THE chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Alhaji Zikrullah Hassan, has expressed delight over what he described as the success of the 2023 Hajj.

Hassan asserted that for the first time in nearly a decade, Nigeria went to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the full contingent of 95,000 pilgrims, representing the total number of slots allocated to the country.

In an interview with Muslim News, an Islamic newspaper, the NAHCON chairman said the feat began with the outbound operation which was concluded days before the closure of Saudi Arabia’s airspace. He noted that “it is pleasing to note that no single pilgrim with a valid visa was left behind in Nigeria.”

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He said: “Despite the turbulent nature of our starting and our outbound journey, the total number of days spent to take pilgrims to Saudi Arabia was 28. And the total number of days spent to return them to Nigeria was also 28, despite the challenges and the hue and cry. Everything happened ahead of fixed dates.”

The NAHCON boss also addressed the shortage of tents and poor feeding at Muna and Arafah, stressing that the Saudi Arabian authorities did not expect that Nigeria would fill all its allocation of 95,000 since such a feat was last achieved in 2014.

He stated that the commission had taken the issue up with the company in charge, the Mutawifs Company for Pilgrims from Non-Arab African Countries, popularly known as Mu’assasa, and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Hajj.

“We have also informed the Saudi authorities on the need for refund. We have written letters to both organisations that hosted us in Muna and Arafah and the ministry, persuading them to order the company to refund. When they do the refund, we will inform Nigerians and will also pass on the funds to them.

“Immediately we returned from Hajj, we constituted a committee and asked each state and operator to submit what they went through and what they expect in terms of compensation. We compiled all these and sent to the Ministry of Hajj as well as the company, expecting refund. We are hopeful, but how soon that will take, we don’t know exactly. We involved our embassy in the Kingdom, too, on this matter,” he said.

Alhaji Hassan also mentioned that the most important thing despite the challenges was that all pilgrims from Nigeria performed Hajj. He noted that even the sick were wheeled to Arafah by the Saudi Arabian authorities.

“The first good news for me is that all of us who went to Hajj performed Hajj and we all, except for those who lost their lives, returned safely. That is the most important thing. To the credence of the Saudi authorities, even some of our pilgrims who were ill were wheeled to the Arafah.

“You won’t see this because they are not going to bring them to your tent. They took them to Arafah and brought them back, including those who were on life support. This is so because if they eventually become conscious, it would be said that they did perform Hajj. They supported them that much. For me, that is the first good news. We intended to perform Hajj and we did and came back safely.

 

“To be honest, as human beings, you can’t eliminate challenges. What you try to do is minimise them. When you are at the tent at Muna, it is not something you can say is pleasurable. Perhaps for the first time, somebody who is used to being in the comfort of his bedroom will now be under the tent with thousands of people. Somebody who has easy access to conveniences – bathroom, toilet – will now have to line up to ease himself. That is the nature of Muna. That is how it is designed. It is only because of the reward from Allah that anybody should go through such experience.

“So, Hajj itself is not a luxury journey, it is a journey of sacrifice. That is why the Qur’an says that you should prepare, but says the best of preparations is the fear of Allah,” he noted.

He expressed the need for Saudi Arabia to have an expansion strategy in order to make the exercise more convenient for the pilgrims, while also stressing that there should be an improvement with the tents.

Hassan pledged that NAHCON will commence preparations for the 2024 Hajj by September, but noted that the commission was still assessing the concluded Hajj.

“We are actually on the drawing board at NAHCON. We have to finalise the 2023 operation. We have to do some recommendations on the basis of our experience. We have to expect government ratification. I am sure that by September, we will start preparations for 2024.

“One of reasons we are on the drawing board is the fact that the exchange rate may further push up the cost of Hajj for next year. Last year, we worked on the basis of N456 to a dollar, but now, the exchange rate is around 714. We will still need to come to the media to inform the ummah of the likely effect of the foreign exchange on Hajj.”

 

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