Finally, A Political Will To Act

President Muhammadu Buhari recently declared that, beginning immediately, the federal government would stop the annual practice of sponsoring official delegations to pilgrimage exercises. The senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu disclosed to journalists accredited to the State House that the federal government, by this decision, was expected to […]

President Muhammadu Buhari recently declared that, beginning immediately, the federal government would stop the annual practice of sponsoring official delegations to pilgrimage exercises. The senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu disclosed to journalists accredited to the State House that the federal government, by this decision, was expected to save some $1million and another N30m in local expenditures. That’s so much money that could be critical if deployed to areas of greater need in the country where it will directly and positively impact on the lives of Nigerians.
Malam Garba explained further that the decision was in line with the current administration’s position on the imperatives of balancing government expenditure and reducing cost wherever possible. He also quoted President Buhari as noting that the recent decision was for both procedural and economic reasons, which he said were not targeted at any group or individual, and observed that the federal government, as the electorate expected of it, would not fail in its obligations to Nigerians on the annual pilgrimage. This would be done by extending consular, medical and ‘welfare’ support to citizens undertaking the yearly religious ritual.
The decision of the federal government to withdraw from the sponsorship of pilgrims in the 2015 hajj exercise and beyond is a welcome departure from the practices in the past. It is, at least, a practical demonstration of the resolve by the Buhari administration to check wasteful expenditures in the fulfilment of government obligations to Nigerian citizens. Given the loose definition of ‘hajj delegation’ under an Amirul-Hajj, as well as the economic advantages and other costly privileges attached to being a member of the group, this policy has since become an unnecessary liability on the country’s already overburdened resources. Besides, the undefined role of the federal government delegation to hajj is another reason in itself to dissuade any prudent administration from sponsoring individuals or groups to pilgrimages, with all the attendant financial implications for the nation’s finances.
If, for instance, state pilgrims’ welfare boards or agencies have the sole responsibility of catering for the welfare of the pilgrims of their states during and after the entire hajj operation in Nigeria and in the Holy Land, it begs the question what would be the role there for members of the federal government delegation to do. Moreover, each state in the country by tradition appoints its own state delegation under a state Amirul Hajj. Although the federal government has advised that states could appoint their respective hajj delegations if they choose to, a more useful lesson to learn from this is that state governments should also consider doing a rethink of this practice of appointing separate delegations to hajj as the ad-hoc nature of their functions are often in conflict with the statutory roles of officials of the state pilgrims’ board.
Most of those who constitute the federal government hajj delegation (the Amirul-Hajj committee) are prominent Nigerians who probably had performed the pilgrimage (some of them several times) before.
It is an open-secret that many of them consider their membership of the delegation as opportunity for vacation, in addition to taking advantage of what they believe to be a windfall, to go shopping. For most periods of the hajj exercise, some of them stay back in their hotel rooms, sometimes failing to even observe some, or even the entire, rites of the hajj, the central purpose for the pilgrimage. The abuse or bastardization of the concept of the Amirul-Hajj delegation equally finds expression in the extension of such privileges offered by it to the wives and children of its members and their friends, travelling with guaranteed return flight tickets, hotel accommodation, local trips in the Holy Land and shopping sprees, at the expense of the federal government.
Nigeria has an embassy in Riyadh, a consul general in Jeddah, the hub of the pilgrimage transportation system. During the hajj season, the embassy opens consular service offices in Mecca, Medina, and other important cities on the pilgrims’ route; therefore the need for a federal delegation at the beginning of each hajj operation has been an aberration that is superfluous and best and wasteful too, because the heads of such delegations have extensive powers to determine the level of foreign currency, especially US dollars, and disburse it in the name of bridging shortfalls in aircraft hiring fees and sundry other expenses that a normal diplomatic mission would be competent to peruse and act upon.
 The policy shift is much more than saving cost; it should curb the increasing predilection to rely on government sources to perform one’s personal religious obligation.  The federal government should consider studying the Indonesia model in any long-term reform of the pilgrimage exercise. In that country, plans for the 2016 operation have closed; entries for the 2017 exercise are at an advanced state. The state is involved only to the extent that its national air carrier is the provider of the flight services from the beginning until the exercise concludes. Not free of charge, of course, it’s all done on the basis of a commercial transaction.
In Nigeria, clerics who have extensive knowledge of hajj rituals and are conversant with the environment, sometimes play vital roles to first-time pilgrims while in the Holy Land. They impart knowledge of the religion, guide pilgrims on how, when and where to observe all the rites of hajj. But this is the part for state pilgrims’ boards to consider what number of these clerics they would need, although intending pilgrims should have been taken through such orientations before departure for the pilgrimage.
The federal government should also review membership of its medical team and other areas in which government provides interventions during the hajj exercise, because officials of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) at the federal level and the state pilgrims’ boards at the state level have their medical teams there to cater for the needs of pilgrims.
With the federal government’s proposal to create a new national carrier, the airlift of pilgrims to and fro the Holy Land should be linked to it as the official carrier when it finally takes off. Although the numbers are limited in comparison to the hajj, the same principle of providing only consular and medical services and welfare support should equally apply to non-Islamic pilgrimages as well.