Shettima warns NAHCON chairman over pilgrims activities

Vice President Kashim Shettima has warned the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Hajj Commission, NAHCON, Prof. Abdullahi Saleh-Usman, to stop behaving like a Sole Administrator in running the affairs of Nigerian pilgrims.

Shettima issued this warning in an official communication sent to the NAHCON chairman over the allegations of violation of procurement process, gross misconduct, sidelining of the commission board members, illegal appointment of aides, among others.

The vice president’s warning was contained in a letter dated March 17, 2025, with reference number SH/OVP/DCOS/NAHCON, and titled ‘Re-Deliberate Exclusion from the Exercise of Oversight Functions.’

The letter was signed by the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Office of the Vice President, Sen. Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia.

Mr Shettima frowned at the NAHCON chairman style of setting up committees to be taking decisions on behalf of the board in violation of the commission act.

“The act does not envisage a sole administrator role and each member has a responsibility to the zone or entity he or she represents

especially with regards all decisions relating to pilgrims welfare,” Mr Shettima warned.

“Their letter states that they raised these issues at a meeting on

February 4th 2025 where the chairman acknowledged and apologised for the lapses but apparently did nothing to address them going forward,” the VP said.

“Accordingly, His Excellency the Vice President has asked that your attention be drawn to the provisions of the NAHCON act especially the

supplementary provisions governing the proceedings of the commission where all reference to the powers and regulatory responsibility of the commission refers to it as a whole,” the letter said.

The vice president warned the NAHCON chief “to ensure that the members of the commission are given their due as envisaged by the NAHCON act so that they are not rendered redundant and to ensure that all major decisions of the commission are in compliance with the law.”

Mr Shettima’s warning is coming days after the NAHCON board members’ petition to his office over an alleged gross misconduct being perpetrated by Mr Usman.

The six-page petition, dated March 13, 2025 and titled, “Deliberate exclusion from the oversight functions,” was signed by the eight NAHCON non-permanent commissioners representing six geo-political zones and the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, NSCIA, and Jama’atul Nasril Islam, JNI.

They accused the Professor of excluding them from their statutory oversight responsibilities in the commission.

The signatories to the petition are Professor Muhammad Umaru Ndagi (North-central), Alhaji Abba K. Jato (Northeast), Shaykh Muhammad Bn Uthman (Northwest), Hajiya Aishat Obi (Southeast), Zainab Musa (South-south), Dr Tajudeen Abefe Oladejo (Southwest), Professor Adedimeji Mahfouz Adebola (NSCIA), and Professor Musa Inuwa Fodio (JNI).

Earlier, the Association of Senior Civil Servants in Nigeria has accused NAHCON of alleged favoritism and unjust placement of pool officers over the commission workers.

The workers revealed this in a letter titled, “Urgent concerns regarding the placement of pool officers and administrative lapses”, dated March 3, 2025, and addressed to the NAHCON executive council and board members.

Meanwhile, in another letter titled, “Re: Request for Special Waiver to Appoint 3 Retired Officers on Contract,” signed by Mr Hadejia and addressed to NAHCON chairman, Mr Shettima strongly warned Mr Usman from rehiring former or external staff members.

The letter said: “His Excellency the Vice President has expressed a strong objection to rehiring former staff of the commission on contract basis or engaging external civil servants to the detriment of your staff that are assigned the roles and responsibilities they are employed to perform.”

The vice president said, “Doing so will engender redundancy and create unnecessary discord and rancour within NAHCOM’s ranks.”

Mr Shettima said the NAHCON chairman was, “therefore advised to reverse any such engagements and instruct your Human Resources unit do a proper mandate and capability assessment of your workforce so you can reassign roles and responsibilities or build up capacities where necessary.”

The office of the vice president also warned the NAHCON chairman of breaching State House protocols in submitting official communications to the vice president.

The letter said, “I refer to your letter ref: NAHCON/ Al/17/XI/645, dated 11th February 2025, but received in my office on 17th of March due to a breach in the OVP correspondence protocol.

“Hand carrying official correspondence and passing, same to individual personnel is a flagrant breach of State House external mail protocol and will not be tolerated.”

In their reactions, some staff members of the commission praised Mr Shettima for calling the NAHCON chairman to order.

They also condemned Mr Usman’s “clandestine way of seeking approval to rehire the former staff despite assuring them during a meeting that he had shelved the idea.”

“We are happy with Vice President Shettima’s intervention. It is long overdue. We are at the same time unhappy with Professor Usman’s backdoor approach to rehire retired staff and those from outside. This is absolute betrayal of trust,” one of the officials said anonymously for fear of a backlash.

However, other officials who spoke to this newspaper said Professor Usman is beyond redemption, “because he has created a toxic working environment in the commission and the Hajj industry that his sack is the only solution to the problems he created.”

They officials who spoke anonymously for fear of a backlash said, “Aside incapacity issue, the chairman has fought with the staff, board members, executive secretaries of state pilgrim boards, airlines, tour operators and Saudi service providers. He is irredeemable. The vice president who should sack him before he plunges the 2025 hajj operations into an unprecedented catastrophe.”

They said the NAHCON chairman has surrendered the running of the commission to his family members — his son Aliyu (personal assistant), brother Surajo (special adviser), nephew Abdulmalik Diggi (special adviser and deputy director accounts), as well as protective detail Abubakar.

The officials urged the SSS director general to toe Mr Shettima’s line “by redeploying Abubakar from the commission because he has abandoned his protective role by interfering into day-to-day operations of the commission”.