Hajj 2023: Robust Leadership in the Face of Adversity by Abdulrahman Abdulraheem

Hajj 2023: Robust Leadership in the Face of Adversity

By Abdulrahman Abdulraheem, in Makkah

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of convenience and comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

– Martin Luther King Jrn.

The position of a leader is as sweet as it can be bitter. It is as desirable as it can be frustrating. Leadership of countries, sub national units, agencies and organisations all over the world comes with a lot of benefits or perks. There is the prestige, the honour, the generational goodwill that holding an influential position can attract to a man. What about the connections, the affluence and life-changing wealth that people in positions of authority have been exposed to in Nigeria for example.

But because of the time-tested aphorism that says, ‘uneasy lies the head that wears the crown,’ leadership positions have time and time again proven to be anything but a tea party. The sacrifices in terms of energy, time, family, wrinkles and grey hair that leaders have to give cannot be ignored.

Leadership is not just about using power for power sake and benefiting from the perks listed above.

Leadership is all about taking tough decisions in the closet and defending them in the open. Leadership is not a popularity contest. It is about taking the best steps for the common good irrespective of what people may say or whose ox is gored.

Leadership is not just about taking credit for success stories and smiling in front of cameras. On the contrary, leadership is all about taking responsibility for failures and leading from the front in bad times.

There are few public office holders in the country today who understand the above lines as much as the chairman of National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Alhaji Zikrullahi Kunle Hassan.

Even though he had put everything in place, struck every deal, signed every cheque and paid every dime to ensure that the 95,000 Nigerians who were going to participate in this year’s Hajj had a successful and hitch-free exercise, the lack of adequate tents and food in Mina hit him below the belt.

At first, in the short run, I felt his response was swift, sharp and brilliant, in the medium term, I can see that his responses have been robust, consistent and comprehensive. And it looks like in the long run, the NAHCON’s chairman’s stubborn insistence on keeping the matter in the front burner will force the Saudi authorities to look into the historic injustice meted out to Nigerians in the just concluded Hajj exercise.

When the matter became a scandal, with some of us interviewing the stranded pilgrims who blamed NAHCON for their woes, the Commission first issued a timely press statement to calm frayed nerves and assure that they were on top of the matter.

Knowing full well that the press statement wouldn’t be enough to keep the people silent for long, NAHCON boss stormed the tents with his team and called an urgent press conference where he delivered a stinging rebuke of the Mutawwif company for messing up the tent after promising heaven and earth and also for starving Nigerians after claiming they had the best caterers in the world.

When America’s 33rd President, Harry S. Truman, famously said, “the buck stops at my desk,” he didn’t mean that leaders cannot export blames to where they belong in case they belong to external forces, it only means that they cannot push blames to any of their subordinates in case of challenges. It means they have to take responsibility and lead from the front in providing answers to nagging questions.

That was why the chairman stormed the Mina tents on that fateful Monday night to address the press and he tongue-lashed the Saudi firm, making it very clear to Nigerians, both at home and in Saudi Arabia, that the Commission was not responsible for tents and food in Mina. He however vowed to meet with the Saudi firm to fix things.

The result of his meeting with the Saudi firm was the provision of additional tents in Turkish area that could contain 10, 000 Nigerian pilgrims and decongest the tents they already occupied.

After securing and inspecting the tents, the NAHCON boss made spirited attempts to share the 10,000 bed spaces among all 37 states and tour operators. But leaders of the States’ Pilgrim Welfare Boards declined the offer because they didn’t want some of their pilgrims to be moved to a far place while some would stay behind. So, only about one thousand pilgrims from the tour operators moved to the new tents to enjoy a far more serene environment. Nevertheless, the NAHCON boss, with the help of his team, proved to be an astute and shrewd negotiator who will always secure the best deal for Nigerian pilgrims.

Consistency in type and style of messaging is key in the pursuit of any agenda. The smart strategy of the NAHCON management was to completely push the blame to the Saudi firm and absolve itself completely. So when the NAHCON boss visited the tents, state by state, to check how the pilgrims were faring, all he kept on shouting was that NAHCON was not to blame for the shortage of food and tents in Mina.

The NAHCON boss, with the help of some of his surrogates, has mastered the art of making maximum use of the media to achieve his strategic ends and I have already written about this. He pulled out another masterstroke last week when he took the entire media team to a scheduled meeting with the Saudi firm that messed up the Mina affair. While his hosts were expecting only a few cameramen, he stormed the Makkah office of the company with nearly a hundred Nigerian journalists because he wanted Nigerians back home to watch the way he would talk down on the Saudi officials like common irritants.

Hassan who wore the tag of a no-nonsense school Principal addressing a group of silly juveniles, condemned the treatment meted out to the country’s pilgrims and accused the company of abandoning them outside the tents in harsh weather conditions.

The NAHCON boss expressed shock that the company gave Nigerian pilgrims the same capacity of tents they gave them last year when the country had 43,000 pilgrims compared to this year when they have 95,000 pilgrims.

He warned the company that something has to change in the way Nigerian pilgrims are treated, if not, the 30-year-old relationship may have to be reconsidered.

“If two brothers come out of the room laughing, it means they didn’t tell themselves the truth. But if they come out frowning, it means they told each other the truth and they can make progress.

“At this point we have to tell each other the truth. We have to. Nigerian pilgrims were subjected to untold hardship and they are so disappointed in us even though we have repeatedly told them that the issues of tents and food are not in our hands, that we can only complain to the authorities.

“Time has come for you to hands off our food. We have argued repeatedly that we can handle catering by ourselves and you can regulate. This is because no matter how much money you spend on food, if you don’t do it the Nigerian way, it will not be eaten and the money is wasted. I am making this demand on behalf of Nigerian pilgrims and stakeholders.

“I am also on behalf of the Nigerian delegation demanding a refund for the foods that you didn’t supply,” the NAHCON boss said.

On the issue of invasion of the Mina area by Illegal pilgrims which the company raised earlier as an excuse, Hassan said that cannot be the fault of Nigeria as “we are not in a position to check them or contain them since we are not in charge of security. That has to be the fault of our hosts.”

“The invasion of illegal pilgrims isn’t an excuse because you provided the same capacity of tents as last year despite the fact that we came with 95,000 pilgrims compared to 43,000 pilgrims that we came with last year. Without the issue of illegal pilgrims which is not our fault, the issue of tent inadequacy would still have happened,” a visibly angry NAHCON boss argued.

“The food came late most of the time. The food wasn’t good enough. It was not cooked in our Nigerian style and taste. The terrible food and the fact that Nigerians rejected it enabled invaders to come in and sell food. And this made the place more chaotic and embarrassing,” he added.

Speaking on the way forward, he said: “We want to be removed from the present site of tent. Now that we have been told about the fact that the first country to finish registration and documentations will be able to choose the best section of Mina, me and my team will work on ensuring that we start on time so we can choose the best place for our people next year. We must examine the tent a month before the arrival of our pilgrims so we can make necessary adjustments. Before now, you give us few days or few hours to vet the place you are keeping for our people which is not good enough.

“Return feeding to us. We can manage that ourselves. We can screen the caterer and ensure they have Nigerian touch. The food you have been giving us has no Nigerian touch at all. Return the food to us and you can regulate.

“We will be writing a letter of request for refund to you because the food didn’t meet our requirements and standard at all. As we go home, we will have to review our agreement with a view to knowing if we are continuing with this partnership or not because if our people are not happy, there will be no point continuing on this,” the NAHCON boss said.

Also speaking at the meeting, the Executive Secretary of Adamawa State Pilgrims Welfare Board, Abubakar Salihu, said the Saudi company had taken Nigeria for a ride for too long.

“You have repeated the mistakes of last year. I complained of the same issues last year and you refunded a paltry 1.7 million naira for how many pilgrims. Now, we are seeking refunds for all the food that were not supplied. And we seek that you hands off the issue of feeding. No matter the money you are making from the food supply, it is not worth losing your image and losing a big client like us. Most of the times, we got no food at all. I even saw a pilgrim openly placing a curse on the people behind the management of tents. I don’t think you can continue to risk the wrath of Allah with this performance,” he said.

The President of the Association of Hajj and Umrah Operators of Nigeria, Yahaya Sidi Sulaiman, who spoke on behalf of tour operators lamented that the same thing was done to his group last year without any refunds.

“Even if you refund our money, our images that you have destroyed can’t be refunded. Your operations are shrouded in opaqueness, no transparency. We asked for documentary details of how many food and water you are supplying to how many pilgrims but you never made that available up till now,” he lamented.

From the response of the company’s officials, it looks like they underrated Nigeria’s capacity to fill the slot of 95,000, hence the provision of inadequate facilities. Again, the Saudi company has a history of shoddy performance when it comes to Nigeria and it is high time they got the fire they got from the Nigerian leadership.

Going forward, the NAHCON boss and his team must follow their words with action and make sure the near disaster of this year does not repeat itself next year.

The NAHCON boss has succeeded in changing the narrative, using the media to bully officials of the Saudi firm and also convincing pilgrims and Nigerians in general that it can’t be blamed for the challenges encountered in Mina. But the performance has to be better next year as every excuse has its expiry date.

Abdulrahman Abdulraheem is the Managing Editor of PRNIGERIA and ECONOMIC CONFIDENTIAL.