The chairman of the Oyo State Pilgrims Welfare Board (Muslim Wing), Alhaji Taofeek Akeugbagold, in this interview, relives the experience of 2016 hajj exercise and speaks on the state’s projections ahead of 2017 hajj.
During this year’s hajj, you did not join pilgrims from the state in Saudi Arabia until two weeks after they departed Nigeria. It was alleged that you did this intentionally to avoid dealing with initial complaints from the pilgrims.
That is not true. The truth is that about eight of our pilgrims had some visa challenges which we had to sort out before I left Nigeria. Governor Abiola Ajimobi had ordered that I should not leave for Saudi Arabia without the last of the pilgrims. That was why I got to Makkah at the time I did. If a shepherd takes a hundred lambs to graze and one of them is missing, it is proper that the shepherd finds the missing lamb and complete his flock. That was what we did.
How many pilgrims did Oyo State lead to Saudi Arabia this year?
We had a total of 1,354 pilgrims. And when we talk of accommodation for Nigerian pilgrims for the last hajj exercise, Oyo State had the best in Makkah and even in Madinah. The credit goes to Governor Ajimobi.
How would you describe the office of the chairman of the Muslim pilgrims welfare board, especially of a state as big as Oyo?
It is called pilgrims welfare board but in addition to that, I refer to it as a conflicts management board, because there is no year the hajj pilgrimage does not come with challenges. This is partly because on a yearly basis, all pilgrims are of different statuses and backgrounds, including first-time air travellers and those with vast experience in air travel. Hence, the head of a board such as ours must know his onions and be disciplined.
What are those perennial challenges that attend the hajj exercise and how were you able to deal with them in this past exercise?
Every year, the exercise has challenges, especially problems associated with visa procurement, which are not peculiar to any state in the country. This is so because every year, the Saudi authorities come out with a new system and every country must ensure compliance. The major challenge we experienced this year bordered on visa procurement, which led to a delay in the date of our departure. There was a little challenge regarding BTA [Basic Travel Allowance), too. The problem emanated from our bank here but we with help of Allah, we sorted it out. All pilgrims collected their BTA; nobody was owed any money.
Another challenge was that as a state, we always scheduled our hajj activities. We appointed a time for the stoning ritual. We didn’t stone at the peak period, when the sun would be intense and the crowd would large so that our pilgrims could perform the rite comfortably. But when we got to Makkah this year, we discovered that the Saudi authorities had changed the system by allocating a time for the stoning ritual to each state of all the participating countries and the time allocated to us was the peak period. But with proper planning, we performed the rite without any hitches. We thank Allah that the Oyo State contingent did not record any loss of life.
Muna is the place where most of the hajj rites are performed. The problem we had at first was that some of the air conditioners in our tent were not working and the weather was hot. But the devises were replaced after our complaints before we returned to Makkah. All our pilgrims were hale and hearty. Our prayer was always that our medical team be idle in Saudi Arabia, because if nobody is ill, they have nothing to do.
What could you point to as the achievements of your board in that hajj exercise?
First and foremost, let me say that whatever achievements we recorded was the making of Allah. Before I assumed the mantle of the chairman of Oyo State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, I used to wear agbada. I cannot wear that kind of dress now because I want to keep away from pride and see myself as a common man. I don’t have an official vehicle, I drive my personal car and I did not employ a driver. Before I became the board’s chairman, whenever I visited Makkah, I always wondered if we Africans were ever going to secure a hotel close to the Masjid al Haram. This was because all hotels that were very close to the grand mosque were very expensive. They were only inhabited during the hajj period by pilgrims from developed countries. We thought that it was impossible for any Nigerian state to do that. But I thank God that we were able to put Oyo State on record by securing a hotel for our people very close to the grand mosque this year.
Oyo State is the first to achieve that feat in Nigeria. We [Oyo State pilgrims] and Mali are the first set of Africans to have lived very close to the grand mosque during the hajj period. It was a five-star hotel, just about three minutes’ walk to the mosque. Another state that secured a hotel closest to ours was about half a kilometre away from us. Only Kaduna had tried to achieve that feat before; it was about four buildings farther than ours.
I feel fulfilled with this achievement because proximity to Masjid al Haram makes the hajj exercise easy. Pilgrims from some states could not go to the grand mosque every time because of the exorbitant transport fare, whereas our pilgrims worshipped there five times daily. A bed space for each of our pilgrims cost about N400,000 throughout our stay in Makkah because we secured it for 6,000 SR at the time when a Riyal was equivalent to N80. And you know how much will be left if about N400,000 is deducted from the hajj fare. Our pilgrims will tell you that they didn’t miss our local food in Makkah. They drank hot pap with moinmoin. They ate amala, semo, eba with ewedu and egusi soups. We took all these foods to Saudi Arabia and employed a Yoruba cook living there to make these meals for us. The meals were served twice daily.
What are your targets for next year’s hajj?
By the grace of Allah, we shall maintain our achievement in the area of accommodation next year. Muna is the place where most of the hajj rites are performed. It is from Muna that pilgrims go to other places of worship like Arafat, Musdalifa and Jamarat. This year, the authorities of Saudi Arabia allocated Tent C to Oyo State in Muna and, insha’Allah, we are going to make sure that we move to Tent B next year. That is the peak any country throughout the world can reach, because no country can secure Tent A as that is meant for Saudi Arabia’s hajj officials who are drawn from different countries of the world.
By the way, we intend to build a big mosque inside the hajj camp in Olodo and we are already planning on raising the fund. God willing, the project will be completed before the next hajj.
How would you compare the last hajj exercise to the previous ones under your watch?
About three weeks before departure, we organised a series of seminars for our pilgrims to educate them on the hajj exercise. I believe that is part of the reasons our pilgrims were well behaved. This year hajj was itch-free and a huge success. We recorded neither death nor serious ailments among our pilgrims. They were well oriented on the performance of hajj and umra.
What is your take on the idea of stopping pilgrimage sponsorship by government?
Oyo was the first state to introduce what I will call a private system of hajj whereby the government withdraws sponsorship of hajj – because of the state of the economy in the country. Gone are the days when the state government would spend millions of Naira to sponsor touts and politicians’ hangers-on on hajj pilgrimage. Record has it that a previous government in the state spent as much as N150 million on hajj pilgrims in a particular year. This kind of practice does not help the economic situation in the country. Governor Ajimobi had foreseen recession before it actually happened and stopped pilgrimage sponsorship. Now he only gives moral support and guidance. If there is the need for the governor to give the board money, he would take it from his private pocket and ask us to adjust and not rely on government. Many states in the country have adopted this stance on hajj sponsorship. Our governor trains us a lot – directly and indirectly.
My advice for other pilgrims welfare boards is to look elsewhere for funding; they should not rely on government money. There is nowhere in the world where government sponsors people to hajj. It is the last pillar of Islam and Allah has made it mandatory for only those who have the wherewithal.
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