The Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC) has urges the government both at the federal and state level to stop sponsorship of individuals to pilgrimage.
The group stated that state sponsorship of pilgrimage contradicts pilgrims’ intention that connotes self-sacrifice.
Raymond Anoliefo, JDPC director, stated this on the sideline of the group’s recent workshop to commonrate Nigeria’s uninterrupted 25-years of democracy in Lagos.
Read also: Hajj 2024: Lagos pilgrims begin returning to Nigeria
Themed, ’25 Years of Democracy: is Nigeria on its way to economic prosperity,’ the workshop seeks to evaluate Nigeria’s governance structure with a view to chart a way forward.
Anoliefo stated that the huge tax payers money voted for pilgrimage yearly could be channeled into the productive sector of the economy.
“Such funds can be used to equip and resuscitate the nation’s nearly moribund health centres with the needed drugs to treat people,” he stated.
He stated that pilgrimage is a personal venture that tests an individual’s sacrifice and perseverance toward his or her faith.
“Ploughing the nation’s scarce resources that should have been used to service few privileged individuals in the name of pilgrimage is amoral and should be stopped,” Anoliefo stated.
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