Governments Have No Business In Hajj Sponsorship- NAHCON

Federal, State and Local Governments have no business in sponsoring Muslims to hajj as the religious rite is for those that can afford it.

Chairman, National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, Barrister Zikrullah Hassan stated this in Ibadan during a special reception prayer organised in his honour by Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria, MUSWEN.

He said  governments do not need to sponsor anyone to hajj but should rather use the resources to empower the people and improve the infrastructure.

“Let us free government from financial involvement in hajj, government can provide logistics for hajj operation but not sponsoring people to hajj”

The NAHCON Chairman said the commission was working towards self- sustaining without relying on government allocation as the support of the federal government at present was less than twenty percent. 

“With time, funding of hajj will be removed from government and will be strictly through internally generated revenue of NAHCON”.

He said the frequent increase in hajj fare would make it difficult for people to go to hajj and as well result to inability of the commission to exhaust the quota allocated to Nigeria by Saudi Authority stressing that the hajj saving scheme would ease contribution towards participating in the religious rite.

“The concept of hajj saving scheme is whereby the poor can save bit by bits between two and five years, until they are able to get to the amount required for hajj.

“The money is turned into investment through our partnership with Jaiz Bank and they are entitled to increase in their holdings in the bank through their profit,’ Hassan said.

Barrister Hassan said the introduction of Hajj training Institute and digitization of hajj operation by the commission were aimed at making  hajj operation hitch-free, less stressful and a quality exercise.

Earlier, MUSWEN’s President, Alhaji Rasaki Oladejo, called on Muslims in the region and Nigeria in general to support the Chairman of NAHCON and not distract him with selfish demands.

“His assignment in NAHCON is national, Islamic and corporate,We should not frivolously distract his attention with selfish demands”.

He said the NAHCON Chairman’s  position being occupied by Barrister Hassan, who was one of them from the region, was a matter of corporate mercy from Allah which must not be turned into individual benefits.

“Our brother Zikrullah Hassan needs our full cooperation in terms of well wish and sincere prayer’.

“Any success or failure in that office, during his tenure, is a major scale by which MUSWEN will be weighed in posterity”.

A Special prayer for the Chairman was led by the Chief Imam of University of Ibadan, Professor AbdulRahman Oloyede .

Ridwan Fasasi