No solution to scarcity of hajj seats – Amb. Buba

Intending pilgrims from Kaduna State are alleging that you have politicized the sales of hajj seats, hence its scarcity. How would you react to this? The issue of allegation is a democratic right of any citizen of this country. It is one thing to make allegations and it’s quite another to prove the allegations beyond […]

Intending pilgrims from Kaduna State are alleging that you have politicized the sales of hajj seats, hence its scarcity. How would you react to this?

The issue of allegation is a democratic right of any citizen of this country. It is one thing to make allegations and it’s quite another to prove the allegations beyond reasonable doubt. As far as we are concerned the seats were publicly distributed, to local government areas and they were openly sold. To address irregularities in the sale of the seats, we have departed from the odd tradition where the sales are done secretly. Now, we have opened up the system. This time around, we initiated a new strategy to take the seats to the public and it was sold in a transparent and very open system.

Reports had it that about 6,000 of the total hajj seats allotted to Kaduna State were sold in two days. How were the the sales done?

Yes, people queued up without any nepotism, any bias and without knowing anybody in the government before they could purchase a seat. It was transparently done and this is the first time I am hearing that there are allegations. However, since this issue of seat is demand and supply the total seats we have in Kaduna State is 7,550 and all the requests for seats have far outnumbered the  available seats.

So there is going to be this public outcry because in a local government where you have 300 seats, you will find out that about 1000 persons are seeking for those seats. So there is no way you can satisfy all. There are bound to be winners and losers. You find out from all the 36 states of the federation, including Abuja, where do they have adequacy of the seats? They don’t have. Even the seat allocation is not controlled by the National Hajji Commission. It is controlled by the Saudi Arabian Government because of their facilities. They cannot approve the number they cannot manage and accommodate. So it is a global thing where you have this allocation based on countries. So our problem is in adequacy.

Out of these 7,550 seats allocated to Kaduna State, how many have you sold to the public?

So far we have sold about 6,000 hajj seats.

You mean you sold this number in two days?

Yes, they were sold in two days, because insome places where you have  300 seats there were over 1000 people coming to buy. Go and find out from those who secured the seats. Find out whether they gave bribes to anybody? Do they have to belong to a particular party? Do they have to belong to highly placed government individuals? No, these were sold to the public without any discrimination.

Go and find out. This is a challenge to you because you cannot rule out allegations but an allegation can be proven if there are facts and figures.

I want somebody to come forward with incontrovertible facts of being short-changed. I will like to assure members of the public that in the event that somebody is being fingered that he has cornered some seats as a pilgrim officer and connived with some people in any wrong doing, I assure the members of the public that I will deal with that individual, no matter his position or what connection he has in this state.

Last year some intending pilgrims could not go for hajj after paying. How do you intend to solve the issue?

All those left over who could not perform hajj last year automatically, before we start distributing any seat, will take their own aside. So they are all carried along. They have their own seats reserved for them.

What about the issue of first time and regular?

It is not a law; there is no written law from Saudi Arabian government on this issue. It is something that is expedient. It is better to give the first timers opportunity, and which we have as a policy here in Kaduna State. We have allocated 80 percent of the seats to first timers and the remaining 20 percent to regular pilgrims.

Why are people still finding it difficult to secure seats?

Because of inadequacy. If you have 1,000 persons in a local government that are looking for these seats and you have only 300 or 500 seats what do you do? You are bound to have people who will not be able to have these seats.

Do you have any plans to get additional seats?

Yes, if we are lucky with Abuja and they give us more we will welcome that.

How many seats do you think will be sufficient for pilgrims in Kaduna?

Honestly, I cannot give you an answer because the demand kept rising daily. More than before, Nigerians are now eager and anxious to perform hajj. Civil servants, farmers, traders and others are all struggling to perform hajj. That is why the number keeps rising year in year out. So I cannot categorically give you an answer to say it is Y or Z number that is required.

Which means there is no solution to this particular problem?

Of course, definitely, even National Hajj Commission doesn’t have a solution because they were given 100,000 seats by the Saudi Arabian government for the whole country. The Saudi Government cannot exceed some certain numbers because of facilities.  You know, if you are a pilgrim the issue of accommodation is very important in hajj affairs.

How far have you gone to secure the accommodation closer to the holy mosque?

We have gone very far. By the end of this month, we are going to Saudi Arabia to inspect the facilities at the house and the rest. So we are at an advanced stage now. This year we want to have a hitch-free hajj operation. Last year, we recorded tremendous successes. In fact, it was 90 percent success and we want to improve on that this year.

Efforts to stop pregnant women from going to hajj seem not to be yielding results, as a pregnant woman  from Kaduna delivered a baby boy  in Saudi Arabia. What are you doing in this regard?

I don’t agree with you that efforts towards preventing women from embarking on hajj operations have not yieldeds results. Indeed, it has yielded results. Now, you cited an example of a woman. Don’t forget the fact that the contingent of Kaduna pilgrims of 2011 was 7,701. So I don’t think it is fair for you to judge us because of one incident and you used it to generalize the entire system.

There are a lot of things that we did and we came across so many pregnant women, most of whom we screened out and they were prevented from going to hajj last year.  But those are just entirely administrative things and internal that we cannot just come out and publicize. I think all our efforts have yielded results. We will also not rest on our oars’ to continue making efforts to ensure that even this particular incident of one person will not occur again.

We have machineries in place to make sure that pregnant women are being prevented not because we don’t want them to perform hajj but it is in their own interests. Hajj operations as we are always saying, is a very rigorous exercise and that can lead to miscarriage that has health implications. That is that.