Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has described pilgrimage as a luxury which the state's tax payers' money would not be used to subsidize. Oshiomhole stated this on Thursday in Benin when the zonal federal commissioners and officials of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission paid him a courtesy visit.
He said that having had a deeper insight into the challenges that confront the Nigerian nation and even Edo as a state, pilgrimage was a luxury.
"I have a deeper insight into the challenges that confront the Nigerian nation and even Edo as a state, and have come to the conclusion that pilgrimage is a luxury. Even from the point of view of the poor, a man who has no roof over his head cannot be spiritually uplifted if he goes to Israel and returns to a state of homelessness", the governor said.
Oshiomhole said the totality of the challenges faced by many were homelessness, lack of potable water, decayed infrastructure, unemployment and hunger.
He, therefore, said pilgrimage was not a priority, but added that the state would not discourage those who want to go.
"But what I am not ready to do is to take tax payers' money to subsidise someone who wishes to go and pray...I have issues with that because people who pay taxes work so hard to pay", he said, adding that he felt very strongly about subsidizing pilgrimage.
The governor said that the state government would rather subsidize production, education and health care, adding that these were central to the survival of the people.
According to him, Edo State Government would not campaign for more people going on pilgrimage as it would put more pressure on the exchange rate.
"In any case, only a clean heart, rather than pilgrimage, is what will decide our place hereafter," he said.
Earlier, Mr. John Kennedy Okpara, the Executive Secretary of the Commission, said they were in Edo on a sensitization visit, adding that the visit was on the need for government to partner with the commission in its transformation process.
Okpara noted that with the legacies of the Edo Government, there was the need to create human beings that were morally and spiritually transformed to be able to sustain the legacies. (NAN)
"Your love for the people of Edo is inspiring; your drive and determination to develop the state is encouraging, and your pursuance of justice and peace is something that the poor man hopes to live on," he said. (NAN)
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