NCA Backs Sultan, Says Stolen Funds Must Not Finance Pilgrimage

Chairman of the Northern Christians Association (NCA), Rev. John Joseph Hayab, has backed the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, over his call for politicians to stop using public or stolen funds to finance religious pilgrimages.

Hayab said religious devotion could not be separated from integrity, stressing that using proceeds of corruption to undertake pilgrimage defeated the purpose of the spiritual exercise.

In an media interview, the NCA chairman said politicians who engaged in corruption and subsequently used illicit funds for pilgrimage could not justify their actions by describing the journey as a spiritual privilege.

“If you use stolen money to go for pilgrimage and then you call it a spiritual privilege, then you have already defeated yourself even before the privilege,” he said.

Hayab also defended the Sultan’s wider call for Nigerians to use their votes to remove politicians who failed to deliver good governance, rather than resorting to curses or abuse.

He described the position as a responsible message from a religious leader at a time when Nigerians were demanding greater accountability from political office holders.

According to him, the major challenge was whether the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would ensure that the will of the people prevailed during elections.

“The onus is now on INEC to allow the will of the people to prevail,” Hayab said, arguing that failure to respect voters’ choices had contributed to poor governance in the country.

He said politicians would become more accountable if they were certain that voters could remove them from office for failing to perform.

“If I know that if I don’t deliver the goods, the people can kick me out; if I know I do not perform well, the people can vote me out; if I know I’m not doing what the people expect, the people can refuse to bring me back, every politician will wake up from his slumber,” he said.

Hayab argued that manipulating elections to retain political power undermined the legitimacy of those elected and ultimately affected their ability to govern effectively.

He also rejected the assertion that most religious leaders support politicians who engage in corruption, saying such a generalisation was unfair.

“There may be some religious leaders who are supporting that criminality. But when you use the word ‘most’, it’s not fair,” he said.

According to him, many religious leaders do not support government spending on pilgrimage, particularly when citizens are still confronted by poor infrastructure and inadequate public services.

He said governments should prioritise roads, schools, healthcare, electricity and security rather than spending huge sums of public funds on religious pilgrimages.

“A larger number of religious leaders don’t even support government-sponsored pilgrimage at all. They prefer the government to focus on building roads, building schools, improving hospitals, and ensuring that services are delivered,” Hayab said.

He questioned the justification for spending hundreds of millions or billions of naira on pilgrimage sponsorship while citizens remained victims of insecurity and lacked access to quality healthcare and education.

“When you spend state money, 500 million or one billion to support pilgrimage, the people come, and their family members are still in the hands of bandits due to insecurity,” he said.

Hayab also cautioned against using prayer as a substitute for hard work, responsible leadership and effective governance.

He said while he believed in the efficacy of prayer, religious devotion should not be used to justify laziness, corruption or failure to fulfil responsibilities.

“Prayer shouldn’t be an alternative to laziness or to hard work. So people who really pray are people who work hard,” he said.

Using the example of a student who refused to study but relied solely on prayers before an examination, the NCA chairman said divine intervention should not be invoked as an excuse for failing to do what was required.

“Let’s not hide under God to promote laziness or hide under God to promote corruption or hide under God to promote wrong things,” Hayab added.

He said the same principle should apply to political leadership, stressing that governments must perform their responsibilities to citizens while religious leaders and citizens continue to pray for the country.

Hayab’s comments supported the Sultan’s position against the use of illicit funds for religious pilgrimage and his call for voters to use their ballots to hold political leaders accountable.