When Pa Akinsiku tried to perform this year’s Hajj, he came face to face with the stark reality of pilgrimage in Nigeria. Efforts to obtain the Hajj form from Ondo State where he hails from failed : he was told that all the forms had been bought by the state and local governments for hundreds of sponsored candidates.
Out of the over 1.6 million foreign pilgrims that are in Saudi Arabia for this year’s Hajj, 85,000, or 5.3 percent, are Nigerians. Similarly, over 25,000 Christians are taking part in this year’s pilgrimage to Israel and other holy sites in Italy adored by Christians across the world. Altogether, 110,000 Nigerians will be fulfilling a religious obligation that many have come to see as an annual ritual.
Visiting the holy land, at least once in a lifetime, is one of the five pillars of Islam. The others being, testifying to God’s oneness, fasting, giving alms to the poor, and upholding the five daily prayers. Similarly, visiting Jerusalem for pilgrimage, though not a biblical injunction, has become an important event for Christians. Today, many Nigerians see pilgrimage as a status symbol and so Christians add the initials J.P. (Jerusalem Pilgrim) to their names, just like muslims add Alhaji, Alhaja of Hajia, to theirs, proof that they had been to pilgrimage.
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