DEAL WITH NATIONAL HAJJ COUNCIL (PAGE 43)

AThe Brong Ahafo Regional Hajj Co-ordinating Committee has called on all Muslims who desire to perform this year’s Hajj Pilgrimage in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to rely solely on the National Hajj Council (NHC) for all arrangements.
The committee further advised the intended pilgrims not to deal with the Interim Hajj Management Committee (IHMC).
The committee explained that the restructured NHC which was established in September 2005, with the mandate to manage the Pilgrimage of Hajj in Ghana on behalf of Muslims remained the only legitimate Muslims representative body to carry out that duty.
It announced that the NHC had pegged this year’s Hajj fare package at $2,999, and not $3,100 as the IHMC had indicated.
“The council is the product of wide consultations, deliberations and consensus among Muslim representatives from all the 10 regions in the country who assembled at the first National Hajj Conference in 2005 and reassembled recently for the second National Hajj Conference, to assert its authority as the highest policy making body on all matters concerning Hajj,” the Regional Co-ordinating Committee stressed.
Addressing a press conference in Sunyani at the weekend, the Regional Secretary of the committee, Mr Suallah Abdallah, said the same persons who caused last year’s Hajj problems were again resurfacing as the new IHMC.
The secretary insisted that, “When the NHC was getting ready to present the 2008 Hajj fare, the Muslim community is being ruffled from its sense of probity and accountability by the shameless re-emergence of the IHMC, the organisers of the 2006/2007 failed Hajj exercise”.
He, however, said it was imperative that the NHC as advocates of best practice in the conduct of Hajj should deal with the issue sufficiently now to save the nation from yet another nightmare of Hajj failure this year.
Commenting on the preparation of Hajj this year, Mr Abdallah said “we assure the nation and the Muslim community in particular that the NHC shall stand firm to carry out its duty of ensuring a hustle-free Hajj”.
The secretary alleged that the haphazard manner of conducting the Hajj exercise over the years had left in its wake over GH¢400,000.00 as of 2005 in the Hajj accounts at the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) without any audit ever to ensure transparency, probity and accountability.
The Regional Hajj Co-ordinating Committee also recalled that the 2006/2007 Hajj tragedy caused over 10 fatalities, adding that 725 paid for their fares but could not undertake the pilgrimage, 1,500 pilgrims had their cargo undelivered and that 35 pilgrims whose pilgrimage were aborted were diverted to Libya through Cotonou before returning to Ghana.
He said the Muslim community fully supported the government’s directive that a probe be instituted into the conduct of the IHMC, which was responsible for 2006/2007 Hajj mess, adding that the former Minister of the Interior, Mr Kwamena Bartels, had even called for the arrest of the organisers of the previous Hajj as soon as they returned from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
However, Mr Abdallah pointed out, “It is almost nine months since their return and nothing has been done and it is unfortunate this purported probe has been unduly delayed with many excuses about constituting a panel and false hopes of starting the probe soon.”
According to the Regional Hajj Co-ordinating Committee, in spite of the government’s knowledge of the mandate to a restructured NHC, government officials or Muslim staffers at the Castle were entertaining direct dealings with the IHMC even though they had not been cleared at any probe.
“The era of government officials or at least Muslim Castle staffers handpicking individuals and imposing them on the Muslim community as Hajj organisers must be considered to allow for due exercise of corporate responsibility by the Muslim community. Handpicking of people by prominent individuals rather than the trust of the Muslim community will not be countenanced,” Mr Abdallah cautioned.
He admitted, however that the government had a role to play in the conduct of Hajj but that should be limited to its diplomatic facilitation and not the imposition of Hajj organisers on the Muslim community by an unacceptable handpicking of individuals, adding that the Muslim community had long been victims of mismanaged Hajj by self-seeking individuals who sometimes posed as philanthropists.