The president/CEO of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (Nahcon), Professor Abdullahi Saleh Usman, explained on Thursday that the changes in the policies by the authorities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were responsible for the payments late by the services provided to the Nigerian pilgrims for the exercise of this year that was made in June.
Usman said this at the Post-Hajj 2025 conferences and recognition event organized by the independent Hajj (IHR) reporter in Abuja, with the subject, “in the interest of pilgrims,” ​​and added that policy changes made it difficult to meet with the calendar published for Hajj 2025.
Represented by the Nahcon operations commissioner, Prince Anofi Olanrewaju Elevushi, Usman, declared that the difficulty led to backward payments, unlike the previous Hajj when payments were made after Umrah in the month of Ramadan.
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According to him, “unlike the previous Hajj when payments were made after Umrah in the month of Ramadan, now all payments must be made even before leaving for the Umrah.
“That means that private countries must make a decision on the number of those who will go for the Hajj.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian government has been urged to create a national Hajj policy in order to help Nigeria address the issue of late payment by Hajj.
According to the interested parties that spoke in the Conferences and Recognition event after the IHR HAJJ, the lack of this policy had prevented financial institutions, including banks, to provide funds for pilgrims with the intention of wealth being seasonal.
Delivering his opening speech at the event, a former local government commissioner in the state of Kaduna, Dr. Shehu Usman Muhammed, said there was always uncertainty about the number of Nigerian pilgrims who wish to make the HAJJ every year because most intentional pilgrims were farmers who waited until the time harvest for the resources to pay.
Dr. Muhammed, a former technical president of Nahcon, added that the deadline for the payment of Hajj often approaches the harvest season, saying that this causes a delay in making payments on time.
He pointed out that this development is out of Nahcon control, since the body of the Hajj cannot manufacture money to make payments for intentional pilgrims and, as such, it has to wait for the remittances of the states.
“The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (Nahcon) cannot manufacture money to go and make payment. As such, we must wait for money to come from the states, the states do not have that fund in their accounts either because people have not made a payment.
“The absence of more legal instruments to support and give guarantee to financial institutions to provide funds to states or NAHCON to allow them to fulfill the important deadlines because there is no instrument that supports them and guarantees a refund in case of leadership change,” he said.
While advocating a policy framework under a savings scheme, Muhammed said that with such in place, apart from financial institutions in Nigeria, countries such as Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia could support Hajj’s payment for pilgrims who would recover later.
He, however, said that, “there must be a strong policy, a strong instrument that makes them go to the source and recover their money if something happens.”
In his welcome speech at the event, IHR’s national coordinator, Ibrahim Muhammed, said one of the fundamental challenges facing the Hajj industry today was the issue of luxury of Hajj services, as well as the introduction of politically induced capture phrases without having an applicable meaning for Hajj operations.
“For example, we observe that the additional VIP and VIP services on the ceiling, a pilgrim planned now wants to be accommodated in a tent that has an intelligent TV in mine, robot controlled by AI that will serve it, and an automated rail that will transport it to Arafat and return to its/its store.
“In addition, the attention now focuses on luxury facilities in hotels in Makkah and Madinah that on how to reach the Hajj Mabrur and perform Hajj rites. The spiritual fulfillment of Hajj unfortunately is ceasing to be the essence of Hajj,” he said.
The IHR coordinator pointed out that the introduction of maximization phrases of granestation politically and the maximization of profits such as “Hatch-Free Hajj” and “Hajj With Comforts” has created an unrealistic expectation in the minds of possible pilgrims.
This, he said, in turn exerted enormous pressure on the shoulders of Hajj administrators during Hajj annual operations.
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