Despite repeated assurances by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), thousands of Nigerian pilgrims are stranded in the Tent city of Muna without bed spaces and food as hajj begins.
Barely half of the 95,000 pilgrims from Nigeria are with bed spaces in Muna, where they are expected to stay for at least three days.
This is coming after series of protests in Madinah and Makkah by the pilgrims over bad food, dilapidating accommodations, poor facilities, among others.
The most affected pilgrims in Muna, according to findings by this newspaper, are those from Kano, Kaduna, Niger, Borno, Southeast states and some private tour operators. The four states have a combined pilgrims population of more than 21,000 for this year’s hajj.
The hajj commission, in a statement on Monday evening, blamed the Saudi Mu’assasah for the tents and other services in Muna for the shortage of tents and bed spaces.
This newspaper observes that many of the pilgrims could not get spaces in tents to lay their heads. They are equally staying without food.
The pilgrims who mostly left Makkah in the wee hours of Monday were left outside the tends under scotching sun and with empty stomachs.
The available tents were overcrowded with pilgrims, thereby fueling fears of outbreak of communicable diseases.
Video and photo footages have shown the frustrated pilgrims lying down besides refuse dumps, and dirty passages.
The bed space shortages and absence of ration is not limited to ‘Tent C’ area where majority of Nigerian pilgrims stay in Muna.
The luxurious’Tent A’, reserved for VIP and top notch pilgrims, is not immune from the confusion. One of the VIP pilgrim who said he paid over N7 million for hajj seat, told this newspaper that “even the VIP Tent A is overcrowded, coupled with near absence of essential services like food.”
“As am talking to you now, this is already Magrib time (Evening prayer), but these people have not serve the usual buffet. It is unfortunate. I have never seen anything like that. To be frank, the Tent A is as much as congested as the normal Tent C,” the pilgrim said.
Further findings revealed that at the VIP Tent A, a room meant for six pilgrims is now overcrowded with over 20 people. The food is equally low quality and rarely available despite the exorbitant amount the pilgrims paid.
Contrary to NAHCON’s blaming the chaos on Mu’assasah’s alleged “shortcomings in planning,” this newspaper gathered that embarrassment was midwifed by hajj commission.
Sources at the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah as well as from the Mu’assasah said Nigeria was given bed spaces for “all its registered pilgrims. The shortage is not our fault.”
Officials at the hajj commission who spoke in confidence because they are not authorized to speak said the chaos is born out of “leadership deficiency” in the commission. The top management are working at crossroads. “The staff have equally joined the fray due to the leadership deficiency,” a staff said.
These contradictory statements by the hajj commission management can be seen from their assessment of the Muna, Arafat Muzdalifah arrangements.
During the Pre-Arafat meeting in Makkah, the commission through its Coordinator of Taraddudiyyah, Dr Aliyu Tanko, expressed satisfaction over the Muna tents, water supply, transports, feeding, sanitation, among others in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Dr Tanko said based on the assessment of Muna, Arafat and Muzdalifah, all facilities at the holy sites are intact.
He said, “the commission is satisfied with arrangements at the holy site….from what we have seen so far we are satisfied.”
He assured that the commission has made good arrangement for its 95,000 pilgrims.
The following day on Sunday, in an interview with BBC Hausa, the commission’s commissioner for finance Ibrahim Yakasai assured Nigerians that everything was set and they had been given bed spaces for 95,000 pilgrims . He described the Muna services as superlative.
However, on Monday at the mid of the chaos in Muna, NAHCON commissioner of operations, Mu’azu Hardawa, countered both Dr Tanko and Mr Yakasai, when he told the same BBC Hausa that the commission had envisaged the chaos two weeks ago before the pilgrims’ arrival in Muna.
Mr Hardawa lamented that pilgrims-comprising men and women- were left outside under scorching sun. He confirmed that majority of the pilgrims were starving as they were not served breakfast, lunch and let alone dinner since their arrival in the early hours of Monday.
These conflicting narratives left many observers baffled. This is because all this white NAHCON has been assuring that everything was okay.
Insiders, said Vice President Kashim Shettima will be scandalized by this development, because the commission has never hinted about this problem. “If truly they had envisaged this problem as Mr Hardawa said on Monday that Nigeria was allocated 45,000 bed spaces to accommodate 95,000 pilgrims this year. What did they do? Why did they keep assuring everyone that everything was ok?,” one of the sources said.
The insider said if at all they had envisaged that challenge, “the ideal thing to do is to report to the Nigerian ambassador in Riyadh to take it up with the Saudis through diplomatic channel. But they did not do that. This further confirms the belief that the NAHCON leadership is in total disarray and seemingly compromised. That is why chaos like what happened in Muna occurred. The service providers have taken the commission leadership for granted because they know it has been compromised and lacks any will to execute its statutory duties. The state pilgrims boards and even tour operators are aware of this leadership lacuna in NAHCON that is why don’t take it serious,” an insider told this newspaper by telephone from Muna.
Observers said the embarrassment meted to Nigerian pilgrims would have been avoided if “NAHCON had mobilized states and tour operators officials to take over the tents a day before pilgrims started moving to Muna. That was the tradition. We always do that to avert trespassing by other naturals. But it was not done. It seems nobody is actually in charge,” an official said.
On Monday night, the commission in a statement said they would move 10.000 pilgrims to the Turkish tents area.
Observers are worried that this statement has further raised queries, instead of answering them. The observers rhetorically asked what happened to the remaining 35,000 pilgrims if 10,000 are eventually moved to the Turkish area on Wednesday? “The commission said only 45,000 bed spaces were provided to them this year even though the country had 95,000 pilgrims. What is the fate of the remaining 35,000 pilgrims,” an observer said.
A communication expert, Dr Hafizu Muhammad, who has been following the commission’s PR strategies, told this newspaper that “NAHCON officials appearances before the cameras at the slightest opportunity is their greatest undoing. They prioritize propaganda against facts and realities. They are not on ground. That is why they will continue to contradict themselves in public and further erode their dwindling image.”
