Hajj: Pilgrim donates drugs as federal medical team absent

An anonymous pilgrim has donated drugs for some medical experts to open dispensary close to the accommodation of Nigerian pilgrims in Medina due to the absence of a federal team in the area. The experts were part of Zamfara state pilgrims who utilized their hotel room at Arrawasi Safir hotel close to the Holy Prophet […]

An anonymous pilgrim has donated drugs for some medical experts to open dispensary close to the accommodation of Nigerian pilgrims in Medina due to the absence of a federal team in the area.

The experts were part of Zamfara state pilgrims who utilized their hotel room at Arrawasi Safir hotel close to the Holy Prophet Mosque.

When our reporter visited the place at the 7th floor of the hotel, the expert confirmed to him that they only administer pain relieve which were donated by an anonymous pilgrim for the sake of God.

"Our pilgrims are suffering because of the dearth of medical services here. Therefore, this good Samaritan bought and donated some pain relievers such as paracetamol," one of the experts who sought for anonymity said.

It would be recalled that one of the Sokoto state government officials, Sheikh Abdulazeez Kofar Rini, had advised the federal government to allow states to come with their medical team for convenience.

According to him, the current policies which allow only the national medical team would not augur well considering the number of the Nigerian pilgrims in the Holy Land.

"Few days ago, I received a distress call that one of our pilgrims had collapsed and there was no medical expert to attend to him. I had to take the pain of taking him to the nearest medical facility for attention and Alhamdulillah he was okay," he said.

Another official from the state told Daily Trust that Nigeria always records the highest number of medical cases in the Holy Land, which precipitated a research by the Saudi Authority to identify the causes of their sickness for possible solution.

According to the research, it had to do with the types of food some of the pilgrims, especially those that prefer local foods were eating which were prepared by Tikaris (Nigerians resident in Saudi Arabia) which the Saudi Authorities were trying to stop.

Consequent upon this, the Nigeria Hajj Commission started providing two free meals to pilgrims in Medina while states were providing meals to their various pilgrims in Makkah.