The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has begun payment of estacode of its offshore operational staff in Saudi Arabia.
The commission’s decision was coming hours after newspapers reported Saturday morning that the staff were planning a showdown over the estacode four weeks weeks after arriving the kingdom.
The reports quoted some of the staff members as complaining that some of them cannot feed or cater for other basic necessities in the holy land.
“Majority of us are in serous debts now. We can barely feed and pay for transport. It is really difficult,” one of the staff members was quoted as saying in the reports.
Hours after the reports, the commission issued a memo, entitled, “Estacode Payment Notification,” directing the workers to proceed to the account department to collect their estacode.
The memo, dated May 31, 2025, read thus: “Salam All, I am directed to inform all Offshore Operational Staff to proceed to the Accounts Division at the Ummul Jood Office for the payment of their estacode.
“Thank you for your continued cooperation and compliance. Kind Regards.”
It will be recall that commission officials were worried that almost four weeks after their arrival in the holy land, the commission has not paid them— plunging them into financial uncertainties.
The first batch of NAHCON workers left Abuja to Saudi Arabia on May 5, 2025 — four days to the official flag off of 2025 Hajj airlift.
Some of the senior staff members of the commission expressed fears that the delay in the payment of the allowances is capable of jeopardizing the operation.
They fear that their officials may be compromised by hired service providers in the course of undertaking oversight operations.
“The truth is majority of the commission workers and even adhoc officials are hungry and angry. You can imagine how they work under this condition,” another official said.
Multiple officials who craved anonymity for fear of a backlash were reported saying that they are “operating under tensed and dire conditions,” adding that they didn’t leave anything for their families back home in Nigeria.
The commission has various committees that supervise Saudi companies engaged to provide essential services that include accommodation, food, tents, beddings, logistics, among others, to Nigerian pilgrims.
Another top officiant said, “the delay in payment of allowances would easily breed corruption and levity among the commission staff members.”
The commission workers are nursing fears that may be shortchanged in the long run because of the huge number of adhoc officials. “Our major fear is whether the commission would pay us what was budgeted for us from Nigeria. This genuine fear is hinged on the fact that the commission has created so many needless adhoc committees and appointed hundreds of people. Some of the bloated committees include those of medical, ulama, media, stakeholders, and many others,” an official said.
Another staff member cited “the case of a useless assessment committee which was filled up with retirees and external staff at the detriment of the staff of the commission who were left in Nigeria.”
Multiple workers in the commission who spoke to our reporters said the workers are planning a showdown with the two brothers of the chairman Professor Abdullahi Saleh Usman, whom he deployed to the account unit and office of the NAHCON CEO.
“Many are appalled that why should these people who have no instrument of the President to be the de facto accounting officers of the commission? This is statutorily wrong and must be stopped,” the angry official said.
