STATE GOVERNMENTS GIVE FACELIFTS TO HAJJ BOARDS

 Following the inspection being carried out by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) on the facilities of State Muslim Pilgrims’ Welfare Boards/Commissions/Agencies across the country, some state governments have started giving facelifts to their Hajj regulators to conform with required demand for licensing by the national regulatory agency.

Some of the inspected states have well-equipped and magnificent buildings with adequate manpower while others were found lagging behind. In some states in which NAHCON rejected their facilities, the state governors responded quickly by replacing them with high class ones that would meet the criteria for placing them in the appropriate grading by the Commission.

The NAHCON delegation is currently visiting the states of the Southwest. They started from Kwara and would terminate the zonal tour with Edo which belongs to the Lagos departure center of NAHCON. The team had exhausted states of the northeast, northwest and north central, while the entire exercise is expected to end with the Southeast and Southsouth.

Head of the team, Alhaji Muhammad Usman Liman reports that states like Sokoto, Yobe, Gombe and Bauchi have large and equipped offices. He said the governors of Bauchi and Yobe upgraded their state board offices to high-class edifices.

According to him, the states have reechoed their pleasure with NAHCON over the success of the 2016 Hajj operations as every pilgrim has received the hand and main luggage as well as the zamzam water. They are praying for the Commission for more successes in future.

It is expected that each state Hajj board should posses an independent befitting accommodation and adequate human resources for qualification to participate in the organization of Hajj trips to Saudi Arabia at the state levels.