By Bolaji Olakunle
Historically, Hajj has never been an easy time for administrators, pilgrims and even family members. There are excitement, apprehension and worries. The 2017 Hajj was particularly full of these, especially with the upshot in the cost of Hajj fare from N900,000 in 2016 to N1.5m in 2017.
The uproar that greeted the fare announcement can be better imagined as criticisms and condemnations trailed every path of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), the organization saddled with the responsibility to organize and manage the movement of Nigerian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. Every effort by the commission to explain the grounds for the high cost fell on deaf ears. What compounded the outrage against the commission was the proposal by a private tour company to undertake the movement lesser than the NAHCON organized trip. So disturbing was the outcry that the Nigerian lawmakers were left with no alternative than to institute an ad-hoc committee to investigate the NAHCON’s Hajj fare for 2017, including its on-shore, offshore accommodation and transportation arrangement for the 2017 Hajj, following a motion of urgent national importance by Senator Ibrahim Danbaba.
However, it was a boiling day-Wednesday and Thursday- 17/18 January, 2018 – at the White House Committee Room 1 of the National Assembly – when facts and fiction confronted each other. Indeed, lies and falsehood were crushed and burnt at the hallowed committee room as stakeholders – state pilgrims welfare board officials flooded the venue of the two-day public hearing of the ad-hoc committee on accommodation, logistics, feeding, on-shore and off-shore of the Nigerian pilgrims.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Adamu Aliero, sets the ball rolling, when he declared that the essence of the hearing was to unravel the allegations of corruption against the commission in the affairs of fixing the 2017 Hajj fare and management of the Hajj exercise.
In her testimony, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hajiya Khadija Bukar Abba Ibrahim told the committee how NAHCON activities and policies have changed the Saudi Arabian authorities’ perception of Nigeria, giving it a positive image and which made the Saudi Government to rate the commission highly in relation to other countries.
On sharp practices in accommodation, feeding and transportation, the Secretaries of Lagos state pilgrims welfare board, Kaduna, FCT, Benue and Kebbi denied the accusation, saying that Madina accommodation of which NAHCON was in charge was the best and the closest any country in the world can secure in Saudi Arabia. They echoed the fact that all their pilgrims were accommodated in a 5-star hotel which was just a stone throw from the Haramain Mosque in Madina.
The Acting President and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Association of Hajj and Umrah Operator of Nigeria (AHUON) Alhaji Saliu Butu and Sheikh Sadiq Abubakar in their testimonies praised the commission for the positive role it played during the 2017 Hajj.
What happened on the first day was just a teaser, compared to the second day at the session involving the NAHCON’s helmsman Barr. Abdullahi Mukhtar Muhammad whose testimony opened a Pandora box on several issues involving Hajj administration.
The grin on the people’s face was plain for all to see, as he reeled away all the steps and progress made since he mounted the saddled in 2015 particularly in phasing out illegal tour companies, reduction in the accommodation/ rent paid by states to acquire accommodation in Makkah as well as improving the standard of services to Nigerian pilgrims, pursuance of redemption and refunds for services not rendered, sanction and penalties to service providers/among others.
Though the committee is yet to conclude its assignment and without prejudice to its outcome, one can safely come to the conclusion that the loss of falsehood would only be mourned in the same way as a rat off a sinking ship.
What is most apparent and clear from the two–day proceeding is that NAHCON has recorded more than just a pass mark in its operation since its establishment.
That it was false that NAHCON forcefully imposed feeding arrangement of pilgrims as being peddled. That 50/50 percent sharing formula of the airlift of Nigerian pilgrims was neither designed nor imposed by NAHCON, rather it was at the behest of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the express approval of the Nigerian government at the time.
That some of the private tour operators who charged lower fare only hoodwinked unsuspecting members of the public as they ended up suffering the Nigerian pilgrims in the Holy land.
That the allegations of corruption against NAHCON and its management on the feeding and accommodation arrangements in Makkah and Madina were unfounded and baseless.
That the 2017 Hajj fare was the best deal that could have been fixed based on the prevailing exchange rate at the time.
Olakunle writes from Abuja
