Man City mogul lines up Obama kin for Hajj
Mr Remigio M. Maradona, the director-general of the Inter-governmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition (left), and Dr Sulaiman al-Fahim, the organisation’s ambassador at large (right), with Mama Sarah Obama, on Friday. Dr al-Fahim will sponsor Mama Sarah to this year’s Hajj to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Photo/JACOB OWITI
The businessman behind the takeover of English Premier League side Manchester City Football Club has pledged to sponsor Mama Sarah Obama, the grandmother of US President Barack Obama, to the Hajj pilgrimage later this year.
Billionaire Dr Sulaiman al-Fahim — the point man of mega-rich Abu Dhabi United Group — said on Friday he would be taking Mama Sarah to Mecca for the annual pilgrimage alongside his wife.
“I have a wife but not a mother so she (Mama Sarah) can take that place and join us to the Hajj,” he said after paying a courtesy call on Mama Sarah at her Kogelo Village home.
The pilgrimage falls in November, this year, a good time for Mama Sarah to visit the Islamic Holy city of Mecca, he said.
Dr Al-Fahim is the ambassador at large for Inter-governmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition (Iimsam) while Mama Sarah is its goodwill ambassador.Iimsam director-general Remigio Maradona accompanied Dr al-Fahim.
Speaking through a translator, Mama Sarah accepted the Hajj offer. “I will go,” she said. “If it’s possible, I will make it.”
Dr Al-Fahim pledged to help the organisation realise a world free of malnutrition and hunger by mainstreaming the use of Spirulina to eradicate malnutrition, achieve food security, and bridge the health divide.
