For the first time in more than two decades, Nigeria has lost its prestigious Tent A space in Mina to Pakistan — forcing its VIP pilgrims to trek longer distances to reach Jamarat.
Tent A and B are located in Zone 1 at the fringes of the Jamarat — where Nigerian VIP pilgrims comprising governors, ministers, lawmakers, first-class traditional rulers, heads of government agencies, diplomats, and top businessmen stay during the Hajj days in the tent city of Mina.
These VIP tents, mostly procured by Nigerian Hajj private tour operators, are equipped with luxury — aside their being the closest to the Jamarat.
“The VIP tents for Nigeria have been taken over by Pakistan. Nigeria couldn’t pay for the tents ahead of the February 14 deadline,” some of the tour operators and many other sources inside the commission, speaking in confidence for fear of victimization, said in Saudi Arabia.
An official of the Nigerian Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), told this newspaper in Mina that, “The Saudi Hajj Ministry officials were surprised that the (Zone) A spaces were allowed to slip away from our control due to negligence.”
“They said they had called the attention of NAHCON officials warning them of the possibility of losing the (Zone) A area if payment was not done but to no avail,” a tour operator knowledgeable about what transpired said.
This newspaper found out that the VIP Tents have been moved to Zone 2, which are far away from the Jamaraat.
Findings by this newspaper have shown that the distance between the new Tent A (Abraj Kidani Towers in Zone 2) to the Jamarat is a walking distance of between 45 minutes to one hour, unlike the old Tent A (Zone 1) which is a walking distance of three to five minutes.
This newspaper discovered that some top VIPs— including a northern governor and former deputy governor — were ejected from their tents on Friday night — causing serious incident.
This newspaper observed that as if they had a premonition of the new VIP tent confusion, Nasarawa Governors Abdullahi Sule and that of Kebbi Nasir Idris had ab initio shunned the VIP tents and stayed with their pilgrims in regularTent C- a gesture that elicited applause from their citizens.
The chaos was aided by poor security arrangement in the area, mismanagement of bed spaces by the service providers imposed by the commission and the incompetence of one of the so-called leading tour operators managing the place.
Other VIP pilgrims lamented the poor security situation and the distance of the new VIP Tents. “You see, the most important factor in Mina is distance to the Jamarat. Any luxuries that didn’t factor the distance to the Jamarat is of no use to the pilgrims,” one of the VIP pilgrims told this newspaper in Makkah.
He said, “we were actually deceived. We paid huge amount of money only to find out that the tents are too far from the jamarat. Majority of our pilgrims have relocated to Makkah because of the factor of distance.”
Another sources said majority of the VIP pilgrims were disappointed with the shoddy arrangements of the new tents and decided to vacate since the first day. “Some of them left the country for Doha and so on. They delegated some people to throw the pebbles for them and perform fidiya (an animal sacrifice to recompense a form of compensation for not being able to fulfill a religious obligation) due to the distance, sanitary system, among others,” the pilgrim explained .
He said this is unlike the past where these VIP pilgrims do ta’khir (adding additional day in Mina praying) because of the shortest distance and other conveniences. An Abuja-based Islamic cleric, AlHafiz Ismail Maiduguri, who was on Hajj, has revealed this in his Facebook page on Saturday.
The cleric wrote, “I am telling you now most VIPs have finished their pilgrimage and went back to other countries; while some are in Europe now. A VIP I was chatting with told me he is in Doha and resting. He has paid for Fidiya, and can’t be inside the tent for three or two days.”
This newspaper gathered that unlike the usual tent system, the new Tent A is a block work. Unlike the original Tent A where there are single rooms for two or three persons ensuite with bathrooms, the new Tent A is made up 20 people per room, while the only toilet in the floor is serving all the rooms on the floor.
The regular tour operators tents, this newspaper gathered, are now located in Tent D, which is in Muzdalifah,not Mina. A tour operator official said, “for the first time in decades, tour operators’ pilgrims would miss one of the significant rituals in Hajj – passing the night in the plain of Mina. This is one of the pillars of Hajj, particularly in the Maliki School of Thought observed by Nigerian Muslims.”
As a fallout of these challenges, there are calls by stakeholders for the total liberalization of the Masha’ir services to avoid these recurring hiccups.
Another insider said naivety and inexperience of the NAHCON leadership is to be blamed for these challenges.
Stakeholders have said there is a conspiracy of silence. Some staff are saying that the the current leadership of the commission has surpassed all the alleged “misdeeds” perpetrated by its predecessor Ahmad Jalal Arabi. “The only difference is that the current leadership has silenced almost everyone by democratizing the (alleged) misdeeds, which Mr Arabi didn’t,” an insider in the commission said.
Some staff members inside the commission have urged the EFCC to investigate the funding of Tent A and its management, as well as the huge funds funneled to the bloated national media team to discourage it members from reporting the true happenings during the entire operation.
They also urged the EFCC staff currently in Saudi Arabia to be proactive by retrieving all transactional documents before they are destroyed.
Independent Hajj Reporters, a Hajj-based civil rights organization, had called for investigation of the shoddy treatment of tour operators pilgrims.
A statement by its national coordinator Ibrahim Muhammad recently “decried the poor treatment of pilgrims who travelled through private tour operators.
The CSO said most of these pilgrims were accommodated in isolated areas in Mina without basic amenities.
“At the time of our visit, we observed that several tents lacked mattresses, and pilgrims were forced to sleep on mats or makeshift bedding,” the statement said.
“We call for an independent investigation into the matter and appropriate action against any individual or group responsible for the substandard services rendered to private pilgrims,” IHR stated.
