Hajj: NAHCON mulls cut in pilgrims number

The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) is contemplating cut in the number of pilgrims to perform hajj every year.

The commission’s director of planning, research and statistics, Suleiman Usman, gave the hint while representing the chairman of NAHCON, Abdullahi Mukhtar during inspection of pilgrims tents at Muna, Saudi Arabia.

He said the commission was not happy that several states got inadequate number of tents to accommodate pilgrims, which also result in shortage of toilets.

Usman attributed some of the challenges to late preparation on the side of Nigeria, saying due to delay in completion of payments several states were not sure of their total number of pilgrims within stipulated time for adequate reservations.

“NAHCON is contemplating reducing the number of pilgrims because there is no way to expand Muna and the number of pilgrims keeps increasing. It is still an option, but we are trying to see how the welfare of pilgrims can be improved.

“A place that was planned for about 900,000 pilgrims is now accommodating over 2 million pilgrims. So we are still contemplating reducing the number to a manageable size. But that would be subject to consultations with all stakeholders ahead of future operations,” he said.

Also speaking, representative of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam on the board of the commission, Professor Abubakar Mustapha called on state pilgrims agencies to document all services not adequately rendered by their agents for possible refunds.

Speaking during inspection, officials of several states lamented inadequate space for pilgrims and insufficient number of toilets as major challenges at Muna.

Head of the Kaduna State Pilgrims Welfare Board, Imam Hussein told the delegation that “We have three complaints. As you can see, we have shortage of tents, several of our pilgrims are sleeping outside, if it were to rain they will all be soaked.

“We also have shortage of toilets. We are finding it difficult to separate between male and female toilets.

“At Arafat the cooling system at the tents did not work properly. They blew hot air and that also affected our pilgrims. These are the challenges we have faced.”

Chairman of the commission, who later joined the delegation said the commission would improve on success recorded this year in accommodation and feeding saying changes made to ensure pilgrims satisfaction have come to stay.