The Independent Hajj Reporters (IHR), an NGO, has honoured best Hajj service operators in appreciation of their outstanding services in 2019.
Mr Abubakar Usman of Radio Nigeria Kaduna received Best Hajj Reporter of the year 2019, Rahma Radio, Kano, bagged Best Hajj Radio of the year, while the Nation Newspapers received Best Hajj newspaper of the year.
In the state category, Nasarawa State received Best and Well-Coordinated State in terms of pilgrims affairs in Makkah, while Kwara received Best award in Feeding for their pilgrims in Saudi Arabia.
The group presented awards of excellence to different categories of the service providers.
The National Coordinator of IHR, Malam Ibrahim Muhammed, said the award was to encourage the Hajj service providers to deliver efficient and effective services to pilgrims.
Muhammed said this on Thursday during an Award winning ceremony for the 2019 Hajj organised by IHR in Abuja.
He said the awardees were carefully selected through instrumentality of Hajj operational performance index laid down by NAHCON and Independent Hajj Reporters for 2019 exercise.
“We have all gathered here to celebrate some Hajj stakeholders who we believed have exceptionally added value to Hajj operations in their various endeavors in 2019.
He therefore challenged the award recipients to justify the honour by redoubling their efforts towards improving Hajj services in their respective states and organisations.
”It is our hope that those who are being honoured today will take this as an appreciation of their hard work and a challenge for them to continue to render quality services to our dear pilgrims,” he said.
The coordinator said the one of the goals of IHR is to enlighten pilgrims on the do’s and don’ts of Hajj both in Nigeria and in Saudi Arabia.
Muhammad said the group also create mutual understanding among all Hajj stakeholders through the instrumentality of the media as well as to assist in reporting Hajj activities to the public using the media.
The acting Chairman, National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Malam Abdullahi Mukhtar, said the emergence of Independent Hajj Reporters has contributed immensely towards disseminating accurate information about Hajj activities considering what was obtained in the past.
“In the past, some media houses have breached the ethics of even journalism by reporting Hajj activity negatively but with the advent of Independent Hajj Reporters alot of sanity have been injected into the reportage of Hajj.
“They (IHR) need our support; goverment, all stakeholders, to perform better, and not that Hajj should not be reported in a factual manner but in reporting Hajj, there are alot of things that has to be observed and respected.
“It is a trans-border activity, the sanctity of the two countries involved has to be recognised and respected and in most cases the privacy, the sanctity, the respect of the personalities that the media houses report about, the characters; that is the pilgrims themselves, need to be respected.
“In the past some of these things were breached,” he said.
Mukhtar therefore urged the media to always exhibit the spirit of professionalism, diligence and accuracy in their Hajj reportage.
