THE Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Professor Abdullahi Saleh Pakistan, and his full-time commissioners, travelled to Saudi Arabia on Monday to finalise the 2026 Hajj services contracts.
This was revealed in a statement by Hajj Commission spokesperson Fatima Usara on Sunday, September 21, 2025.
She said that the chairman, secretary, and the three permanent commissioners would be departing to Saudi Arabia on September 22, 2025, to “finalise agreements with relevant service providers in preparation for the 2026 Hajj.”
“This trip is in conformity with the operational calendar released by the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah (MoHU), which specifies that from 6th to 23rd September 2025 (15–29 Safar 1447H) is the period for early contracting and payment for Masha’ir (camps).
“The timeline similarly announced 23rd – 24th September 2025 (1–2 Rabi’ al-Awwal 1447H) as the deadline for contracting of essential services such as transportation and accommodation,” the statement added.
Findings by this newspaper, however, revealed that this Saudi trip is a fallout of September 12, 2025 directive by Vice President Kashim Shettima, which states that all requests for his approval on significant Hajj issues must have been subjected to a collective decision-making process in tandem with the NAHCON Act and extant administrative protocols, and should come along with signed extracts of the Hajj commission exco, board and state pilgrims’ boards.
This newspaper understands that Mr Shettima gave the directive in a meeting at his office on Friday, September 12, 2025, and was attended by Mr Pakistan, his permanent commissioners, some board members, state chief executives, among others.
Insiders at the Presidency and NAHCON told our reporters that to the astonishment of the vice president, some few minutes after the meeting Mr Pakistan- in flagrant disregard to the presidential directive submitted a letter recommending all the 2026 Hajj service providers for Masha’ir, Madinah accommodation, catering, airlines, local transportation, among others without any consultation with the states and his board.
Mr Pakistan, it was further revealed, conveyed the service providers’ recommendation through a letter with reference number NAHCON/AI/17/X/791, and dated September 11, 2025, but submitted on the evening of September 12, 2025.
He recommended Rawaf Mina as the exclusive Masha’ir service provider for the VIP, tour operators, and state pilgrims.
It would be recalled that Rawaf Mina served tour operators’ pilgrims during the 2024 Hajj operation rendering poor services, leaving pilgrims with no tents, no beddings, no food, and no water-triggering widespread condemnation by pilgrims and tour operators.
Even the VIP pilgrims were affected by Rawaf Mina’s poor services during the 2025 Hajj. After losing the prestigious TENT A camp – a five-minute walk to the Jamarat, the VIPs were relocated to Zone 2, about an hour walk to the Jamarat.
The Rawaf Mina’s management of the TENT A+ was chaotic, which led to many Nigerian VIPs, including a serving governor from a North-Central state, a first lady of a North-West state, and a former deputy governor being locked out from the camp.
Mr Pakistan cited time constraints trying to meet the Saudi Arabian deadline as the reasons behind his non-consultation with Hajj stakeholders as directed.
This newspaper, however, faulted the Hajj commission’s claims of trying to meet the deadline. It was revealed that the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah released the 2026 Hajj calendar in early June 2025 about 100 days ago.
Infuriated by Mr Pakistan’s daring insubordination and open breach of the presidential directive, Mr Shettima immediately rejected the arbitrary recommendations and ordered that a meeting of all Hajj stakeholders be convened on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, to produce a consensus and collective recommendation of the 2026 Hajj by all stakeholders.
Sources said the September 16, 2025, date recommendations, Mr Shettima insisted, must have the buy-in and endorsement (through minute extracts) of all the critical Hajj stakeholders, notably the state chief executives and tour operators, who own the pilgrims.
Mr Pakistan’s penchant for imposition of service providers on states and tour operators didn’t start with the Rawaf Mina’s case, this newspaper reliably understands. On June 14, 2025, while in Saudi Arabia, the NAHCON chairman also appointed a Saudi Arabian company, Ekram Deif, as the sole service provider for all Nigerian pilgrims in the 2026 Hajj.
The appointment was contained in an official NAHCON document titled, “Extract from the 24th EXCO meeting (offshore) of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), held on June 14, 2025, at 4.00 pm at Ummul Jood Makkah.”
Ekram Deif, just like Rawaf Mina, is reportedly notorious for providing poor services to Nigerian pilgrims during the last Hajj and its non-compliance of Saudi NUSUK electronic platform, hence their rejection by states and tour operators. Insiders said a top NAHCON chief was instrumental in the earlier selection of Ekram Deif, a coy promoted by a woman living in Makkah.
Rawaf Mina, on the other hand, is being promoted by an aide in the VP’s office. The recommendation of the firm, insiders said, is to appease that presidential aide, a hitherto Mr Pakistan’s ally, but parted ways with him after the 2025 Hajj.
The appointment of Ekram Deif without the states and tour operators’ input also created an implosion inside the Hajj commission, with the NAHCON Commissioner of Operations, Anofiu O. Elegushi, flatly rejecting the unilateral decision.
In a letter dated June 19, 2025, Mr Elegushi accused Mr Pakistan of “conflict of interest, lack of transparency, and insufficient stakeholder participation” in arriving at the service provider’s selection.
Elegushi also accused Professor Pakistan of deliberately excluding him from the meeting while he was in Jeddah, coordinating pilgrims’ dispatch to Nigeria.
Shettima, in a letter dated June 20, 2025, and reference number SH/OVP/DCOS, indirectly cancelled Ekram Deif’s selection, saying all contracts above N100 million with foreign firms must be vetted by the Federal Ministry of Justice.
A staff member of the commission who spoke on the condition that his identity wouldn’t be revealed that, “Mr Pakistan can’t be trusted. Last year, after awarding the Masha’ir contracts 100 percent to Mashariq Dhahabia and later slashed it to less than 50 percent, and all the attendant confusion and the VP’s intervention, Professor Pakistan promised Mashariq that he would grant it 100 percent of the contracts in 2026 so that they don’t go to court.
Again, he demonstrated insincerity by first attempting to appoint Ekram Diaf and later Rawaf Mina as the sole service provider making Mashariq completely lost out. If not for the directives of the VP who insisted that stakeholders engagement must be made in this year’s selection. This is someone who brags as an Islamic scholar, but yet he cannot keep his words.”
Stakeholders are worried that Mr Pakistan’s poor leadership skills may jeopardise the 2026 Hajj operation. “The Office of the Vice President, which statutorily oversees the Hajj commission, is now being burdened by Mr Pakistan’s glaring lack of capacity – forcing the VP’s office to assume micro-management of the Hajj commission.”
“This is the fourth time that the VP is physically summoning the Hajj stakeholders meeting to broker a truce and curtail disputes and pushback that the VP’s office was called upon to intervene in the past,” one of the insiders lamented.
This newspaper also uncovered that Mr Pakistan’s claims of facilitating the cost of Hajj reduction in the Daily Trust interview are not correct.
Investigations by our reporters have shown that the involvement of state pilgrim boards’ chief executives, not Mr Pakistan’s efforts, in the Masha’ir services negotiations for 2025 Hajj services, was the sole reason for the drop in the cost of Hajj seats in Nigeria.
Analysis of official data obtained from NAHCON has revealed that the cost of Masha’ir services during the 2024 Hajj was 4,770 Saudi riyal. But after the state chief executives’ involvement in the negotiations during the 2025 Hajj, it was brought down to 4,050 Saudi riyal per pilgrim.
This newspaper gathered that barring any last minute change, the cost of Masha’ir services would be down to 3,950 Saudi riyal this year.
This newspaper reports that Mr Pakistan’s claims are false and can’t be substantiated by any empirical data. Insiders said the issue of involving the states was the practice before the coming of Barrister Zikirullah Kunle Hassan in 2019. Some staff of the commission have accused Mr Zikirullah of laying the foundation of the ongoing destruction of the Hajj commission and the Hajj industry in Nigeria through widespread lavish expenditure, non-adherence to the budgetary provisions and deviating from the course NAHCON was originally set up.
“NAHCON leadership involved the states, the Nigerian Consulate in Jeddah, and the Embassy in Riyadh in the negotiations. This was why Hajj fares were kept low by Zikirullah’s predecessor,” an insider said.
The Hajj commission leadership, it was reliably learned, would sign the Masha’ir contracts with a service provider collectively selected by the Hajj stakeholders and judged to be the best in service delivery to pilgrims over the years, on Wednesday, September 24, 2025.
Stakeholders who spoke to this newspaper on the preparation of the 2026 Hajj have urged the EFCC to monitor the NAHCON Saudi accounts closely with a view to obtaining a statement of account before and after the ongoing Saudi trip by Mr Pakistan and his top lieutenants.
“The Hajj commission account in Saudi Arabia has been depleted already. The EFCC will help the Hajj sector and Nigeria at large by obtaining the records of the accounts before September 22, 2025, and after the trip, as well as the justification for the spending. This will go a long way in ensuring transparency and probity,” an official of the commission said.
The stakeholders have also urged the VP Shettima to appoint one service provider for the states and tour operators, instead of hiring two. They said, “appointing one service provider for all Nigerian pilgrims would enhance the management of NUSUK platform, ease monitoring and sanctioning by the commission, and enable the commission -using numerical powe to get higher discount thereby reducing the cost of Hajj for Nigerians.
“It’s very evident that appointing one service provider for all the Nigeria. pilgrims may further reduce the cost to less than the envisaged 3,950 Saudi riyal because of the higher number.”