Due to the way the National Hajj of Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) is conducting the 2024 hajj, Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago of Niger State has urged for the organization’s dissolution.
In a widely shared video, Bago expressed dissatisfaction with several services provided by the commission.
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According to reports, the governor was disappointed with the limited space provided to Tent A pilgrims from Nigeria, who included Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas and several state governors who traveled on the journey.
Despite the fact that the celebrities received their services from private tour operators, the governor declared the 2024 Hajj to be a failure.
However, Jalal Arabi, Chairman of NAHCON, declared the exercise a success, stating that unlike the previous year, when Nigerian pilgrims were forced to sleep under bridges, the organization was able to avoid problems with food and tent shortages in Muna.
We are still failing like we have in the past. Although NAHCON is not meant to be an operator but rather a regulator, it has persisted in acting as such, failing pilgrims in the process. Can you believe that NAHCON is in charge of providing food, lodging in Madinah, tents in Muna, transportation, and medical personnel? The governor declared, “No nation in the world does it.”
He referred to the way NAHCON handled the N90 billion that the federal government disbursed to fund the hajj this year as regrettable and demanded an investigation.
“As a state governor, I would like to chair an NGF and governors group to eliminate NAHCON. NAHCON is not making things better. Problems arising during the Hajj are too huge for the Federal Government to handle. This is not a state problem; it is a local one. State governments ought to have the authority to plan pilgrimages and hire private sector representatives who will carry out these activities as efficiently as possible, as is the case in other nations. This is not the place for the government to be involved.
“Can you see Nigerian governors and the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s Speaker paying NAHCON, then being ashamed and without a place to sleep? It will be claimed by some that governors have been impacted. Indeed, they have been impacted, but it is good that we are too, and here is the chance for us to rewrite the story,” he remarked.
He continued by saying that UBEC could have operated more efficiently for four years with the N90 billion donated.
Consider distributing this funding among the 36 states. In the state of Niger, I paid N3 billion in subsidies, as did some other states. It will take N90 billion to run UBEC for four years. Therefore, we are unable to give them our resources. For this procedure, some people spent N8 million, and they got just $400. This is ridiculous,” he reiterated.
The chairman of NAHCON said that he did not want to get into any arguments with the governor when questioned about his thoughts on the governor’s remark.
“Our leaders are our governors. In particular, since Umar is my younger brother, I do not have to deal with any problems. As stated, people must be informed of the circumstances, the way things are, and how they are being handled. Reacting in the moment can occasionally lead to misunderstandings or misinterpretations. I would like to think he was misquoted or uninformed. When we come home, we shall greet him among those. We have informed ourselves that we are NAHCON, a regulator, and that we must listen and exercise patience. We will speak with the operators who could have caused the incident as well as the people who built the tents, the Muasasa.
On the issue of the $400 BTA, he said the agreed amount was $500 but the volatile price of naira changed when the money was to be approved to the pilgrims. (Daily Trust)
