Ebonyi Group Slams Nwifuru Over N551.5m Pilgrimage Subsidy

A non-governmental organisation, Oganihu Ebonyi, has opposed Governor Francis Nwifuru’s religious subsidy policy in the state, describing it as a misappropriation of resources and grand plans for economic sabotage.

Oganihu Ebonyi, a group of patriotic professionals who passionately promote the success, sustainable progress, and development of Ebonyi State, said it is absurd that a state with the highest rate of poverty in the Southeast spends billions of naira sponsoring select individuals to travel around the world to worship their God.

In a statement signed by the director of research and publications, Ani, Nwachukwu Agwu and Charles Otu, director of media and communications, and made available to LEADERSHIP, the group stated that it is a crime against humanity for a government that claims to have the interest of Ebonyians at heart to engage in such frivolities 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)

The group noted with concern that Ebonyi State is one of the states that devote a substantial part of its public expenditures to religious subsidy, to the detriment of critical investments in primary economic growth and development drivers.

They added that during 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 workers’ salaries, they view religious subsidy as the highest level of economic prodigality.

The statement read in part: “We identify with Ebonyians in the public outrage generated by the Ebonyi State government’s policy of spending N551.5 million subsidising 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.

“Relatedly, the recent spate of violent attacks on rural communities such as the Nkalaha community in Ishielu local council, where bandits destroyed properties.