By Abubakar Bello KAOJE. (Opinion)
The ongoing MoU meeting between Nigeria and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has metamorphosed into the allocation of 95,000 pilgrims to Nigeria for Hajj 2023..
The knowledge of the number of pilgrims for Hajj, actually precipitates for all Hajj plannings. The planning for the aircrafts, the planning for accommodation and the planning for personnel and cost.
The restoration of the era of the allocation of 95,000 pilgrims for Nigeria is really a welcome development for Nigeria which the Hajj authorities and the Nigeria’s Muslim Ummah have been yearning for sometimes.
The most unprecedented history in the allocation of the pilgrims for Nigeria dates back to the 1980s, precisely in the years 1980 to 1983, this period, the allocation of pilgrims to Nigeria was one hundred thousand (100,000).
That was the time when Hajj operation was characterized with a harrowing experience. That was when the pilgrims spent many days at the airports without knowing the fate of their flights.That was the time when pilgrims spent more than three months in the Kingdom.
That was also the peak period of Nigerian Airways with fleet of Boeing 747 aircrafts. That was the time when demonstrations in the Kingdom by Nigeria’s pilgrims were rampant. That was also the time when there was no Internet, Computers and the GSM mobile phones.
The most recurrent allocation numbers for Nigeria is 55,000, 65,000 and 75,000. This depicts that from 1984 to 2006, the allocation has been within these ranges and the allocation of 100,000 to 95,000 disappeared while the allocation of 65,000 and 75,000, became the order of the day within the period. The coming of the Commission in 2007 also witnessed the resurfacing of the allocation of 95,000 pilgrims, perhaps for two or three times. Then, of latest, the 2019 Hajj allocation ( the year immediately before Coronavirus).
The allocation of 95,000 pilgrims in 2019,was not fully utilized. This is due to the poor payments for Hajj remittance from the intending pilgrims. Here, the prayer for the Commission is for it to fully utilize the allocation this year and meet all the challenges.
The Commission has an advantage to achieve that as the guidelines for age barrier and the Coronavirus test have all been lifted.
The Commission should note that, the last year operation was based on 43,000 pilgrims with it’s attendant challenges and the year 2023 is more than double the number for 2022.
By this implication, it means that the Commission must streamline it’s operation by ensuring that the Commission engages more Machineries in terms of having more fleet of bigger configuration of reliable Aircrafts.
The Commission should think of having more accommodation particularly in Madinah where the operation will be peculiar, as I am not aware of any operation since the beginning of direct flights to Madinah with 95,000 pilgrims. This will really make the 2023 Hajj Operation in Madinah peculiar..
It will then be laudable for the Commission to provide enough bed spaces that can cater for the influx of the pilgrims into Madinah, in cognisance of the fact that the number of pilgrims for this year will hopefully increase.
The enamous challenges from feeding particularly at Masha’ir areas cannot be ignored. The Commission should do everything it could do to forestall most of the teething challenges associated with the feeding.
The Commission,as a matter of fact, should endeavour to identify all the crowd prune places during operation, such as the Airports both onshore and offshore, the pilgrims’ accommodation, particularly in Makkah during Muna outing, all the places in Masha’ir areas, especially the Jamarat with the envisaged population of pilgrims, may require needed attention.
The pilgrims need to be rigorously enlightened on Jamarat guidelines, specifically on timing.
The pilgrims are left on their own after the conveyance to Muzdalfah open site and this is where the violation of the Jamarat guideline begins.
Througout the night of Muzdalfah stay, (as there are no particular places for any country to stay) the pilgrims decide their fates and continue trecking towards Jamarat site to observe the Jamarat rite, proceed to Makkah for Tawaf before finally moving to Muna with regardless to any Jamarat timing guideline.
During the times for pilgrims’ movements like the movements from Muna to Arafah and Muzdalfah,
more Nahcon’s personnel should be engaged to manage the crowd on all these places and help in moving the pilgrims as quickly as possible from one point to another.
At any point when the pilgrims are stranded they become agitated. Last year with manageable number of pilgrims, yet there were still some areas that suffered most for lack of enough manpower.
Alhamdullah, the leadership of the Commission has been yearning to fulfill the wish of it’s staff in the participation of most of them in the offshore operation.
The allocation and the utilization of 95,000 pilgrims is actually the way for the leadership to quench it’s thirst this time around for carrying larger percentage of personnel.
At this juncture, the Commission’s staff should pray fervently for the 95,000 allocation be paid for by the Nigerian pilgrims which could translate for more revenue to the Commission and enable it to meet it’s obligation of carrying most staff.
The 95,000 allocation of pilgrims does not mean that the Commission is free from any challenge.
The allocation could really pose a great challenge to the Commission and put it in a dilemma to take over some basic decisions because with this allocation, the Commission cannot just begin to fully plan for the 95,000 pilgrims as still nobody can predict how many seats will be purchased by the Nigerian intending pilgrims.
The Commission has to wait to know how many pilgrims fully paid within the stipulated timeline and cannot just begin to negotiate and engage the interested reputable airlines based on Saudi allocation.
The accommodation Service Providers cannot be instantly committed on the provision of 95,000 bedspaces.
The Commission cannot start airlifting the pilgrims earlier than normal. The early commencement of the airlift may mean the pilgrims staying longer time in Saudi Kingdom.
Last year the pilgrims’ airlift started barely about 38 to 40 days before Arafah.This is in the airlift of only 43,000 pilgrims.That is why more reliable and bigger configuration of aircrafts must be engaged with more landing slots from GACA.
If the Commission is going to airlift 90,000 pilgrims within the period of 35 days, definitely the Commission has to operate five flights on a daily basis, using Boeing 747 of the capacity of 500 pilgrims on each flight.The Commission should also note that before a flight is concluded, it will take a minimum of 24 hours. This does not take into consideration the likely poor turnout for flights by the pilgrims and the unwarranted technical hitches on the part of the aircrafts.
I deliberately used 90,000 number, thinking that the remaining 5,000 pilgrims could go through the arrangement of chartered flights by Ethiopia, Egypt Qatar or Emirate Airlines via their respective Tour Operators. The 15,000 remaining for Tour Operators could still go under the Nahcon’s backup arrangement as the usual practice.
Another solution is for the Commission to ( on coming back) immediately allocate the Seats to the States and to the registered Tour Operators and give out a tentative dateline for the collection of Hajj remittance to enable accurate planning for the actual number of intending pilgrims.
Yes, indeed, the long yearning for having enough Hajj Seats for operation is now fulfilled but according to our renowned professor of African Literature, Chinua Achebe of blessed memory, said, it is not turning into a lion that is hard but getting the tail of a lion and in getting the tail of a lion, the Commission must be focused to squarely address most of the teething challenges in Hajj operation involving large number of pilgrims.
This also reminds me of a vital area of Hajj operation which cannot be overemphasized, the rehabilitation of some of our departure centres, like Minna, Niger State. The Commission should utilize the long remaining time for operation to ensure that all the departure centres found not worthy for Hajj operation last year be rehabilitated and made ready for Hajj operation. This is by pestering all the relevant Aviation authorities involved in the Airport rehabilitation.
Considering the increase in the allocation this year, definitely the number of pilgrims for Niger State ( if luckily all the allocation is utilized) will increase to about 7,000 to 8,000 as it used to be previously and moving such a large number to Abuja is going to be a serious nightmare and and if not avoided could mar the operation from the onset, coupled with more pilgrims from FCT, Nassarawa and Kogi States.If Niger State pilgrims were to come to Abuja for airlift, certainly the Airport will be overstretched within the short period of 30 to 35 days.
A stich in time saves nine. May Allah SWA help the Commission to execute the 2023 Hajj operation in the most successful way.
Alh. Abubakar Bello KAOJE is a Deputy Director of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria NAHCON attach to the Monitoring and Evaluation Division, and this is his personal opinion.