The Independent Hajj Reporters of Nigeria IHR, a Civil Society Organization overseeing Hajj and Umrah Operations has called on the 10th Senate to convey and emergency meeting for the duly confirmation of the newly Appointed NAHCON Chairman Professor Abdullahi Usman Saleh Pakistan
The Coordinator of the civil society Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim made the call during his welcoming address at the annual Hajj lectures held at the National Mosque Auditorium today Wednesday 4th September 2024 with the theme: “Stimulating Accomplishment, Evaluating Challenges”.
“Independent Hajj Reporters will like to use this opportunity to appeal to the Senate to convene an emergency meeting at the committee level to screen and possibly clear the newly appointed NAHCON Chairman to save the industry from eating away more valuable time and kick start the implementation of 2025 Hajj calendar. The time is now”.
The event which is a yearly activity by the IHR to honour those who have done exceptionally well in the services of hajj that includes hajj administrators, tour operators, Governors, air carriers amongst others.
“The dual objective of these two-in-one event is first to reward success and promote competitiveness among Hajj administrators and service providers – with a view to serving Nigerian pilgrims before, during and after the annual Hajj exercise. The second goal is to broaden the discussion and review challenges of Hajj and Umrah operations to create parameters in search of practical and realistic solutions that will enhance the service to Nigerian pilgrims onshore and offshore”.
“We carefully and collectively define the scale of performance and choose the basic metre of ‘success’ in itemized hajj services to select the awardees. I repeat, the road to IHR award is not limited to Hajj days or when airlift of pilgrims commences. Presently, our team has begun the monitoring of pre-Hajj activities of State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Boards and other operational stakeholders ahead of the 2025 Hajj. This is part of the requirements for selection”.
Hajj reporters also gives the breakdown of the total statistics of pilgrims who performed the 2024 hajj:
This year, a total of 1,833,164 pilgrims performed Hajj in Saudi Arabia. Of this number, 1,611,310 were from Hajj participating countries, while domestic pilgrims – both citizens and residents of Saudi Arabia – reached 221,854. The number of male pilgrims this year reached 958,137, while female pilgrims totaled 875,027.
A breakdown of pilgrims from Nigeria and other Hajj countries showed that 22.3 percent came from Arab countries, 63.3 percent, the largest group, from Asian non-Arab countries, 11.3 percent from African non-Arab countries, 3.2 percent from Europe, America, Australia, and other unclassified regions.
We rolled out this statistic to understand the complex nature of Hajj and difficulties on serving hundreds of thousands of people undertaking a religious and spiritual exercise in the same place at the same time with the same passion of attaining Hajj Mabrur
Given the above, Independent Hajj Reporters commends the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for their round the clock commitment in serving the Muslim Ummah, by deploying both human and other resources to host the Guests of Ar-Rahman. May Almighty Allah continue to protect the Holy land and their leaders. Ameen
“Permit me to say at this juncture that the Independent Hajj Reporters is deeply concerned that the Hajj Industry is facing negative media reportage owing to the outright breach of trust by those who are saddled with the responsibility of shepherding our pilgrims. It is a challenge we cannot shy away from especially being a Major Media Stakeholder in the Hajj and Umrah Industry.
However, while we admit the obvious fraudulent activities of some Hajj administrators, the misinformation and outright disparagement of NAHCON from an interested group within the Hajj and Umrah system is giving us a lot of concern. We should identify the lapses and single out the administrator that has erred as opposed to condemning NAHCON as an institution”.
Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim also called for the review of Hajj administration structures across all units of the federating Unit.
“There is need to review the structure of Hajj Administration across the federating units through legal and policy overhaul to create avenue for honest, competent and experienced people to superintend the Hajj and Umrah affairs in Nigeria. Anything short of this will amount to dancing around a cycle”.
“Our focus revolves around satisfaction of pilgrims within the standard Hajj operating procedure that takes cognizance of fulfillment of the Almighty Allah’s injunctions on Hajj Mabrur”.
