Rivers muslims trade words over hajj seats

The allocation of Hajj seats to pilgrims, whether Muslims or Christians, by various tiers of government has been a recurrent development in the country. This phenomenon became more pronounced with the advent of democracy. Politicians, keen on attracting votes from various segments of  the electorate try to win them by offering them such favours. This […]

The allocation of Hajj seats to pilgrims, whether Muslims or Christians, by various tiers of government has been a recurrent development in the country. This phenomenon became more pronounced with the advent of democracy. Politicians, keen on attracting votes from various segments of  the electorate try to win them by offering them such favours.

This was the situation in Rivers state when Dr Peter Odili held sway. Many Muslims enjoyed this gesture from government annually. But after he stepped down, the politicisation and somewhat ethnicisation of the system became more pronounced so much so that there is now a polarisation in the ranks of Muslims in the state. This is threatening the cohesion of the Muslims as the indigenes tell the non-indigenes that the allocation of hajj seats is a favour by their state that they should not take for granted.

According to Alhaji Ahmed Okiri, father of the sole administrator of Rivers State (Hajj) Welfare Board “anybody who is here to get Hajj seats should go to his state. Rivers state sponsor a Muslim pilgrims and will give it to the person they like. I am fifty years in Islam. My son is the chairman of the Hajj Board. I cannot allow him to sell Hajj seats”.

His grouse with the Muslim-Hausa community in Port Harcourt is that they are more interested in grabbing hajj seats than promoting Islam. He stated that he is at peace with anybody who is in the state to promote Islam. “Anybody who is here to promote Salat, I am with him. Anybody who is here to support fasting will get my support”, he emphasized.

Alhaji Musa Sa’idu, south-south co-ordinator of the Arewa Consultative Forum and a traditional leader of the Hausa community in Rivers state challenged the propriety of  Okiri’s submission. He said during the administration of Peter Odili there was equity in the distribution of Hajj seats to Muslims in the tribal categories of Rivers indigenes, Yoruba and Hausa. When Amaechi came a new sole administrator was appointed.

“Since then, Okiri often uses derogatory terms to refer to us and insists that he will not provide us with Hajj seats. So our resolution  is that we are dissociating ourselves from him. He is not our leader”, Sa’idu insisted.

He said  even the  indigenes of  Rivers who are Muslims do not have confidence in him. They have taken him to court praying that he should be restrained from calling himself their leader. “In reality, he is nobody’s leader. He doesn’t identify with the Sarkin Hausawa and myself. I am the Danburan of  Hausawa here. So what we are asking for is similar to that being sought through litigation by our brothers, the indigenes. Since he sees us as strangers and inferior beings he should go and control Hajj affairs and leave us with the leadership of the Muslim community,” Sa’idu posited.

Okiri’s response to this is that he is not interested in leadership. Instead, he said Sa’idu that is making all these allegations is a man who does not believe in Islam. “He has never gone to Da’awah. He was following my brother, the late Harold Dappa Biriye about.  If he wants to join Islam now he is welcome back to the fold”, Okiri admonished.

He concurred that he was not elected by the Hausa or Yoruba, but that “tribal leadership does not mean you are a leader in Islam. When you introduce something into Islam that is not there you have transgressed. You become sentimental because you do not get hajj seat, because you did not get chance to market hajj seats. Leadership of  my state does not concern Hausa or Yoruba. This is Rivers state”.

He made reference to the Holy Qur’an by saying that “Allah said he has placed leaders in every town”, querying whether there is any vacancy in Rivers state Muslim community that a Hausa man wants to claim?  He accused the Hausa community leaders of not doing anything for Islam in the state. “You are not giving zakkat. This man, I know him. He is a Biriye boy. So, he cannot claim to be a Muslim. If now he has left his master, he should come, and he is welcome to the fold. In Islam we don’t drive away anybody”, he explained.

Sa’idu alleged that the sole administrator in concert with his father monopolise the allocation of these seats. “Recently (last year), we visited the Government House during sallah and the governor gave us N3 million as sallah gift.  The sole administrator’s father gave us N1 million and said he was going to use the remaining for the promotion of Islam. He shared the remaining N1 million among those who are loyal to him.

Okiri did not deny getting the money. He explained what happened: “Last year, we were given N3 million. Everybody was there. I now suggested that the money should not be shared”. He said his rationale for making that suggestion was that the Rivers State Muslim community did not have a mosque where every Muslim goes to pray. He also reasoned that the Muslims did not have an office in the state. “So, I said we should start making provisions for the promotion of the deen. We all agreed that half of the money should be saved in the bank. The money is still there”, he volunteered.

The man said he is an accomplished man who has no reason to deep his hands into fundsentrusted to him. “I believe in Allah and worship Him. For instance, when the governor proposed to reclaim the plot of land on which the Hausa people built their mosque in Niger Street, I took them to the governor and pleaded that they should be compensated so they can have another mosque. The governor agreed and now they are going to build a new mosque”, he remarked.

According to him, he advised Odili that it is an abuse to sell hajj seats. He told the former governor that if a Muslim has gone to hajj once he should give chance to those who had never been there to benefit from the state government’s gesture, harping his counsel on the Golden Rule in Islam which encourages Muslims to love for their brother what they love for themselves.

Contrary to this, Okiri noticed that “the situation here is that there are people who came here to trade on Hajj seats and I have to kill it. My duty is to promote my religion. I am doing my best to do just that. They want to continue with business as usual. They can’t do it. The Rivers state government of today is different from that of yesterday”.

Odili gave Muslims in the state N48 million in eight years.  What happened to all the money?  It was shared. We entered the Government House because we are Muslims, not because we are indigenes, Yoruba or Hausa. Whenever there is money the Hausa people will say we did not come here for Islam, we came here because of trade”, Okiri observed

Sunday Trust made efforts to hear from the sole administrator of the Rivers state Hajj Welfare Board, Alhaji Sani Sotonye-Okiri, but his telephone was always switched off. He also refused to respond to enquiries made through text messages. There was equally no response from the state commissioner for education, Ibim Seminitari, who supervises the allocation of hajj seats.