EDITORIAL: Another Hajj Fiasco Looms?

It seems to have become a perennial thing for potential Moslem pilgrims to expect the difficulties and problems associated with the organization of the Hajj in Ghana.

After all the hullabaloo that surrounded last year's Hajj, we thought the organisers would have learnt a lot of lessons. Maybe they did, because in the aftermath of last year's disaster, the Chief Imam's office gave a verbal assurance to put in place, proper mechanisms for the forthcoming Hajj programme, to forestall the suffering that the pilgrims have endured over the past years. In fact, a national conference on the Hajj was held early this year. The conference involved all the major stakeholders, and culminated in the formation of the National Hajj Council (NHC), which was mandated to organize the 2008 Hajj.

By some twist of fate, the Chief Imam has just constituted a seven-member Interim Hajj Committee (IHC) to ensure a smooth Hajj programme this year, but before the dust could settle on the newly-formed body to start work, a salvo has been fired by the NHC, which are refusing to die away.

According to them, they were the legitimate and authorised body to organise the Hajj, and that the IHC should be disregarded. In the midst of all the confusion, the potential pilgrims have been left in a quagmire, not knowing who to turn to.

The government has not helped matters by maintaining a deafening silence. The Chronicle believes that it is about time government called all the factions to order, if we are to have a successful Hajj this year. We must also bear in mind that the organisation of the Hajj was a government to government arrangement, therefore, the government of Ghana has the legitimate right to get involved.

Although the government has left the handling of the pilgrimage to the office of the Chief Imam, it looks like the authority of the latter is fast being eroded, especially with the organisation of the Hajj.

The pilgrimage to Mecca, as one of the five pillars of Islam, is of spiritual significance to every Moslem. This spiritual obligation should therefore, not be seen to be taken away from the potential pilgrims, through no fault of theirs. The act of performing the Hajj should be a spiritually joyous occasion for pilgrims, but the reverse has been the case in Ghana over the past years. We cannot understand why pilgrims will be made to pay, in the region of $3,000, only to be left to sleep by the roadside, as it happened last year, due to someone's organisational inefficiency.

The government owes it as a duty to intervene now, rather than wait for the situation to get out of hand, before it goes to the Saudi government to beg for an extension of the deadline for flights into Saudi Arabia.

It would be a big embarrassment if it happens again, as the Saudi government has already issued a statement that it would not extend the deadline this year, and we believe the Saudi government should by now have had enough of Ghana.

When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers, and Ghanaian Moslems seem to be telling the NHC and IHC to settle their differences, in order for them to have a successful Hajj.