Atedo Peterside, founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc and Anap Foundation, has faulted the payment of N90 billion to subsidise the cost of the 2024 hajj pilgrimage by the federal government.
Speaking in an interview on Channels Television on Thursday,
Peterside said he has no personal issue with pilgrimage, noting that the
religious tradition is a “privilege”.
On Wednesday, Vice-President Kashim Shettima announced that
President Bola Tinubu had approved N90 billion to subsidise the cost of the
2024 hajj pilgrimage.
Shettima spoke during the 2024 inaugural hajj airlift at the
Sir Ahmadu Bello International Airport in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi capital.
Reacting to the development, Peterside said the federal
government continues to make the mistakes of past administrations in terms of
spending public funds.
He said the federal government keeps saying it inherited a
“difficult economy,” while its expenditure does not show the seriousness
required to rescue the economy.
“I have nothing against pilgrimage. Our economy is in big
trouble. The government is trying to convince people that it inherited a
difficult economy, and that is trying to correct the mistakes of the past,” he
said.
“It gets very
worrying when you say you are trying to correct the mistakes of the past, and
every now and then, you repeat another mistake of the past, thereby sending a
conflicting signal.
“That perhaps you are not serious about trying to correct
all past mistakes. As soon as investors and everybody is about to take them
very seriously they do something else that causes everybody to worry.
“This is not the first item. It is one in a series. You
remember the luxury SUV cars, jamboree trip to New York and Dubai, and
supplementary budget that came out with items nobody understood why they were
priority. It is part of the trend.
“It is not about religious pilgrimage; it is a setback for
the economy by sending the wrong signal. It is an own goal.”
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