By : Ibrahim Abubakar Nagarta Mischief-making, hypocrisy as well as pull him down syndrome have unfortunately become part of some people’s way of life, without which they strongly believe their life’s dreams,ambitions and aspirations shall never come to fruition. History has it that those who are invariably busy involved in fault finding mission of others, hardly end well! A popular adage says “He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword”
The Association of Hajj Media Support Professionals, a civil organization, that closely monitors and reports purely hajj related activities across Nigeria, has of recent come across yet another lopsided and unverified story aimed at tarnishing the good image of the incumbent National Hajj Commission of Nigeria’s Chairman, Prof. Abdullahi Saleh Usman and some of his hardworking lieutenants, and unfortunately this recent media attack was coming barely a month after the completion of 2025 hajj exercise, which has been adjudged by many Nigerians including the National Assembly as the most successful in recent years. Now who is contradicting who?
The story was titled: “NAHCON Boss Defies VP, Engages Retired, External Civil Servants”
It appears the motive and objective of the writer and sponsors of that unsubstantiated and evil-intended piece was to instigate and set off the exalted office of the Vice President under which the National Hajj Commission is answerable to, against the NAHCON boss and some of his commissioners. But the good thing is that his Excellency Kashim Shettima the vice President, is highly educated, principled and well informed, therefore, he will never succumb to such baseless allegations by some self-centered individuals who are bent to smear the good name and respect the NAHCON chairman enjoys among the Muslim ummah across the nation.
Furthermore, the questions now wagging on the lips of many Nigerians are why NAHCON, all the time? Doesn’t the Hajj commission have anything good to report or talk about except flaws and imperfections? What about other crucial and highly sensitive Agencies, Commissions, Parastatals and even Ministries? Does journalism begins and end in reporting NAHCON, alone?
Let’s at this point, quickly and in a nutshell examine some of the allegations raised in that controversial and focus less story, as follows:
To begin with, the allegation of appointing external staff, which is true, the vice president has asked the NAHCON boss to suspend the idea but after that instruction by the vice president what evidence or proof has the author of that story has, to corroborate his argument that some external staff or retired personnel have appointed? Nigerians will like to see their appointment letters published!
The same thing goes with those 25 out of 26 external staff said to have been sponsored for hajj at the detriment of bonafide and authentic NAHCON’s staff?
Again, the controversial write up went further to allege that,out of NAHCON’s 262 members of staff 78 were left behind in Nigeria without accorded the opportunity to partake in the spiritual hajj exercise. Its obvious, that every organization has it’s peculiar manner of doing things, Nigerian hajj commission is not an exception. Therefore, the writer of that story should have deployed journalistic means and approach to unravel the reason behind the measure taken by NAHCON, if at all it has happened.
Laughably, it was alleged in the write up that 26 external staff have been appointed into strategic positions in the hajj commission but only 7 or 8 names were mentioned, still without concrete evidence to prove the allegation!