2014 hajj exercise

According to NAHCON, a total of 76,000 Nigerian pilgrims participated in this year’s hajj exercise, airlifted to Saudi Arabia in 145 flights through various airports spread across Nigeria during the out-bound flights that took place between September 6 and 28, 2014. Agency reports said that at least 25 Nigerians died during the 2014 exercise. The […]

According to NAHCON, a total of 76,000 Nigerian pilgrims participated in this year’s hajj exercise, airlifted to Saudi Arabia in 145 flights through various airports spread across Nigeria during the out-bound flights that took place between September 6 and 28, 2014. Agency reports said that at least 25 Nigerians died during the 2014 exercise.
The season’s inaugural outbound flight began at a flag off ceremony by Vice President Namadi Sambo at the new Dutse International Airport in Jigawa State.  Speaking at the same occasion, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar who is the permanent Amirul Hajj commended the Saudi Arabian government for appreciating the frantic efforts of the Nigerian authorities in promptly containing the spread of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) that had threatened the exercise, and their acceptance of Nigerian pilgrims in the 2014 Hajj exercise. Few weeks before the scheduled commencement of the airlift of intending pilgrims from Nigeria to the holy land, Saudi Authorities had threatened to bar some West African countries where the EVD was fast spreading.
The Commission’s strict application of the policy of ‘first to arrive Saudi Arabia; first to return to Nigeria’ throughout the inbound airlift operation played an important role in minimising the incidents of the usual chaos caused by those who arrive in Saudi Arabia last but would insist to be the first to return to Nigeria. This no doubt contributed to the success achieved in the 2014 Hajj operation.
NAHCON has made incremental improvements in hajj operations in recent years. For instance, the outbreak of cholera that resulted in the death of some Nigerian pilgrims in the 2011 hajj, which the Saudi health workers attributed to poor sanitary conditions, has not recurred. Significantly absent also was the oft-report cases of Nigerian pilgrims staging protests and blocking major township road in Mecca. The protest that year was apparently prompted by inadequate information from Nigerian hajj officials on the scheduled dates and timings they gave to the pilgrims for their departures to Nigeria.
The Mahram controversy, which almost caused diplomatic incident between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, has been addressed. In the 2012 hajj exercise, Saudi immigration authorities detained all the women on board an aircraft in one detention centre at the King Abdul Aziz Airport on the ground that each of them had not the required male companion, or Mahram.  It is also to the credit of NAHCON that the federal government had no cause in recent years to request the extension of deadline for the airlift of pilgrims to or from the Holy Land.
There is a lot of course to be done by the Commission to sustain these gains and build upon them in future operations.  The orientation programmes usually organized for intending pilgrims should go beyond making them aware of the rituals involved in the hajj. Such programme should be expanded to include instruction on the use of unfamiliar installations like escalators in high rise buildings and towers and proper use of pedestrian crossing on the roads and the importance of an umbrella or a sunshade under the sometimes scalding effects of the sun.