NAHCON chairman lauds airlift of 50,865 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia

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The Chairman/CEO, National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Malam Jalal Ahmad Arabi, on Monday expressed delight at the feat achieved by the commission in airlifting all Nigerian pilgrims under the state boards to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for this year’s Hajj 72 hours before the closure of Saudi airspace.

A total of 50,865 Nigerians who registered with the state pilgrims boards were airlifted in the first phase of the airlift operation in a total of 121 flights, with the last flight departing the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja in the early hours of Monday, June 10.

Only Abia; Akwa Ibom; Anambra and Cross River states did not have pilgrims participating in this year’s Hajj.

Of the number airlifted, 31,726 are males, while 19,139 are females. Forty-three thousand, two hundred and ninety-nine landed at the Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Madina in 105 flights, while 7,566 landed at the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah in 16 flights.

Speaking to Nigerian journalists on arrival in Madina on Monday, the NAHCON boss gave thanks to Allah for the successful outbound airlift and asserted that this is the first time in a long time that Nigeria would achieve the feat of completing the airlift of its pilgrims before the closure of the airspace.

According to him, “Alhamdulillah, we lack adequate words to give praises to our Creator and to thank Him. We can’t thank Him enough for what He has done for us.

“I think this day will go down in history as the first time in a very, very long time since the commence of Hajj operation to say that 72 hours before the closure of airspace, 100 percent of our pilgrims are here, at least those in our custody, in the hope that the tour operators will keep the target.”

Arabi declared that NAHCON was able to achieve the feat through the cooperation and collaboration of all stakeholders both in the public and private sectors.

“That was able to achieve through the cooperation of all stakeholders both the public and private sectors. When I say public, off course the government: the executive and legislature. And the private sector, the air carriers; they too have lived up to expectations,” he said.

The chairman submitted that the commission’s strategy of airlifting pilgrims directly to Madina before going to Makkah greatly paid off, adding that this would enable the Hajj body to concentrate on airlifting them back home through Jeddah.

“What strategy we adopted which Allah made us to achieve is to ensure 100 percent Nigerian pilgrims arrived here through Madina.

“By the time we plan on the final phase of going back home, we will only concentrate on taking our pilgrims to Jeddah and from Jeddah back home. In shaa Allah, we will achieve another success and then everybody will be happy,” he said.

According to Arabi, when this target was achieved, the commission would again have succeeded for the first time in reducing the number of days Nigerian pilgrims spend each time they came to Saudi Arabia for Hajj, “whereby you see Nigerians in disarray, loitering about, while their counterparts from other countries have been evacuated back home”.

While urging Nigerian pilgrims to be law-abiding and good ambassadors of their country, Arabi appealed to them to pray for Nigeria and its leaders while they (pilgrims) are in the holy land.

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