In response to widespread public concern, Oganihu Ebonyi has issued a strong statement condemning the Ebonyi State Government’s decision to allocate N551.5 million for the 2025 Hajj subsidy. The group argues that such religious subsidies, which consume billions annually, divert critical resources from essential sectors like security, healthcare, and education, exacerbating the state’s economic struggles. Highlighting issues such as teacher salary arrears and rising insecurity, they urge Governor Francis Nwifuru to reconsider the policy, prioritize economic development, and promote transparent governance. Oganihu Ebonyi reaffirms its commitment to advocating for responsible resource management and challenging policies detrimental to the state’s progress.
Press Release
Sunday, February 9, 2025
1. We identify with Ebonyians on the public outrage generated by the Ebonyi State Government’s policy to spend N551.5 million subsidizing the 2025 Hajj. When combined with the amount appropriated for Christian Pilgrimages and other state-sponsored religious excursions, religious subsidies run into billions of Naira and consume a significant percentage of the state’s annual appropriation laws. We note with concern that Ebonyi State is one of the states that devote a substantial part of its public expenditures to religious subsidy, at the detriment of critical investments in primary economic growth and development drivers. Between 2024 – 2022, the federal government and some states spent over N120 billion on holy pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia.
2. Accordingly, at this period of extreme economic hardship, famine, and mass poverty caused by broad macroeconomic volatilities, hyperinflation, and the inability of state and local governments to pay salaries for workers, we view religious subsidy as a misappropriation of resources at best, or worse still, part of grand plans at economic prodigality or sabotage. We make this claim and argument because as a state with the highest rate of poverty in the Southeast geopolitical zone and one of the poorest states in the country, spending billions of scarce resources on select individuals to travel around the world to worship their God at the expense of investment in security and protection, basic education, primary healthcare coverage, child and maternal care, rural access roads, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) development does not conform with any known logic in economic policymaking.
3. Relatedly, the recent spate of violent attacks on rural communities such as the Nkalaha community in Ishielu local council, where bandits destroyed properties and livelihoods worth billions of Naira, killed tens of innocent people, ransacked entire villages for plunders and displaced thousands of residents, suggest a resurgence of rural banditry in Ebonyi State. That criminal actors could perpetrate fatal attacks without effective confrontation or pushback from security agencies suggests a lack of adequate security response against state aggressors and criminals. Why then should the Ebonyi State Government consider religious subsidy a priority at the expense of securing lives and properties? What is the logic?
4. Another unsettling development in the state is the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) strike action on the grounds of nonpayment of salaries and arrears for about 6 months. How can teachers go for months without salaries, and no official is held accountable and punished? We argue that the negligence so far suffered in managing the strike action is a death knell on the government’s policy priorities and orientation. Again, we approximate this negligence as economic sabotage.
5. In the interim, we do not want to dabble into several allegations of grand corruption against some heads of Ministries, Department, and Agencies (MDAs) and several other procurement infractions reported in the award of major contracts in the state because we are still collating and understudying these infractions so as to petition and institute legal challenges against all bureaucrats and politicians involved. However, we state our resolve and commitment to mount appropriate legal challenges to determine if wanton corruption is part of the official policy of the Ebonyi State Government. We hope that this will open up the space for effective citizen engagement in resource governance and administration in the state.
6. Back to the N551.5 million religious subsidy being the first tranche of billions of Naira wasted annually on religious excursions, we call on Governor Francis Nwifuru to rescind the policy and apologize to Ebonyians (voters and taxpayers) whom this religious subsidy saga has damaged their trust in the intention and capacity of the state government to pursue “the good life” or efficiently and effectively deliver democratic dividends. We do not fail to recognize that religious freedom is a democratic right, but those who wish to travel around the globe to worship their God should do so at their own personal costs.
7. Finally, we note the urgent need for a comprehensive recalibration of the government’s priorities in favour of rapid investment in the social and critical sectors of the Ebonyi state economy. If need be, Governor Nwifuru should shake up his cabinet and hire from the growing pool of technocrats of Ebonyi State origin, especially in the diaspora, and minimize the prominence of rabid political operatives who continue to smear the State Executive Council with incompetence and dishonour.
8. The growing envelope of religious subsidy in this state is a misplaced priority and should be challenged or resisted by every patriotic citizen. We will keep our eyes on the religious subsidy and shall continue to adopt new democratic strategies to challenge its desirability and other policies we deem anti-people in Ebonyi State. Distinguished Ebonyians and ladies and gentlemen of the press, we thank you for your audience.
Ani, Nwachukwu Agwu,
Director of Research and Publications,
Oganihu Ebonyi,
And;
Charles Otu
Director, Media and Communications, Oganihu Ebonyi.
About Oganihu Ebonyi:
_Oganihu Ebonyi is a group of patriotic professionals who passionately promote the success, sustainable progress, and development of Ebonyi State._