Last night, August 7, 2023, at around 1:00 p.m., an Azman Air carrying 319 pilgrims from Kaduna and Kano, officials from several states, and National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, left King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah for the 2022 Hajj. The journey marks the conclusion of Nigeria’s Hajj Operations in 2022. The final flight will take place six days before the Saudi government’ deadline for the Hajj airlift and three days before NAHCON’s anticipated deadline on August 10, 2022. Only two flights were cancelled over the operation’s more than three weeks, with a maximum six-hour delay.
The NAHCON Chairman Alhaji Zikrullah Kunle Hassan credited Allah with the return trip’s success during a ceremony to commemorate the operation’s conclusion. He expressed his gratitude for President Muhammadu Buhari’s tireless support of the Hajj organization on behalf of the federal government.
The Chairman recognized that there were difficulties on the way out of Nigeria to Saudi Arabia due to time constraints as well as other unanticipated hitches, such the IBAN issue that some Tour Operators had to deal with. However, this has inspired the Commission to learn from its mistakes. He emphasized that the Commission would start early planning and would start prequalifying airlines as soon as possible to give the carriers time to overcome any unforeseen obstacles. He further emphasized that the Commission will see to it that any contracts inked were executed in accordance with their terms.
Another development was the hosting of a banquet in honor of NAHCON on August 6th, which officially kicked off the preparations for the 2023 Hajj. Mr. Ahmad Sindi, chairman of the Company of Mutawifs for Pilgrims from African Non-Arab Countries, praised the Nigerian Hajj trip as the organization’s most significant delegation to date. Nigeria is very special to the company, he said. He bemoaned the fact that some things weren’t handled the way the business had hoped, but he reassured the pilgrims that they deserved better treatment, and that they would be willing to give it to them at any cost.
In a statement signed by Fatima Sanda Usara, Acting Director, Public Affairs, NAHCON noted that, the NAHCON Chairman, Alhaji Hassan made three formal requests at the occasion the first of which is timely communication on 2023 Hajj guidelines, second is a review of the feeding arrangement in Masha’ir, and the third is a request for quick resolution of the IBAN blockade that deterred some Tour Operators’ pilgrims from participating in the year’s Hajj. The Chairman also raised the issue of insufficient space and proper marking of conveniences in Muna.
“Responding, Mr Sindi assured NAHCON that 2023 Hajj will witness complete restructuring in contrast to this year’s hasty arrangements. He also expressed confidence that the Hajj quota will return to status quo ante therefore recommended that NAHCON starts working on the original figure unless instructed otherwise. He further informed that the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah had already engaged engineering companies on upgrade of facilities in Muna, Arafat and Muzdalifa. The upgrade will be carried out in phases. However, his company has sent out a proposal to carry out the upgrade in the interest of its pilgrims even if the upgrade will be only temporary before the phasal engineering project reaches our site.
“The Mu’assasa Chairman revealed that the company will next year role out a scientific feeding plan that will take care of quantity, quality and the number of calories contained in the meal. He also assured that there will be a pre delivery monitoring where compromise will not be tolerated at all unlike the situation this year which forced everyone to accept the available option. He acknowledged that indeed 2023 Hajj preparations has started with the hosting of NAHCON in the finest location in Jeddah.”
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