Kaduna — Malam Yahuza Sidi Makarfi is the Acting Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board. He sheds light on the level of the state's preparedness for this year's Hajj and measures taken to ensure a hitch free operation. Excerpts:
Many intending pilgrims will like to know the arrangements you have put in place for them both here in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia...
From the initial stage, Kaduna State was allocated 7,550 seats and we shared the seats among the 23 local government areas of the state, although there were some hiccups but with Allah's help we were able to overcome them. The first thing we did was to look at our staff and see how we can get them prepared for the Hajj. The operational staff in the 23 local government areas, that is the pilgrim officers, were also reorganised being those responsible for all the field work like registration of intending pilgrims and enlightenment of the pilgrims both here in Nigeria and at the Holy land. Apart from that we introduced some programmes that would ease Hajj for our pilgrims. We are educating the pilgrims on Hajj rites. We are also training the pilgrims on taking of Ihram (intention), stoning of the Jamrats (devils), among others. Unlike before where we had conflicting opinions on these rites, we are now able to bring the scholars together to accept one direction for the intended pilgrims to follow. In a nutshell, we are taking the enlightenment aspect very serious especially on the rituals and operation aspects of Hajj.
Accommodation is always a recurring crisis. How are you handling it?
We have secured 11 houses for our pilgrims at a location that can be considered as a choice area. A pilgrim can trek to the Haram from this area, because it is not more than two kilometres away from the Ka'aba. The houses we secured are in Masfala and they are standard houses with all the necessary requirements. These houses met the standard set by the National Hajj Commission. All the houses have the capacity to accommodate 500 pilgrims and more. A strong team under the state Deputy Governor, Alhaji Muktar Ramalan Yero, was also set up to go to Abuja to sort out all pending issues regarding the state's this year's Hajj. The team did very well as all pending issues were cleared and the governor was very happy with that.
Airlift of pilgrims has always been with hitches, how far have you gone in this area?
We have chosen our traditional carriers - they are Kabo, Meridian and Max and each would get a certain number of pilgrims. These were the carriers we used last year. We have informed the air carriers of our choice. The governor has also approved suitcase manufacturers and two companies would manufacture our pilgrims' suitcases.
It was reported that the state government would subsidise the pilgrims. How do you want to go about that?
The subsidy given to our pilgrims was in-built in the Hajj fare. Our pilgrims would have paid higher than the N631, 000 they paid. The amount remained like that because of the subsidy of N32, 000 that was given to every pilgrim from Kaduna State. I want to disabuse the minds of those who are still thinking that the N32, 000 would be given to them.
Which place are you using as transit camp this year, given that the traditional hajj camp is occupied by pople displaced from the 2011 post election crisis?
We are still making effort to have our Hajj transit camp back to us instead of the Kaduna International Trade Fair Complex used last year. If that did not happen we would have no option than to use the Trade Fair Complex, but we hope that since the government is trying to assist the victims of the 2011 post election riot, we would have our camp back to us before the Hajj operations begin.
Governments at all levels are trying to reduce the number of old timers going for Hajj, has Kaduna State made any mark in that regard?
The issue is a difficult one. From the initial stage, we were advised by the National Hajj Commission to allocate 80 per cent of all our seats to new timers. However, people turned out in large number to queue in order to secure Hajj seats. That made it difficult for us to adhere to the 80 per cent advice. Nevertheless, because of the stringent measures we put in place, we were able to ensure that more than 60 per cent of those to perform this year's Hajj are new timers.
We used the pilgrims' international passports in identifying the first timers. It is not easy now, with e-passport, for anyone to manipulate international passports in Nigeria. On the other hand, the accustomed pilgrims are also very useful during Hajj because they help in educating the new timers on both operational and rites of Hajj. They help in directing the pilgrims on many things.
Last year Kaduna State recorded cholera outbreak in Saudi Arabia, what measures are you putting in place to avoid the repeat of such incidence?
Well, I wouldn't want to accept that we had outbreak of cholera last year. I would rather prefer to use vomiting as a result of new diet taking by some of our pilgrims. Scientifically, when one takes dinner and immediately went to bed, there is the tendency for him to experience some problems; that was our assumption. The water that was provided for the pilgrims, too, was also contaminated where pilgrims used different types of utensils to take the water for drinking.
So, at the end of the day we had problem of vomiting. It is on this ground that I want to inform our pilgrims that we have taken some measures to safeguard them. Pregnant women would not be allowed to perform this year's Hajj. Request for early return from any pilgrim would not be entertained. This year, only 32 kilogrammes of main luggage would be allowed for each pilgrim and only eight kilogrammes of hand luggage would be allowed and this is not only for Kaduna State but Nigerian pilgrims in general.
We are taking these measures because any state that allowed pregnant women to go for Hajj or allowed any of its pilgrims to abscond, that state would be penalised. This is why we are making all arrangement to check these problems. We have bought a scanner which we would use at the Hajj transit camp and at the Airport to fish out pregnant women who may want to defy our directives.
We gave 'waivers' to those who went for lesser Hajj regarding the deadline given for payment of Hajj fares because they have reported to us. With my experience in the pilgrims board, we hope and pray that this year's Hajj would be one of the best in the history of Kaduna State because we were able to bridge the gap in many areas. This we would achieve because our governor is very committed to the Hajj exercise.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201208180612.html
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