Eid-al-Fitr Holidays: Religious Dominance And A Sleeping Government -By Paul E. Michael

It is unbelievable that Nigeria is made up of leaders and followers, who place religious interests ahead of national interests. There is this undue advantage given to religious ceremonies, to the detriment of national integration, growth and development, that makes one to wonder if Nigeria is not actually a mistake.

The Federal Government had on June 30, 2016, declared Tuesday, 5th and Wednesday, 6Th July, 2016, public holidays to mark Eid-al-Fitr celebration by Muslims. This was contained in a statement issued in Abuja and signed by Mr Basse Akpayung, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior.

However, there was a surprising twist of events, after the President General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, who is also the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III, announced that the Ramadan fasting was to continued on Tuesday, 5th July, 2016, because the moon was not sighted. Without delay, the Federal Government through the minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, extended the Eid-al-Fitr holidays to Thursday, 7Th July, 2016, putting the entire economy on three days of total slumber.

This action was taken without taking cognizance of the economic disadvantage such pronouncement will have on a dying economy like ours. For over a year now, Nigeria’s economy has being seriously bartered due to the free fall in crude oil pricing as well as the decline on the value of the Naira, which has left citizens destabilized due to everyday alarming inflation and scarcity of commodities.

Ordinarily, one would have thought that the government is doing all within its reach to stabilize the Nigerian economy, but putting it on hold for good three days to give credence to religious ceremony is simply enough to conclude that the President BuharI’s administration has no plan regarding the redemption of our dying economy.

Apparently, it is irresponsible for the government to fall cheaply for religious gimmicks and manipulations in a technological era such as we are. The lukewarm attitude of the government in seeking technological and scientific confirmaction before declaring Tuesday 5Th, 2016, a public holiday, which subsequently resulted on a hold on the economy for complete three days and wastage of revenue in form of salary as well as lost of commission from stock exchange, lost of revenues from immigration, Custom, etc, reveals the unwarranted dominance religion has over the government of our nation.

In a publication on The Guardian Newspaper of July 8, 2016, titled “Nigeria loses N138b to public holidays”, it was stated that “there were scheduled treasury bills auction estimated at N94 billion, as well as N44 billion treasury bills maturity for the week, which the unusual straight three-day have put off.”

According to the publication, a financial market operator told Guardian that “the week just ran like a closed economy” he said. “It is as if everyone was just sleeping and not waking up at all” he continued. “That is exactly how gains and losses and value addition to the economy also remained standstill”, he added.

It is absolutely condemnable for the government to have jeopardized the economy of the nation to satisfy the religious desire of a particular group. Perhaps, the government would have placed the nation on a standstill for as long as the moon stayed unseen, if it was not sighted throughout the period declared as public holidays.

Honestly, it is my opinion that the federal government begins a move to regulate religious activities across the nation because religion is a dogmatic belief and such ought to remain personal. We cannot be sacrificing the well being of our nation to satisfy dogma under whatever guise.

Get me clearly, I am not positing that religious followers should not be given the time to celebrate whatever feast that needed to be celebrated. My point is that such feasts should not undermine our development as a nation and add or multiply the pains Nigerians are already feeling.

Nigeria is a secular State, as such it is absolutely unadvisable for a particular religion to be given the monopoly of deciding what happens across the Nation without recourse to the Constitutional landmark nor the overall effects of such action.

It may interest you to know that such single action is capable of becoming a bad precedence, as other religious body and social institutions will want to take advantage of such to promote their quest for supremacy.

It was wrong for the federal government to take instructions from a religious leader. Nigeria is bigger than a single religion or belief. Therefore, the practice of honouring religion, when such will affect the interest of the entire nation, must be discouraged. As a developing economy that is facing challenges due to the global recession, the Nigerian economy ought to be running 24/7.

I feel pained mostly on weekends, when I see how economic activities suffer set back because of religion. It is nearly impossible for one to find a running pharmaceutical store or supermarket on Sundays at the Southern part of our nation because we want to observe the doctrines of a religion that we have refused to abide by its teachings.

Today, there is a “cold war” or supremacy battle between Christianity and Islam. These two major religions in our nation has shifted attention from the thing that matters most in both religions, which is Love, and now chase shadows in forms of religious ceremonies, religious rituals, religious dominance and what have you, which are the sources of anarchy in our religious circle.

The federal government is expect to regulate the conducts of religious followers, for the sake of peaceful coexistence instead of granting them free dominance over the nation, which will encourage the ongoing “cold war” between both religions.

Paul E. Michael is a Criminologist and a Civil Activist and can be reached on Twitter @McPaulEmumena.