fiery sermons of godliness. To them, pilgrimage is their soup pot, their business, and they always find one verse somewhere to validate what they do. It didn’t start today.

A big businessman from a wealthy family in Kano was arrested, tried, convicted and fined £7,000 in Sudan in April 1957 for currency trafficking. He was the sole agent in charge of the welfare and wellbeing of all Hajj pilgrims from Northern Nigeria. For that year’s Hajj – which many from the north did by road, the big man collected money from poor intending pilgrims and decided to do brisk business with it. He was arrested in Sudan “for illegally smuggling over 21,000 Egyptian pounds into the country.” Quoting several 1957 and 1958 editions of ‘The Nigerian Citizen’ newspaper, Heaton, in another chapter of his book referenced above (page 160), wrote that apparently the man “had been taking the deposits made by his Nigerian clients (pilgrims) and trading them for profit rather than forwarding them to the next location for dispersal. Deposits made in Nigeria in British sterling were traded in Beirut for Egyptian pounds” netting the man “a 50 percent profit on the original deposits that he could then pocket before delivering the funds to Sudan for distribution to pilgrims and his contracted agents…” His victims, the pilgrims, suffered and got stranded; two of them died of meningitis while waiting to be sorted out. The big man absconded to Nigeria and soon got into bigger trouble: His home was searched and found with “printing presses, currency moulds and £5,000 worth of forged £1 and £5 notes.” He was tried and, on 22 November, 1957, jailed for eight years. But if you are big here, no net will be big enough to restrain your fish. The man came out of prison earlier than ordered; he joined the ruling party and was elected into the House of Representatives in 1965. End of story.

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Otuaro: Baseless Allegations, Disregard Them, Group Urges Public

Published

19 hours ago

May 17, 2026

Editor

The Ijaw People’s Development Initiative, IPDI has reacted to a statement circulating online regarding the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), describing it as baseless.

The statement under the disguise ‘Niger Delta Stakeholders Forum and Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities,’ had demanded accountability regarding the management of the Programme and its administrator, Dr Dennis Otuaro.

Reacting to the statement, National President, IPDI, Comrade Austin Ozobo, said: “We consider it necessary to respond point by point to correct misconceptions, reject unsubstantiated claims, and keep the record straight in the interest of PAP beneficiaries, stakeholders, and the general public.

“It is worthy of note that the PAP operates under strict federal financial regulations and is subject to routine audits by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, the Ministry of Finance, and other oversight bodies.

“All disbursements, including stipends, vocational training, education support, and third-party contracts, are processed through the Treasury Single Account, TSA, with verifiable records”, the statement read.

According to the IPDI, the Programme welcomes lawful criticism and scrutiny at any time. However, linking such a call to specific individuals without evidence amounts to trial by the media and undermines due process.

“Dr Dennis Otuaro, administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme has maintained a good record of financial management, hence no formal petition with verifiable evidence has been submitted to any anti-graft agency till date”.

“It may interest you to know that the N65,000 monthly stipend is fixed by the Appropriation Act and can only be reviewed through a budgetary process approved by the National Assembly and the Presidency.

‘The PAP management has consistently conveyed beneficiaries’ concerns on cost of living to relevant authorities”.

“Again, claims that allocations to the Programme have risen significantly while stipends remain unchanged misrepresents the budget structure.

“Note, increased allocations in recent years have been tied to expanded reintegration programs, education sponsorships, skills acquisition, and infrastructure support for training centers, not solely to stipend payments”.

The group reiterated that the allegation that the Amnesty Programme Office “kidnaps and detains delegates” is false, reckless, and defamatory, adding that the PAP has no paramilitary or law enforcement mandate, nor does it operate detention facilities and that any incident involving law enforcement is outside the control and purview of the Programme.

“We challenge the authors to provide verifiable details of time, place, and persons involved so the matter can be addressed through appropriate legal channels,” the group said

On Claims of Selective Empowerment and 500% Payment Increases, the group maintained that payments to contractors, ex-agitator leaders, and service providers were governed by existing contracts and agreements predating the current administration.

“No individual or camp has received unilateral increases without contractual basis or due process. Allegations of 500% increases are unsubstantiated and designed to stoke division among beneficiaries,” it added.

“The current administration has maintained a policy of transparency in engagement with leaders and has expanded inclusion by verifying and capturing previously omitted beneficiaries where due“, IPDI added.

The group further said, “The PAP remains a neutral, peace-building institution established under the 2009 Amnesty Declaration. Its mandate is to coordinate disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration. The Office does not engage in political victimization, intimidation, or exclusion of stakeholders. Engagement with ex-agitator leaders and community structures is conducted based on their role in maintaining peace and facilitating reintegration, not political alignment”.

“The PAP under Chief Denis Otuaro’s leadership remains committed to transparency, fairness, and the original mandate of the Amnesty Programme. Constructive criticism is welcome and has informed policy adjustments in the past. However, campaigns of calumny, unverified allegations, and attempts to drag the Programme into commercial or political disputes do not serve the interest of peace in the Niger Delta”, IPDI said.

“We urge all stakeholders to channel grievances through the established engagement channels of the Programme and to avoid statements that threaten the fragile stability we have worked to sustain”.

Consequently, the IPDI urges members of the public to disregard what its described as “flimsy and unsubstantiated allegations, misconception, and missives by faceless groups above“.

News

[OPINION] Olukoyede’s EFCC: Taming The ‘Fantastically-Corrupt’

Published

20 hours ago

May 17, 2026

Editor

Since its creation 23 years ago, by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, as president of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous and influential country, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had apparently not gotten a head, who had piloted the affairs of the commission, like Mr. Olanipekun Olukoyede, its Executive Chairman, a chief-operations-officer of the Commission.

It could be said that Olukoyede, the Czar thief catcher and arrestor of economic saboteurs, has given the EFCC’s enemies such a tough time as he has taking the anti-graft fight to the doorsteps of the high-profile individuals across the country. These range from former state governors, serving and former ministers, retired and serving civil servants, businessmen, clergies, traditional rulers, cyber-influencer, entertainers, professionals and numerous others.

Olukoyede brings years of experience in law, fraud management, and business intelligence to bear on the position. Before him, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu was EFCC’s inaugural chair; succeeded by the first and only female, Mrs. Farida Waziri; Ibrahim Lamorde, Ibrahim Magu, and Abdul Rasheed Bawa.

The anti-graft agency has its hands full with massive financial fraud and money laundering cases. In the clause of “physicians, look at thyself”, EFCC in its resolve is known to have been flushing out officers within the body, who run foul to the law.

In the past, before Olukoyede’s appointment, it was widely believed that it was only the “fries and not the big fishes”, who the Commission could summon the courage to prosecute; and that most culprits were also left from the hook, because of compromise by some corrupt officers of the Commission, and feeble litigation processes.

Mr. Godwin Emefiele, former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), happened to have opened to Olukoyede’s a deluge of “big-men and women”, who have been arrested, investigated and cooling their feet in detention or those bailed, that are facing severe court trials. There is the biggest 19-count charge at the Ikeja Special Offences Court, involving an alleged $4.5 billion fraud.
Immediate-paste governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, faces two massive, but separate legal battles totalling over N190 billion on fraud allegation. EFCC secured from the Court of Appeal, forfeiture of 14 properties and huge money linked to him.

Abubakar Malami (former Attorney-General of the Federation), with his son, Abdulaziz and his wife, is currently charged on a-16-count of money laundering. The court has stayed interim forfeiture of 57 properties valued at over N213 billion.

EFCC had also secured the arrest of Sadiya Umar-Farouq, a female former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, and a former Permanent Secretary, through a Federal High Court, on a 21-point alleged fraud and corruption charge, involving $1.3 million and N746.6m and others amounting to 37.1 billion.

Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, also female and former Minister of Women Affairs, was removed from office by President Bola Tinubu, over alleged misappropriation and diversion of N138.4 million, and had been under EFCC questioning.

A recent discovery, which startled Nigerians and the world, the Commission (EFCC) had reportedly arrested a serving Director-General of the Energy Commission of Nigeria, Dr. Mustapha Abdullahi, over alleged money laundering involving about ₦500 billion.

Somewhat, this had deflated the claim that those arrested and persecuted are political opponents and not serving officers of the Tinubu’s government.

EFCC is a “Nigerian law enforcement and anti-graft agency that investigates financial crimes, such as advance fee fraud (419 Fraud) and money laundering. It was also set up to fight against corruption and to protect the country from economic saboteurs”.

The Commission, whilst responding to pressures from the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), that named Nigeria as one of 23 countries not cooperating in the international community’s efforts to fight money laundering, had revved in performance, in a bid to roll back the blights.

And so, it is a strenuous goal for EFCC, as entrenched in the ‘EFCC Establishment Act 2004’, which gives it specialist jurisdiction against severe financial and commercial crime – covering multiple high and lower levels.

Born on 14 October 1969, Olukoyede, a civil servant, has had a clear break from past, where past executive chairmen of the Commission had left the Commission, where all serving officers were drafted from the Nigerian Police Force (NPF). However, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is widely commended for Olukoyede’s appointment to the position, with the Senate also eulogized for screening him.

Whilst briefing the Press in Abuja, on his two-year activities in office, on October 23, 2025, the Commission’s boss certainly made unprecedented progress in the fight against economic and financial crimes. He spoke through the Director of Public Affairs of the Commission, Wilson Uwujaren, as he listed the recovery of N566 billion, alongside other currencies and assets, among the achievements of the Commission.

He further revealed that the Commission received over 19,000 petitions, conducted 29,240 investigations, filed 10,525 cases in court, and secured 7,503 convictions.

Olukoyede asserted that the Commission recovered ₦566,319,820,343.40, $411,566,192.32, £71,306.25, €182,877.10, and other foreign currencies from proceeds of financial and economic crimes. Added to this was the recovery of 1,502 non-monetary assets, comprising 402 properties in 2023, 975 in 2024, and 125 so far in 2025.

“Among these recovered assets are two notable landmarks: the final forfeiture of 753 units of duplexes in Lokogoma, Abuja, and the forfeiture of Nok University, now the Federal University of Applied Sciences, Kachia, Kaduna State,” he said.

He listed several high-profile cases prosecuted within the period, including those involving former governors Willie Obiano, Abdulfatah Ahmed, Darius Ishaku, Theodore Orji, and Yahaya Bello. Others are former ministers Olu Agunloye, Mamman Saleh, Hadi Sirika, Charles Ugwu, and former Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele.

EFCC was also said to have reentered and invigorated some longstanding fraud cases, such as ones linking Fred Ajudua, former People Democratic Party, PDP National Chairman Haliru Bello Mohammed, ex-National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, and former Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF boss, Ngozi Olojeme.

The EFCC said it arrested 792 suspects involved in asset and cryptocurrency frauds in Lagos, among who were 192 foreigners who were prosecuted and deported.

A Task Force on Naira Abuse and Dollarisation of the Economy was established by EFCC, which accordingly, had notable impacts in sanitizing money actions countrywide. “The campaign against naira abuse, racketeering, and speculative currency trading has helped reduce pressure on the naira and complemented the Central Bank’s efforts in stabilizing the economy,” he said.

Olukoyede also spoke on the Commission’s strengthened partnerships with foreign law enforcement agencies, including the Korean Police, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Spanish Police, and German Police.

He also mention benefitting synergy with the FBI, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), INTERPOL, and Japan’s JICA, in subsequent joint investigations and the repatriation of stolen assets to victims from Spain, Canada, and the United States.

Strengthening EFFC’s mandate at the regional level, and in Africa, Olukoyede and the Commission are said to be up and doing. For instance, a thing that had never happened to EFFC, he had been twice elected as President of the Network of National Anti-Corruption Institutions in West Africa (NACIWA), which led to the founding of a permanent secretariat in Abuja.

A strong media presence is needed to successfully inform the public of the ideals of EFCC and its update activities. And so, ‘EFCC Radio 97.3FM’, Nigeria’s first anti-corruption radio station, was established Olukoyede. EFCC should count itself very lucky for having in its fold, tested, diligent and veteran journalists who are ostensibly seasoned in the ideals and watchdog principles of the Commission.

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APC Primaries: Johnny Rallies Support For Senator Thomas’ Re-election Bid

Published

21 hours ago

May 17, 2026

Editor

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Delta State, Chief Michael Johnny, has called on Delta South Senatorial District’s party faithful to come out in large tomorrow and vote for Senator Joel-Onowakpo Thomas (JOT) in the party senatorial primary election.

Johnny, widely regarded as a leader par excellence within the APC, described the primary election as a critical moment that will determine the political stability, unity, and future direction of Delta South.

According to him, Delta South needs a detribalized leader with the capacity to unite people beyond ethnic sentiments and political divisions.

He warned against leaders whose style of politics promotes ethnic division and unnecessary tension within the region.

Chief Johnny stated that Senator Thomas has continued to distinguish himself as a leader who carries everyone along, irrespective of tribe, political background, or local government affiliation.

He noted that JOT’s leadership style has strengthened cooperation, peace, fairness, and political inclusion across Delta South.

Speaking further, Chief Johnny declared that the Ijaw people have resolved to stand firmly behind Thomas because fairness, justice, and political balance must prevail in Delta South.

“As Ijaw people, we have decided to support Senator Joel because this is the turn of the Isoko nation, and Ijaw stands for truth. That is our position,” he stated.

He also appreciated what he described as “genuine Itsekiri sons and daughters” who believe in fairness, equity, and peaceful coexistence, adding that Delta South can only move forward when the various ethnic nationalities work together in unity and mutual respect.

Chief Johnny maintained that the senatorial district must not be dragged backward by divisive politics or ethnic interests capable of weakening the collective strength of the region.

He stressed that all APC members in Delta South must remain united in their support for Senator Joel-Onowakpo Thomas.

“Delta South is bigger than personal interests. This election is about unity, stability, fairness, and the future of our people. Senator JOT represents continuity, experience, and inclusive leadership for all ethnic groups in Delta South,” Chief Johnny added.