Plateau State former Speaker, Istifanus Mwansat, on Monday, urged the government to redirect its focus from the periodic sponsorship of pilgrims to spiritual tourism.
Mwansat, who doubles as Special Adviser to the Plateau State Governor on Special Duties, made the plea at a one-day advocacy meeting with legislators of the Gombe State House of Assembly on religious tolerance and human rights protection in Gombe.
Newsmen reports that the meeting with the theme ‘Empowering actors to promote peace building, human rights, democracy, and religious tolerance’, is a European Union co-founded project in partnership with Bread for the World implemented by the TEKAN Peace Desk in Gombe State.
According to Mwansat, pilgrimage should be treated as a personal affair, instead of a state, adding that citizens who are not members of the two religions of Islam and Christianity are left behind.
Mwansat, who presented on understanding freedom of religion in Nigeria’s constitution and steps to actualizing it, said, “Funding pilgrimages, which is personal to every individual, you are doing a great disservice to a larger percentage of the populace because even the larger numbers of both religions are often not beneficiaries.”
“Situations abound when you find people attend yearly because of access to authorities who will go to the Holyland to either Mecca or Jerusalem on government funding.
“For us to really practice religious freedom, I think the government should desist from funding such because religion is a personal thing between you and God, and if you feel very strongly that going on pilgrimage is a prerequisite for whatever you have to fund it yourself and allow government direct resources in other areas,” he added.
On her part, Coordinator of TPD Helen Philemon-Haggai said the project is for a 30-month duration, adding that its implementation commenced in April 2023 to 2025.
She noted that the project is implemented in Kwami, Yalmatu-Deba, and Billiri Local Government Areas, two each of three LGAs, across six communities.
“From our discussion, the issue of the monitoring function should be taken seriously towards checking religious excesses. If you compare Gombe State to other states in the North, there is relative peace, and if you look at indices of development, they are higher in the state,” she added.
Also, Gombe State House of Assembly Speaker, Abubakar Mohammed, said peace is a fundamental issue that is considered key in governance
In May, the Federal Government came under fire for its decision to subsidize the 2024 Hajj with N90 billion despite allocating only N50 billion for the student loan scheme in the 2024 budget.
Education and legal experts have slammed the decision, noting that spending such a humongous amount of money to subsidize Hajj is a misplacement of priority.
Some top officials of the NAHCON were arrested by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission over alleged mismanagement or diversion of the N90bn released by the FG.
Barely a week ago, EFCC released the sacked NAHCON chairman, Jalal Arabi, and the commission’s secretary, Abdullahi Kontagora, on bail.
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