- Despite these services being provided by private tour operators, the governor labeled the 2024 hajj as a failure
Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago of Niger State has called for the dissolution of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) due to its handling of the 2024 hajj.
In a viral video, Bago expressed disappointment with some of the services provided by the commission. His dissatisfaction arose from the inadequate space allocated to Tent A pilgrims from Nigeria, which included state governors and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas.
Despite these services being provided by private tour operators, the governor labeled the 2024 hajj as a failure.
In contrast, Jalal Arabi, Chairman of NAHCON, defended the commission’s performance, describing the hajj as successful. He highlighted that the agency avoided issues such as the lack of tents and feeding in Muna, which had forced Nigerian pilgrims to sleep under bridges the previous year.
“We have failed and continue to fail. NAHCON is supposed to be a regulator and not an operator but it has continued to play the part of operation and therefore failed pilgrims. Can you imagine that feeding, accommodation in Madinah, tents in Muna, transportation and feeding as well as health care workers are handled by NAHCON? There is no country that does that in the world,” the governor said.
He described as unfortunate, the manner NAHCON handled the N90 billion the federal government released to subsidise this year’s hajj, calling for a probe.
“As a state governor, I want to lead a committee of the governors and NGF to scrap NAHCON. NAHCON is not helping matters. The federal government is too big to be worried about hajj problems. This is a local government issue and not state. State governments should be able to organize pilgrimages and get agents from the private sector who will do this thing the best way like other countries are doing. The government has no business in doing this.
“Can you imagine governors of Nigeria, the Speaker of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, paying to NAHCON and having no place to sleep and being embarrassed. People will say it is because governors have been touched. Yes, they have been touched but it is good that we are affected and this time for us to change the narrative.”
He added that the N90bn given would have helped in running the affairs of UBEC for four years.
“Imagine sharing this money with the 36 states. Some states also paid subsidies which in Niger state I paid N3bn. That N90bn is enough to run UBEC for four years. So, we can’t be handing our resources to people. Some people paid N8m for this operation and they got just $400. This is ridiculous.”
When asked for reaction to the governor’s comment, NAHCON’s chairman said he doesn’t want to join issues with the governor.