Perfecting the organisation of Hajj

The delay in the lifting of Muslim pilgrims, from Ghana to Mecca to embark on their annual pilgrimage, comes as a source of worry to The Chronicle. We thought that for once, the nation had been able to perfect the act of organising the Hajj pilgrimage, on the back of last year's successful organisation.

The Chairman of the National Hajj Committee, Alhaji Alhassan Bene, assured the nation that plans were advanced to airlift the pilgrims to Mecca, with the first batch of pilgrims expected to leave Accra on October 15, 2010, until the last flight, which is expected to leave on October 31, 2010.

After the successful departure of some Muslim pilgrims to Mecca, as enunciated by Alhaji Alhassan Bene, there seems to have been a hitch with the rest of the programme, as the last batch of the pilgrims is still wallowing in suspense at the Hajj village, not knowing their fate.

This has forced Vice President John Dramani to postpone a scheduled trip to the Czech Republic, to help solve the delays in transporting the last batch of pilgrims to Mecca.

According to Joy FM, the prospective pilgrims have expressed disappointment at the delays in traveling, amidst fears that they may not make the holy journey.

Some pilgrims said they had not been airlifted, as promised on Saturday, while others say their passports are not ready.

There seems to be scarcity of information concerning the delay that has hit the programme, and The Chronicle hopes the pilgrims, and Ghanaians at large, will be furnished with adequate news on developments so far.

We might have succeeded in building a Hajj village to make the stay of prospective pilgrims comfortable before they embark on their journey to Mecca, but we should also not discount the psychological torture on the would be pilgrims, who still do not know their fate, as to whether they would indeed, be going or not.

In an editorial we did last year to laud the efforts of the National Hajj Committee for organising a successful Hajj, we also advised the government and the Hajj board to stay above board in the handling of protocol tickets, especially, the ones that go to political parties.

We might have been proved right with the news that the spokesperson of the National Hajj Committee, Alhaji Alidu Haruna, was allegedly assaulted in his office by a group of young men, known as Azorka Boys, following the inability of some pilgrims to go on the Holy journey to Mecca. This was obviously, politically motivated, and we hope such incidents do not recur again.

The Chronicle is also saddened by the news that some of the stranded prospective pilgrims at the Hajj village were reported to have rejected cartons of bottled water presented to them by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, Nana Akuffo Addo.

We are indeed appalled by the way Ghanaians tend to politicise everything in this country, to the extent of politicising even a gift of water. We must put a stop to this behaviour if we want the nation to progress.

Although the recent organisation of the Hajj is a far improvement on what we have been used to, we still seem not to be out of the woods.

We hope some good news would come out of the Vice President's intervention for the prospective pilgrims.