Owing to the economic hardship that is spiraling out of control, Sierra Leone will have less pilgrims this year compared to previous times.
Out of the 850 spaces provided for Sierra Leonean pilgrims, only 100 have applied to travel to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj, one of the five basic pillars of Islam.
It is in sharp contrast to 2022 pilgrims who number in over 900.
$7,000, the equivalent of Le150, 000, 000 (one hundred and fifty Million Leones) should be paid before the pilgrims leave Sierra Leone in few days to come.
The money covers travels, food and accommodation as well as other services, but it is difficult for many to afford it owing to tough time. The application process, according to the Social Welfare Minister, has been going slow and there is no hope that there would be an increase in the number of applicants for Hajj.
Mohamed Haji Khellah who was speaking in a radio interview said he would be waiting to see if there would be new applications.
It is also not clear whether Islamic countries would foot the bill for others who intend to travel but without the means.
Arab or Asian countries, in the past, used to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars for indigent Sierra Leoneans who wanted to make the trip to the holy land.
It was out of the Islamic assistance packages section, chiefdom, district, regional and national imams enjoy the privilege to worship God in Mecca.
Sheik Alusine Jalloh in PortLoko, one of the local imams told this press that he was highly hopeful of government’s free travel schemes as it used to be in the past.
His hope however has been dashed as the authorities and Islamic countries are not ready to fund indigent pilgrims.
“I was really hopeful of being assisted to go to the Hajj this year had everything worked well. But, I hope by next year, everything would have come to an end,” he prayed.
Jalloh also attributed the lack of assistance to the country’s political situation which has reached almost a year.
Government also has not provided free travels this year owing to hard times, and the move means a big error on the part of government if the number of pilgrims remains in its current state especially when other countries meet their quota system.
It faces a funding cut after June 24, 2023 polls as the international community condemns the results and called for an investigation. The current government faces legitimacy crisis as major countries particularly US and UK fail to recognise and work with government.
The religious sector is the latest to expose the country’s financial hard times after close to a year of disputed elections.
Several sectors of the economy especially the transport has felt the heat of the hardship when government raised the fare from Le5, 000 to Le10, 000 to raise money for the public purse.
A vast majority of the people of Sierra Leone were caught off guard by the new price as they expect a public service to be cheaper than one in the private sector.
The restrictions imposed on commercial vehicles also created another difficult situation for the people of Sierra Leone.
For days, the ‘WAKA FINE’ buses were snubbed by commuters making it difficult for government to achieve its aim.
Increase in the toll fee along the Freetown-Masiaka highway also exposes government’s extortion scheme to make money so that it could deliver the much-needed social services to the people.
But, it apparently suffers backlash which might affect the implementation of the toll fee increase, and spells more hardship.