From: Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse
The Jigawa State Pilgrims Welfare Board (JSPWB) has organised a one-day train-the-trainer programme for 170 facilitators.
Those trained would, in turn, train the state’s intending pilgrims for the 2017 Hajj exercise.
The Public Relations Officer of the board, Alhaji Ibrahim Hasheem, stated this when he spoke with newsmen in Dutse on Tuesday.
Hasheem said five facilitators, three males and two females were drawn from each of the 27 local government areas of the state for the exercise.
He said that the facilitators would in turn train the intending pilgrims at designated centres across the state.
The spokesperson noted that the gesture was to ensure proper training of the pilgrims on the basic tenets of Hajj.
“After the train-the-trainer program, the facilitators are expected to go back to their respective local government areas to step down the training.
“They are mandated to train prospective pilgrims on obligations, tenets and cardinal principles of the Hajj the exercise.
“And the board will supervise the exercise in order to ensure that each and every prospective pilgrim participate in the exercise,” he said.
According to him, proper education of pilgrims would prepare them to conduct the Hajj in accordance with the teachings of Islam and be good ambassadors of the country.
Hashim added that it would also give the intending pilgrims the opportunity to know proper and acceptable Hajj rites.
He, therefore, advised the pilgrims to attend the training in view of its importance.
One of the resource persons, Dr. AbdulKadir Saleh, drew the attention of the intending pilgrims towards the obligations that needed to be observed and respected accordingly, especially in Mecca and Mina, both in Saudi Arabia.
Among such rules are; every intending pilgrim is expected to avoid using force against other pilgrims, smoking, as well as avoiding sitting on the entrances of the prophets mosque.
Others, he said, are dropping anything that might pose as harmful to people such as water sachets and the symbolic spraying of grains to birds in Mecca.
It could be recalled that the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria had allocated 2,677 seats to the state for the 2017 Hajj.