The Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Professor Abdullahi Saleh Usman’s reported frantic efforts to cancel the contracts signed with a new Saudi Arabian service provider, Mashariq AL-Dhahabiah Company (Sana), is threatening the 2025 Hajj preparations.
The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, this newspaper learned on Saturday, has already queried the NAHCON official based in Makkah over the chairman’s electronic cancellation of the Hajj contracts, sources within the commission have said.
The service provider was jointly selected by NAHCON and state pilgrims boards to serve Nigerian pilgrims in Muna and Arafat.
Official documents reviewed by this newspaper revealed that the commission had already signed a contract with Mashariq AL-Dhahabiah Company and the contracts were electronically uploaded and reflected in various Saudi Arabian Hajj agencies platforms.
Further findings by this newspaper revealed that the decision to appoint Mashariq AL-Dhahabiah was reached during a meeting between NAHCON executives and state chief executives forum held between January 15 — 17, 2025.
A top official at the commission confided on this newspaper on Friday that the chairman is making frantic efforts to change the NAHCON/states decision even though the contract has been signed.
“The NAHCON chairman has called for a Zoom meeting with the Executive Secretaries of the State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Boards on Thursday night, February 6, over the issue, among others, but the states boycotted the meeting,” the official said.
The source who sought anonymity for fear of a backlash said the state pilgrims boards Executive Secretaries have vowed to resist any attempt by the NAHCON chairman to replace Mashariq AL-Dhahabiah Company (Sana), the service provider they willingly selected, approved and NAHCON signed Masha’ir contacts agreements with.
It was not clear why the NAHCON chief was desperate to change Mashariq AL-Dhahabiah Company, selected based on its unblemished records, by the states.
This newspaper reports how the state pilgrims boards rejected Ithraa Al Khair Company, a service provider that shortchanged Nigerian pilgrims and rendered poor services in 2022, 2023 and 2024 – unleashing unprecedented miseries on Nigerian pilgrims and subjecting them to global ridicule for three consecutive years.
Insiders said the Hajj commission chairman had earlier picked a nondescript service provider for the state pilgrims. However, the states rejected it and insisted on Mashariq AL-Dhahabiah Company, a
veteran service provider whose chairman and management team provided excellent services to Nigerian pilgrims between 2015 to 2019.
In an earlier interview, a top official at the Hajj commission told this newspaper that “if not for the insistence of the leadership of the states pilgrims agencies, the NAHCON chairman would have also picked the defaulting Ithraa company, or another briefcase company – to continue the maltreatment of Nigerian pilgrims. Ironically, the states’ stance was supported by the NAHCON commissioners, who rejected the chairman’s choice.”
This was corroborated by another official involved in the Hajj preparations who said: “The selection of the Mashariq AL-Dhahabiah Company whose chairman and management team served Nigerian pilgrims from 2015 to 2019, has brought succour to our pilgrims.”
He said, “Nigerian pilgrims have secured a $200 reduction each in the Hajj fare – courtesy that credible and competent service provider engaged by the states for the 2025 Hajj.”
However, the Association of Hajj and Umrah Operators of Nigeria (AHUON) had hired the erring Ithraa Al Khair company, eliciting condemnations from Hajj stakeholders including registered tour operators and civil society organizations.
Tour operators under the auspices of the Association of Hajj and Umrah Tour Operators (HUTUON) have praised NAHCON for ditching Ithraa Al Khair and appointing a credible one in a recent interview by its president Muhammed A. Suleman.
Also, a Hajj CSO, the Independent Hajj Reporters, in a statement by its national coordinator Ibrahim Muhammad, commended the states and NAHCON for hiring a credible and competent service provider to cater for pilgrims at Masha’ir.
“We applauded the decision to pick another service provider that will cater for the needs of pilgrims within the Masha’ir areas during the five days of hajj,” IHR said in a statement on January 19, 2025.
Barring any last-minute change, this solace brought to intending Nigerian pilgrims may be a thing of the past as the NAHCON chairman arbitrarily and against all odds seeks to cancel the Masha’ir contacts signed two weeks ago with Mashariq AL-Dhahabiah Company, and appoint another service provider.
“The plans by Professor Pakistan (NAHCON chairman) to cancel the contacts may jeopardize the 2025 Hajj,” another staff at the commission said.
Findings by this newspaper revealed that the commission chairman may travel to Saudi Arabia on Saturday or any time soon to cancel the contract and appoint another new service provider for the services.
This is despite the fact that the contract was signed with Mashariq AL-Dhahabiah Company, both print and electronically, as well as the contract activated in the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah Nusuk platform.
A competent source told this newspaper that the NAHCON chairman has concluded plans to cancel the contract and appoint another shoddy service provider that has never served African pilgrims, let alone Nigeria’s, probably to serve the interests of some individuals.
“This is another recipe for a showdown as the states have vowed in unambiguous terms that they would go to any length and deploy all forces to resist this arbitrariness by the NAHCON chief,” an ES of one of the northern states said.
Speaking in confidence, the Executive Secretary added that “if the tour operators, with less than 20 percent of Nigerian pilgrims, would be allowed to pick a service provider of their choice, why not the states with over 80 percent of the 95,000 pilgrims? This is unacceptable.”
A senior staff of the commission told one of our reporters that the NAHCON chairman is trying to use powers that he doesn’t actually have because of the current Saudi Vision 2030 policy.
He said in the past, all African pilgrims were under the African non-Arabs Mu’assasah, which limited the options of service providers for African pilgrims. “But with the liberalization policy brought about by the Saudi VIsion 2030, African countries, in fact, even sub-nationals (like states in Nigeria), can pick any service provider of their own. What Professor Usman and his handlers fail to understand is that the powers vested in the pilgrims chief executives before Vision 2030 liberalization is no longer tenable. He is visibly basking in the euphoria of the old order unfortunately,” he said.
Another pilgrims Chief Executive from the Southern part of Nigeria said “the NAHCON chairman’s new scheming is purely an act of sabotage. I am afraid that we can’t allow him to have his way and jeopardize the entire operation. He must be stopped because the states have the pilgrims, not the commission.”
Findings by this newspaper revealed that the states are resisting the fresh plot by the NAHCON chairman, arguing that the commission should stick to its regulatory functions. “If NAHCON appoints service providers for the states, how can it then regulate or sanction them in case of infractions?” one of the insiders in the commission said.
Speaking on legal implications of the planned cancellation of the contract, an intending pilgrim, Barrister Sultan Y. Sageer said the chairman’s planned action may have debilitating consequences for Nigeria and its pilgrims.
The lawyer said one party cannot cancel contractual agreements, particularly with international entities, without recourse to extant procedures.
“The foreign company can go to arbitration court and obtain a judgement that would embarrass Nigeria and its pilgrims. Just recently some presidential jets of Nigeria and some others critcal assets were impounded abroad by a Chinese company whose contract was arbitrarily cancelled by Ogun State government. Former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari were recently dragged to France to appear before another arbitration court over the same cancellations of Mambilla Hydropower project contract without following due process. There was also the case of P&ID contract scandal, and so on,” the lawyer said.
Barrister Sageer warned that cancellations of contracts arbitrarily by some Nigerian public officials “is portraying the country in bad light. Foreigners won’t take us serious if we continue like that. This attitude would also discourage other service providers from doing business with Nigeria.”
Other stakeholders who spoke to our correspondents expressed fears that the planned cancellation of the contracts would create chaos and erode confidence in NAHCON.
“What the NAHCON chairman is trying to do is against the contract the commission signed with the service provider. You can’t cancel a contract arbitrarily. The chairman is ignorant of the effect of the actions he is trying to take. He wants to take the states for a ride and thereby jeopardize the 2025 Hajj operations,” a senior staff at NAHCON said.
The NAHCON chairman’s lack of capacity, particularly his English language deficiency, another insider said, is solely responsible for his bureaucratic faux fax. “It is an open secret that the NAHCON chairman can’t read anything written in English fluently and comprehend same. This glaring deficiency has forced him to rely on interpreters to act on official memos. It is not surprising that since his appointment last year, the chairman always delegates someone to speak on his behalf in all public functions. With this, it won’t be appalling if he he doesn’t know that in contractual agreements there is something called a ‘termination clause,’” the source said.
The source said the Hajj commission is suffering under Mr Usman because “he was fraudulently packaged for President Bola Tinubu. He lacks the basic knowledge and requisite experience to lead the commission. Even during the three years he served as the board chairman of the Kano State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, he didn’t perform any Hajj operation. He only travelled to Hajj after Arafat. He supervised the worst Hajj operation in Kano state where over 600 pilgrims missed the Hajj in 2022.”
Parts of the fraudulent packaging of Professor Usman, another insider said, was describing him as “leading the state with the largest Hajj contingents. This is another pretence and claim used by his handlers to deceive President Tinubu. It is on record that Kaduna state has the highest number of pilgrims for about two decades. It is this bad.”
Aside his gross deficiency, Professor Usman came to the Hajj commission surrounded by inexperienced and incompetent personal aides with zero credentials in the Hajjj system, this newspaper understands.
Insiders have accused the chairman’s DSS detail of being among the people allegedly misleading the NAHCON chief. “He abandons his official security duties and dabbles into operational and administrative functions of the commission,” one of the staff alleged.
A veteran Hajj stakeholder has called for Mr Usman’s sack. “At the rate he is going, the NAHCON chairman needs to be sacked to save the industry. NAHCON has suffered enough in the last four years. Allowing him to stay any longer will derail the 2025 Hajj operations,” he said.
He appealed to Vice President Kashim Shettima to sack the Professor Usman “before he plunges Nigeria and the Hajj industry into another pit of ridicule with global proportion.”
He recommended that a thorough background check on whoever would be appointed as NAHCON chairman and commissioners should be conducted to forestall the recurrence of appointing wrong people.
When contacted for response, the spokesperson of the Hajj commission, Fatima Sanda Usara, couldn’t confirm nor denied the story on Saturday.
She said in a WhatsApp message that “Salam, network problem has hindered me from confirming your question the numbers I’m trying to call are not reachable. So for now it is unconfirmed gaskiya.”
Attempts by our reporter to reach the chairman on his known mobile phone numbers were not also successful.
An impeachable source in the commission said the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah said the NAHCON chairman’s action was unacceptable to the ministry because it is a violation of its extant regulations.
