By Rasheeda Yahaya
Honourable Jafar Mohammed, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on pilgrimage has promised to work each step of the way with the new leadership of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria NAHCON, to achieve a successful Hajj operations.
Honourable Jafaru who expressed the commitment of his committee in tackling all challenges bedeviling Hajj operations for Nigerians made the disclosure during an interface with journalists shortly after he had a close door meeting with the NAHCON Chairman, Professor Abdullahi Usman Saleh who was on a familiarisation visit at the national assembly complex.
Jafaru laments on the hike in Hajj fare especially for the 2024 hajj operations noting that the depreciation in the value of Naira against the US dollar constituted most of the challenges faced. He also expressed ears that hajj may reach N10million if the foreign exchange continue in this manner
He however reaffirmed that his committee will work with the new leadership of NAHCON to ensure that there’s a solutions to the issue.
“The hike in the cost of Hajj fare this year was largely due to the Dollars to Naira exchange rate, but with the support of the President a lot of Muslims were able to embark on the Hajj” he said
He also stressed the importance of an effective oversight which according to him will go a long.
On his expectations from the new chairman, Hon. Jafaru said he has confidence in the capacity of professor Abdullahi Saleh based on his qualifications and anticident which speaks volume of him, says that he believes he will deliver.
When asked how the committee intends to checkmate the activities of the commission to avert a reocurrence of the past mistakes, the chairman stressed the importance of an effective oversight which according to him will go a long.
“As committee members, we are ready to make changes, we can’t sit down until something occurs before we start to look for a way out or how to tackle it, we are the representative of the people, so most of the people who go to hajj are farmers and poor people and we will ensure to protect their interests, we want to change the parten of how things were being done in the past” he stated.