... Appoints Sultan, Oritsejafor permanent heads of Muslim, Christian pilgrims

Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar

Henceforth, the spiritual head of Muslims in the country and  the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar and the President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor will be permanent heads of Nigerian pilgrims to Hajj in Saudi Arabia and Israel. However, in the event the Sultan or the CAN President is unable to lead the Federal Government’s delegation on the pilgrimages, the Sultan or Oritsajefor would have the right to nominate whoever they  wish to lead the pilgrims, President Goodluck Jonathan has said.

Jonathan , who stated this yesterday while commissioning the newly acquired head office of the Nigeria Christian Pilgrims Commission (NCPC) in Abuja, said the  decision to make the appointments permanent was to institutionalise the headship of FG’s delegation to the holy lands and give room for proper record keeping.

This, according to him, is a clear departure from the practise in the past when the President at will could appoint anybody to be the Amirul Hajj or head of Christian delegation.

“We have resolved that head of Federal Government delegation to Israel and Rome will henceforth be the President of CAN. Now, we want to make it permanent and we are doing the same thing for hajj. The spiritual head of the Muslim who is the Sultan of Sokoto will continue to be the Amirul Hajj. Any year he is not able to go, he will recommend the head. We want to institutionalise it so that we can have proper record,” Jonathan said.

The government also  yesterday announced the  appointment of Oritsejafor as the head of the Federal Government’s delegation to Israel and Rome for 2010 pilgrimage.

Jonathan called on the leadership of NCPC to depend less on government to sponsor pilgrims to Israel, saying that they should device means of generating funds to sponsor the less privileged to the holy lands.

President Jonathan who was presented with an award for his support by the chairman of the NCPC, Most Reverend Nicholas Okoh lauded six state governors who also received awards for their support.

The governors who received awards were Gabriel Suswam of Benue State, Danjuma Goje of Gombe State, Sulivan Chime of Enugu State, Rotimi Amaehi of Rivers State, Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State and Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Executive Secretary of NCPC, Mr John Kennedy Opara expressed appreciation to PresidentJonathan who as NCPC supervising boss when he was vice president, stood by the commission when it took off as it did not inherit neither structure nor vehicles from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Speaking on behalf of the award recipients, Governor Danjuma lauded the Christian community for always recognising his efforts at ensuring peaceful co-existence among Christians and Muslims in his state.

He assured the NCPC that he would continue to sponsor Christians from his state on Holy pilgrimage to Israel.

Present at the occasion were the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekwerenmadu, Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Alloysius Katsina-Alu, CAN President, Oritsejafor and ministers.