The Vice-President, Senator Kashim Shettima, will lead Nigeria’s contingent of pilgrims and officials to perform this year’s Hajj exercise in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
This was revealed by the Chairman/CEO of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Professor Abdullahi Saleh Usman, on Wednesday while participating in a Freedom Radio Kaduna Hausa programme, Barka Da Warhaka.
According to Usman, Shettima will lead the contingent to perform the spiritual exercise as a Muslim and personally supervise Nigeria’s participation in the religious rite to assess how it is being handled by those responsible for its execution.
The chairman said the Vice-President prefers to be personally involved in and supervise situations rather than relying on third-party information.
“This could help guard against being misinformed, especially by those who see nothing good in anyone but themselves, a situation that has given Hajj operations in Nigeria negative narratives year in, year out,” the NAHCON boss said.
He stated that the commission had put arrangements in place for a smooth pilgrimage this year, adding that NAHCON had made provisions for over 70,000 pilgrims out of the 95,000 slots allocated to Nigeria for this year’s exercise by Saudi Arabia.
While expressing delight that the commission has succeeded in curbing the annual astronomical rise in the cost of Hajj, Usman said that, despite this, more reliefs were still being expected for intending pilgrims regarding some charges and taxes payable to certain government agencies.
He noted that although the deadline for intending pilgrims to pay their fare this year had lapsed, payments were still being accepted. However, he declined to specify a final date for payment.
Meanwhile, the chairman revealed that Saudi Arabian authorities had introduced new dual health measures for pilgrims, which all participating countries must adhere to by selecting one of the two options.
According to him, the new measure include the all encompassing health measure in which all pilgrims’ health matters from supervision, diagnosis to treatment and medicaments would be exclusively handled by Saudi health officials, including doctors and be treated in Saudi hospitals.
Usman informed that the second option was the one service provider would play supervisory role only in which the Saudi health officials would ensure conformity and adherence to laid down health laws, rules regulations and guidelines for pilgrims.
The NAHCON boss informed that in view of the high financial implication of picking the first measure, Nigeria opted for the second option.
He, however, advised state pilgrims welfare boards, agencies and commissions to strictly adhere to the Saudi health guidelines on pilgrim’s health condition to ensure that only healthy and able-bodied persons embarked on the pilgrimage to guard against fatalities and casualties.
Speaking on the Hajj Saving Scheme (HSS), Prof Usman expressed optimism scheme, which he said was the exclusive preserve and responsibility of states pilgrim handlers under NAHCON’s supervision, would ease and simplify Hajj affairs in Nigeria if diligently handled and operated.
He added that the scheme would be thrown open for more banks inclined to Islamic guidelines on banking and investments to participate in it, expressing the hope Nigeria would be like Indonesia or Malaysia in Hajj affairs in a few years.
Credit: Nigerian Tribune