Formulate policies to address economic challenges, cleric urges FG

The Deputy President, Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Ekiti State, Alhaji Tajudeen Ahmed, has called on the Federal Government to formulate policies to address the economic challenges confronting the nation.

Ahmed said the economic challenges which impacted the Sallah celebration manifested in the areas of inflation which made the prices of rams and soup ingredients go beyond the reach of many Muslims, as well high cost of transportation which deprived many from going to their communities for the celebration.

The cleric, in a chat with According Online on Tuesday, urged the Federal Government to quickly look into implementing policies that will go a long way to ameliorate the current economic situation.

“Government should equally put some policies in place that have direct bearing on the lives of the local people such as making available little money for them as incentives for their business.

“Government should seriously be up and doing to make sure that the inflationary rate is controlled and to bring in place some measures that will make people to be happy and make the economy to be more stable,” Ahmed said.

He said that the economic challenges made the Eid-el-Kabir celebration a bit on the low side although “We thank Allah for Sallah this year, which we were able to witness it and we pray to witness more of it in good health.”

Speaking on the effect of the increase in prices, Ahmed said, “The price of ram that we normally use to celebrate Sallah was on the very high side in the market. Most Muslims could not afford ram because of the humongous cost. This is not unconnected with the current inflation affecting every segment of the economy.

“A situation where you had to pay as much as N250,000 to acquire a ram of average size, not even a big size. Some rams were sold for as as high as N350,000, N400,000. This was very unbearable for most Muslims especially those whose economy are on the average and low level. They found it difficult to slaughter the sacrificial lamb. Only very few Muslims could afford it.

“It didn’t end with rams, even with the soup ingredients. You had to spend so much to buy the soup ingredients that one would buy with few thousands in the past.

“Again, the economy equally affected the cost of transportation. The Yoruba call Sallah ‘Odun Ileya’, which means homecoming. Literally, every Muslim longs to come home for the celebration, but the cost of transportation too is a problem. Most people could not even afford money to transport themselves to their various communities.

“The government has to address the economic issue so that life will become more bearable and meaningful to the people,” the SCIA deputy president said.