One of the tasks which President Muhammad Buhari gave the leadership of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) was to fight the corruption associated with the conduct of the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Makkah. The directive is an integral part of the act that established the commission. That is what the leadership is poised to achieve through its policy review under Barrister Abdullah Muhammad Mukhtar, the Hajj administrator in Nigeria.
Every year, with the renewed spirit to achieve the mission and vision of the NAHCON’s Act, preparations for the subsequent Hajj operations are begun at the end of every Hajj exercise with new policies to smoothen the way for more successes. In the past 10 years, Nigerian pilgrims have been going to Saudi for Hajj and returning home with minimal hitches. That is why NAHCON has come to stay.
There is no single blame or regret for the creation of NAHCON and its supervision under the presidency. Rather, there are clear evidences that the commission has grown from strength to strength, recording successes upon successes since its birth. The only thing that the commission yearns to achieve soon is fiscal independence. So, there is no justifiable reason whatsoever for NAHCON to be scrapped or subjected to any other government organ.
Muslims in Nigeria and the world are happy with the performance of NAHCON under the present leadership. The host country, Saudi Arabia, since the creation of NAHCON, has been full of praises for Nigeria over the conduct of Hajj, something that virtually proved impossible during the eras before the birth of the commission.
The airlift operations, the accommodation arrangements, the feeding, luggage and holy site activities have become recurring success stories every year. The commission will relieve the Federal Government of its financial obligations to it. The leadership of the commission is planning towards being financially self-reliant. And with Almighty Allah by its side, it will be to the benefit of Nigerian pilgrims and the nation in general.
One of the new critical policies introduced by the commission is in connection with the weeding out of quacks and faceless operators in the Hajj industry. In November last year, NAHCON met with the leadership of the Association of Hajj and Umrah Operators of Nigeria (AHUON) on the need to play by the rules and regulations guiding the trips. AHUON President, Alhaji Abdulfatai Abdulmajeed, expressed joy with the leadership of the commission for their services. Mukhtar, in the habit of carrying stakeholders along, informed the meeting of a presidential directive over the implementation of some recommendations contained in 2015 Hajj report, where NAHCON was directed to collaborate with security agencies to stem the tide of fraudulent activities in Hajj and Umrah.
Moreover, investigations revealed that some legitimate companies knew the illegal operators but were unwilling to expose them due to existing relationships with them. Some honest operators have been affected negatively by the activities of unlicensed agents, with the attendant effects of dwindling revenue.
Muhammad Ajah
mobahawwah@yahoo.co.uk.
and then