Gov. Umar Bago of Nigeria State has expressed his dissatisfaction over inadequate tents and poor facilities at the Niger pilgrims camp in Mina, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
He then promised to build a first-class Hajj transit camp for the state pilgrims to ease their movement to Saudi Arabia.
Bago, who stated this while addressing journalists shortly after inspecting the tents for Niger State pilgrims tent threatened to report the matter to President Bola Tinubu for necessary action.
The governor also lamented the sanitary condition of the tents, saying that the facilities at Niger State tents fall below standard.
He emphasised the need for the decentralisation of certain hajj responsibilities from the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), the Hajj management body in Nigeria.
“First and foremost, I want to express our dismay as a state for the kind of ill-treatment our pilgrims got. The tent is over populated and very filthy. The facilities here are not enough you can see people lying down outside which is not good enough.
“Secondly, we need to take this issue up with NAHCON.As a state we are going to take over certain responsibilities from NAHCON and we are going to meet President Tinubu on this issue. For instance, Niger pilgrims complained that the food they are given is unsuitable to ingest This is not human, it is inhuman. This is not ok for us and we are not going to accept it.”
On his part, the Emir of Borgu, Alhaji Muhammad Dantoro and Ameer Hajj Niger State 2023 said the state pilgrims paid for conducive tents, good food but unfortunately, they did not get what they paid for.
“We will write our report on this. You can even see where I’m staying as an Ameer Hajj very close to the toilet. I said I’m not going to leave this place because I prefer to stay with my people so that we will experience it together.
“Take it from me and the entire pilgrims. It is a disgusting situation and unfortunately there is nothing to write home about. But as a Muslims anybody who intends to perform hajj whatever he sees is only Allah that will reward him/her.”
The Chairman of NAHCON, Alhaji Zikrullah Hassan, had expressed dissatisfaction over inadequate tents for Nigerian pilgrims at Mina by the Saudi Company vested with the responsibility of securing enough facilities in the area.
Hassan stated this while answering questions from journalists after inspecting the situation at Muna on Monday in Makkah, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
He also said that the commission was not pleased with the feeding arrangement which, he said, the meals were inadequate and were served late to the pilgrims.
He said NAHCON envisaged that the problem was most likely to occur and earlier suggested that the commission be involved, but the Saudi authorities concerned insisted they had a mega kitchen and about three alternate plans to deliver to the satisfaction of all.
After inspecting the facilities, Gov Bago in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at Muna, an outskirts of the holy city of Makkah, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, said that his administration had opened discussions with Saudi Arabian authorities to procure 100 gas powered buses to ameliorate the stress pilgrims go through during the core Hajj period.
“I have been opportune to visit Saudi Arabia for Hajj severally. Alhamdulillah, this is one of the smoothest we have had despite the population. The arrangement has been very wonderful. We have done our Hajj rites. We have been to all the places we are expected to visit as pilgrims. So far so good, everything has been going on very well,” he said.
Bago called on all the state pilgrims to pray for President Bola Tinubu’s good health, prosperity and wisdom to lead the country.
“They (pilgrims) should pray for peace in Nigeria, we have been battling with insecurity, and we pray to Allah to grant us his mercy and bring an end to the insecurity in our state and country. We are appealing to Nigerians to be patient with different policies of the government that aim at bringing economic prosperity. It is going to be tough from the begging, but am sure by the grace of God we will surmount it.
“And as a people from Niger State, we are very sure that as we have started, we are going to hit the ground running. With Allah on our side, we will succeed,” the governor assured.
He said that approval have been secured for Minna Airport project on the eve of the last administration.
Bago said: “Unfortunately, the people who handled the Minna Airport project were not serious about it from the beginning. The approval was done on the eve of the last administration. The contract was awarded for the drainage to the runway. But we have met with the contractor, we have gone very far and we are very optimistic that, by Allah’s grace, in 2023 pilgrims will fly from Niger State to Saudi Arabia.
“And above that, we are going to build a first-class Hajj camp, just within the airport to reduce the hardship of Muslims. We are in discussion with Saudi Arabia authority so that we are going to buy 100 gas-powered buses so that pilgrims won’t suffer anymore.”
(NAN)
