NIGERIA, on Sunday, August 7, completed the 2022 hajj operation with the conclusion of the airlift of 43,008 pilgrims from the holy land. The last inbound flight conveyed 319 pilgrims from Kaduna and Kano and officials from various states and NAHCON.
The transport of the pilgrims from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia was, however, not without challenges. But the chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Alhaji Zikrullah Hassan, in an interview with newsmen, stated that the fact that 90 per cent of the pilgrims were able to perform this year’s hajj and return safely indicated that the exercise was a huge success.
Also, the head of the public affairs unit of the commission, Fatima Usara, in a statement, noted that the last flight came six days ahead of the deadline of hajj airlift set by the Saudi Arabian authorities and three days ahead of NAHCON’s deadline, which was August 10, 2022. According to Usara, for the over three weeks the outbound flights lasted, only two flight cancellations were recorded with a maximum delay of six hours.
Alhaji Hassan attributed the success of the exercise to Allah without whose intervention, he said, nothing could have been achieved. He also thanked President Muhammad Buhari for giving the commission a free hand to operate.
The number of hajj slots allocated to Nigeria this year (about 43,000) was a far cry from the about 95,000 that had usually been allocated to the country over the years. The shortfall was the first challenge encountered by NAHCON. Hassan had said at different forums that in view of the shortfall, intending pilgrims should not expect magic. He said not everyone who had deposited money to travel to the holy land for hajj should expect to make it after all.
This year’s hajj also took place when the world was still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. For two years, the pandemic caused the exercise to be held without the participation of international pilgrims. This was also a major challenge faced by the international community. NAHCON had prepared well ahead of time but the cancellation dwarfed its effort, bearing in mind that many intending pilgrims had made deposits under the commission’s Hajj Savings Scheme (HSS). The commission had directed states pilgrims agencies to treat the applications on a first come, first served basis.
Unfortunately, it was gathered that when the preclusion of international pilgrims was reversed this year, most of these agencies did not conform to the NAHCON directive. They ignored the Hajj Savings Scheme introduced by the commission for reasons best known to them. This resulted in outcry by some intending pilgrims who could not make it to the holy land. There were allegations (which have however been denied) of allocation of complimentary seats to political allies, family members and friends by some industry players. Nevertheless, the commission should rectify this anomaly and ensure that the depositors are the first to be attended to for the 2023 hajj.
Another challenge faced by the commission while preparing for hajj was the failure of the Saudi Arabian authorities to make up their mind on whether the exercise would hold this year or not.
In a media interview, Hassan was quoted as saying: “We only received directive from the Saudis a month to the commencement of the hajj that hajj would hold this year. This is not easy. If we had not done some planning, we would have been caught napping. The challenges could be overwhelming.”
After Saudi Arabia finally reversed the restriction of hajj, it allocated a little above 40,000 seats to Nigeria. This shortfall was indeed a big issue as Nigeria is one of the countries that were used to having some of the highest numbers of pilgrims. With the number at hand, the commission and the states agencies had no option but to work with what they had.
NAHCON was able to beat the time with the airlift of the first batch of pilgrims from the Maiduguri International Airport.
Nigeria had recorded a smooth hajj operation until the case of the 700 intending pilgrims that were stranded at Aminu Kano International Airport sprang up.
The issue of the stranded intending pilgrims was not pleasant and the case could have been avoided. Findings revealed that by 19th June, 2022, NAHCON had transferred money along with schedule of payments in spite of the allegation by the private tour operators that the commission refused to fund their International Bank Account Number (IBAN).
What this means is that each tour company’s entitlement was sent to its Mu’assasa. The remittance was well in excess of what was ultimately to be paid into the individual IBAN accounts of the tour operators. It should be noted that subsequent transfers to these individual accounts are an exclusive responsibility of the Mu’assasa. But these Mu’assasa were unable to do so, hence the embarrassment. Notwithstanding, the chairman of NAHCON, it was learnt, called the Mu’assasa to rectify the logjam. The Mu’assasa, it was said, in turn, spoke to the bank but the payments remained hanging. The NAHCON boss admitted that these hiccups were issues that would be sorted out by the private tour operators and the commission when planning for next year’s hajj.
Another major challenge encountered by the pilgrims was the issue of poor feeding. Most of the food vendors contracted in Saudi Arabia served substandard meals. Piqued by this development, the NAHCON boss asked the food vendors to return the pilgrims’ money. Against this background, all eyes will be on the commission as regards ensuring that the vendors comply with the directive.
Hassan acknowledged that there were challenges during the outbound trip from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia which resulted from time constraint and other unforeseen hiccups such as the IBAN issue that affected some tour operators.
“Nonetheless, this has spurred the commission into taking lessons,” said Hassan, who also told newsmen that the commission would commence early planning and embark on pre-qualification of airlines sooner than later so as to enable the air carriers to scale any unforeseen hurdles in good time.
He promised that the commission would ensure that all contractual agreements are fulfilled.