By AbdulRaheem Aodu
Kaduna
National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) said it has saved over N2 billion from pilgrims’ accommodation in Makkah after eliminating providers with integrity issues.
The Commission said it saved total of N1.7 billion from the 2016 Hajj exercise, and had announced that it also saved the sum of $12.3 million from pilgrims’ accommodation payments in Madina without reducing the quality of accommodation facilities available to pilgrims throughout their stay in the Holy Land.
Addressing a delegation of executive committee members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kaduna state Council, led by its chairman, Comrade Adamu Yusuf, on a courtesy call to NAHCON headquarters, Abuja, the Chairman of NAHCON, Barrister Abdullahi Mukhtar Muhammed, warned that in line with the change mantra of President Muhammadu Buhari, they would continue to rid the Hajj processes of providers intent on cheating pilgrims, irrespective of their campaign of calumny.
Abdullahi, who urged journalists to avoid wrong reportage on Hajj as it could affect the relationship between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, said: “Nigeria pilgrims cannot be shortchanged in terms of services delivery anymore. We have seen what happened in 2015, when President Muhammadu Buhari came on board and tasked the commission that it’s monitoring and evaluation should no longer be business as usual.
“By the end of that Hajj, we were able not to pay about N1.2 billion to various service providers who did not provide the right services to the pilgrims apart from about N500 million for those who could not travel for that year’s Hajj. Deduction of that N1.2 billion served as deterrent to others during the 2016 Hajj. Had it been we allowed it to be business as usual whether they rendered the services or not, we would not have bothered to monitor and deduct the money to be refunded to owners. Nigerian pilgrims were refunded about N1.7 billion in 2016.
“Of course, we have cases of states that governors have to augment the pilgrim accommodation with N400 million some state N200 million, while some N300 million. So, I am not surprised when the team working on the calculation say it’s almost getting to N2 billion because if you take the augmentation alone from these various states, you are talking of about N1 billion.
“The accommodation secured in Makkah, houses that last year we paid 4, 000 riyal now we are paying between 3, 100 and 3, 500 riyal. We are able to achieve that through elimination of all accommodation providers with integrity issue which is working now.
“If eliminating accommodation provider with integrity issue will make us to save Nigerians from paying $12.3 million in Medina and almost N2 billion in Makkah that shows that those agents and middlemen with integrity issues regarding accommodation in Saudi Arabia before now were milking us dry.”
NUJ Chairman Kaduna state Council, Comrade Adamu Yusuf, in his remarks, told the NAHCON’s management that the purpose of the visit was to commend the Commission for its initiatives in Hajj services in recent times under the leadership of current administration.
