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The Government has promised to add one more holiday to the Eid al-Fitr national holiday and reduce Hajj fares to enable more Moslems to participate in the annual pilgrimage.
“We promised to add one more holiday to the Eid al-Fitr. So as soon as parliament settles, we’re going to amend the Holidays Act to include an extra holiday on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr,” President John Dramani Mahama said at the Muslims National Thanksgiving Service on Friday. “And so this year after we finish the fast of the Ramadan we will have two holidays for the Salah festivities.” The event, which was held at the National Mosque, Kanda, Accra, and chaired by the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu, was to thank Allah for a peaceful December 7 general election.
President Mahama said in the run-up to the electioneering, the National Chief Imam led the Muslim Group to present to him the Muslim manifesto for inclusion in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) 2024 election manifesto. Twelve of the 14 points that were presented were captured in the NDC’s manifesto, he noted. Touching on Hajj fares, the President said: “We intend to keep our promise to the Muslim community and I can highlight a few of the promises, one of which was that we’ll reduce Hajj fees drastically.” A five-member Hajj Task Force had been formed, led by Ghana’s longest serving (Muslim) Member of Parliament (MP), Mr. Collins Dauda.
President Mahama said the team would be leaving for the Holy Land of Saudi Arabia on Monday, January 13, to participate in the Hajj Conference. While there, they would make arrangements to bring the Hajj fares “as low as possible so that as many Muslims who intend to perform the pilgrimage can do so,” President Mahama said.
The Government had also promised to uphold the constitutional provision that Ghanaians were free to belong to any religion and to profess their religion. “Professing our religion includes how we dress. And so, in that vein, we will protect the rights of Muslim women to wear their hijabs wherever,” he said.
President Mahama said his administration promised to provide more scholarships for students in deprived communities, especially the Muslim communities, to study three main subjects: medicine, law and information and communication technology to boost Ghana’s human resource in these fields.
“We also promised to train and recruit more Arabic teachers so that we can have enough teachers in our Islamic schools,” he added. The event was attended by the Vice President, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the NDC National Chairman, Mr. Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, the General Secretary, and other leading figures of the party.
Source: GNA
