Out of one million pilgrims who were expected to perform this year’s Hajj globally, about 899,353 eventually made it to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the 2022 Hajj which ended on Monday July 11, according to statistics released on Friday, July 8, by the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT), shortly after Saudi Arabia closed its airspace to pilgrims.
Invariably, 100,647 amounting to 1.5 percent could not make the 2022 Hajj globally, which formally ended on Monday, July 11, for various reasons, Muslim News can authoritatively confirm.
Efforts to get the breakdown of the affected individual countries have proved abortive. However, findings revealed that foreign pilgrims from non-Arab Asian countries made up the highest number of pilgrims at this year’s Hajj representing 53.8 percent of the total pilgrims.
While pilgrims from Arab countries made up 21.4 percent, their counterparts from non-Arab African countries such as Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria, among others constituted 13.2 percent and pilgrims from Europe, America and Australia reached 11.6 percent.
In Nigeria, no fewer than 1,551 intending pilgrims (3.6 percent of the slots allocated to Nigeria) missed out due to what the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), an umbrella body for Hajj operations in Nigeria, called “cancellation of flight scheduled to airlift pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.”
Despite challenges faced by the NAHCON, and subsequent expression of regret and apology by its Chairman, Allhaji Zikrullah Hassan, Muslim News findings have revealed that Nigeria used 96.4 percent of the slots allocated to it by the Saudi Arabian authorities for the 2022 Hajj.
Addressing the challenges
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in April 2022 had allocated 43,008 Hajj slots to Nigeria, barely three months before the commencement of the 2022 pilgrimage exercise.
Without delay, NAHCON swiftly unveiled Hajj activities and allocated slots to States, private tour operators and the Armed Forces few days after the announcement from the Kingdom in the same April 2022.
Describing it as an ‘Emergency Hajj’ due to Saudi Arabia’s short notice to the participating countries, Alhaji Hassan, who had for years led the Osun State Pilgrim Board to successful Hajj exercises, assured that no registered pilgrim would be left in Nigeria at the end of the deadline for the airlift of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.
Slots allocation date
In the past, Saudi Arabia allocated Hajj and Umrah slots to participating countries earlier to enable adequate preparation. For instance, in 2018, the Kingdom approved 95,000 slots for Nigeria as far back as February. While in 2019, the Saudi authorities granted the same figure to Nigerian contingents as early as December 2018.
But when Saudi Arabia announced its intention to accommodate foreign pilgrims for the 2022 Hajj after a two-year hiatus due to coronavirus pandemic that wreaked havoc across the world, Nigeria and other participating countries had only two to three months to prepare, due to the delay in announcement of approved quotas for countries.
Before the announcement of Hajj in April 2022, the anticipation was high from both States and private tour operators, who were perturbed on how to address the accumulated numbers of intending pilgrims who had paid for 2020 and 2021.
Muslim News findings revealed that the Commission upon receiving the slot, albeit lately, immediately swung into action and by June 3, NAHCON did not only seal airlifting agreement with air careers, but also allocated specific airlines to participating states.
Airlifting agreement
Nigerian based airline, Azman Air was booked to fly pilgrims from 16 States such as Kano, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Kaduna, Ogun, Ondo, Rivers, and Yobe, including the Armed forces.
Eight states including Edo, FCT- Abuja, Lagos, Osun, Oyo, Sokoto, Kebbi, and Zamfara, were scheduled to fly with Saudi-based based airline, Flynas.
While 13 states namely Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Gombe, Jigawa, Katsina, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Taraba, including Borno, where inaugural flight commenced on Thursday, June 9, were booked to fly another Nigerian airline, Max Air.
Muslim News gathered that problems started emerging when some States Pilgrims Boards could not immediately secure for their intending pilgrims: Basic Travel Allowance (BTA), sufficient funds for Visas, and negative PCR test results, which led to the cancellation of about nine flights between Friday, June 10 and Monday, June 13.
PCR, monkeypox test
The sudden instruction which required pilgrims to complete the monkeypox declaration form 24 hours prior to their departure also disrupted airlifting as many pilgrims were not aware of the circular issued by the Royal Consulate General of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Explaining, the Assistant Director, Public Affairs Division of the Commission, Hajiya Fatima Usara, noted, in a press statement released on July 4, that a total of 13 flights were cancelled with another 57 delayed take-offs, seven of which were in two digits, with the highest being 24 hours’ delay.
”It followed by 23 hours delay, 22 hours and lowest in this category were twice 10-hour delays. Only 13 flights left on schedule out of the 65 outbound flights so far witnessed from the country,” she added.
Extension of airspace deadline
The Zikrullah Hassan-led NAHCON’s quest to airlift all intending pilgrims made the Chairman to formally apply for the extension of date, which was granted by the Saudi Arabia on two separate occasions; first between July 4 to 6, and second, from July 6 to 7.
The Commission, however missed the window to airlift all the 43,008 pilgrims before the closure of airspace, resulting in over 1551 intending pilgrims, majority from Kano, missing out for the 2022 Hajj exercise.
Although some intending pilgrims and particularly the Association for Hajj and Umrah Operators of Nigeria (AHOUN) accused the Commission of fraud, unprofessional conduct, subjective and suspicious decisions, which they believed marred the exercise. All allegations have since been denied by NAHCON.
Fraud allegation
For instance, on the case of a popular Yoruba actress and TV Presenter, Adedoyin Kukoyi, who claimed in a trending video that she and some intending pilgrims paid NAHCON over N700,000 extra fee for airlifting, the Commission insisted it didn’t collect any additional fee from either any individuals or states.
According to Alhaji Hassan, National Hajj Commission does not collect money from individuals. Even in the state, we also don’t collect money. Our investigation revealed that some tour operators collected additional fees from their pilgrims with the understanding that they will charter an aircraft for them.
“When we get home, we will thoroughly investigate this. I make bold to say that the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria collected no penny from any individual for the matter of operations whether in the states or from tour operators. That will be the responsibility of their managers.”
Apologies
While vowing to investigate all allegations of frauds committed by individuals or private tour operators in the name of NAHCON, Alhaji Zikrullah sincerely apologised to the intending pilgrims who missed the 2022 Hajj exercise. The release stated that:
“The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) humbly acknowledges the following: that it owes deep and unreserved regrets to entire intending pilgrims to 2022 Hajj for the hardships and disappointments experienced during outbound airlift operations to the holy land. The Commission offers similar apologies to the Federal Government of Nigeria, State Pilgrims’ Welfare Boards, Private Tour Operators, and the general public for any embarrassment the situation of the past few weeks might have caused.
“Sadly, despite all efforts to airlift all Nigerian intending pilgrims to Saudi Arabia for the 2022 Hajj, NAHCON was incapacitated in discharging this responsibilities fully, majorly due to last minute setbacks that frustrated its plan to conclude airlift of pilgrims by 27th June of this year.
“Unfortunately, the chartered flights option that gave so much hope to NAHCON and the Private Tour Operators’ leadership also became a failure as their IBAN accounts failed accreditation by the respective authorities in Saudi Arabia.”
Poor feeding
While staying in Mina tents during the Hajj rites, Nigerian pilgrims protested the standard of meals served as many of them demanded inclusion of their local foods in the menu list.
Some of the complaints of the Nigerian pilgrims include tasteless food, late delivery, shortage of food, unavailability of local dishes and serving of meals without meats, among others.
Our findings revealed that unlike previous Hajj, the feeding of pilgrims during this year’s Hajj was handled by a Saudi Arabia company.
Not pleased with the development, the NAHCON Boss, in a letter addressed to the Chairman, Company of Mutawifs for Pilgrims of African Non-Arab Countries, expressed displeasure over the poor feeding arrangements, and thereby sought redress from the responsible authorities.
Refunding intending pilgrims
The Commission gives assurance that Hajj fares of all affected pilgrims would be refunded, even as it works towards improving its efforts and eliminating its deficiencies against future operations.
“For all those who couldn’t come, for us it was painful and we have made up our minds that we will look for these people and ensure that they get their money immediately we arrive home,” Alhaji Hassan noted.
“In fact, we are ready to refund the money before we get home. In the event that they don’t want to collect their money; this is something we have seen occuring in Hajj, we will give them priority next year.
“NAHCON has learnt a lot of lessons and is determined not to have a repetition of the unfortunate situation. Management knows that no number of apologies could pay for the disappointments some Muslim faithful are currently experiencing as a result of cancellations,” he added.
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