ADAMAWA PILGRIMS BOARD AND HAJJ OPERATIONS

The reason why government is involved in conducting hajj can be traced back to 1975 when the government of the former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, set up the Nigeria Muslim Welfare Commission. The board was primarily set up to bring succour for the Muslims performing hajj, which is one of the pillars of Islam. It is also a way of subsidising hajj for the people through having a flexible exchange rate in the pilgrim’s BTA, securing accommodation in both Mecca and Medina, etc.

Before, it was agents that are solely in charge of hajj as any intending pilgrim pay his or her fare through the agent, who now finds the airline to convey the pilgrims to Mecca, Medina and at the same time secure accommodation.

With the creation of states, each state government sets up their pilgrims’ welfare boards in order to look after the pilgrims going to perform hajj. The composition of the board members and the head should be persons so learned in the religion of Islam.

But the case is the reverse in Adamawa State as an engineer is in charge of the board every year. There is great mal-administration in the operation of hajj especially in the holy city. Rather than find ways to remedy the sad situation, the agency under the executive secretary is creating false impression that things are working by the sponsorship of selected journalists to go to Saudi-Arabia at the expense of the genuine staff of the board.

One of the clever ways that the executive secretary use is to divert the space of the staff of the board that ought to travel to discharge official responsibilities to the pilgrims and convert it to his personal use.

Also, another antic use by the executive secretary is to hoodwink the government through giving hajj slots to some selected media men to give him media coverage as the best thing that ever happened to the board.

This is quite an irony as during this year hajj one of the pilgrims from the state missed the Arafat as he was indisposed and the board didn’t convey him to Arafat due to lack vehicle.

There is no any functional office either in Mecca or Medina for the state pilgrims to make any inquiry. Virtually all the states of the federation have functional office to take care of their pilgrims.

But in the case of Adamawa State, it is not existing as the pilgrims are left to roam the streets in the kingdom without any guide.

This was accentuated by the conversion of the slot of guides submitted to government and approval granted by the executive secretary to personal use. It is out of this that he took at least 10 of his relations to the holy land during this year’s hajj.

Having served as Secretary to Amirul Hajj delegation during the former Governor Boni Haruna’s administration and also once again in former Governor Murtala Nyako’s first tenure, he knows how the system works.

All these were being done in order to remain in the board until he may retire from service. How can an engineer be made the executive secretary of the board? Mahmud Ahmed, Jambutu, Jimeta-Yola