The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON)’s claims that it was not responsible for providing tents, feeding and other essential services at Muna and Arafat has further narrowed the chances of over 40,000 unserved Nigerian pilgrims of getting appropriate refunds.
The chairman and chief executive of NAHCON, Mr Zikirullah Kunle Hasan, during pilgrims visitation in Muna on Thursday said the commission was not at all responsible for the provision of any services to the pilgrims at the Masha’er.
He said Mu’assasah, not NAHCON, provides tents, bedding, air conditioning, water supply, electricity, feeding/catering, cleaning and waste management in both Muna and Arafat.
This disclosure has further deepened the anxiety of over 40,000 pilgrims who were denied these services throughout their stay in Muna.
NAHCON commissioner of operations Mu’azu Hardawa, while reacting to the outrage triggered by the tent shortages, told BBC Hausa on Monday that the commission was given only 45,000 bed spaces (just like in 2022) even though it came with 95,000 pilgrims. The Mu’assasah later took 10,000 Nigerian pilgrims to the tents vacated by Turkish pilgrims after Arafat, leaving 30,000 others still stranded or cramped in other tents.
Turkish pilgrims follow the Hanafi School of Thought, a cleric said, so over the years, they don’t return to their tents in Muna after Arafat. They only occupy the tents for one day on the eve of Arafat, it was revealed. An insider said there was nothing extraordinary about it.
A Muslim cleric, Jaafar Abu Muhammad, said it was “laughable when Nigerian officials were seen celebrating what the Saudi tents agents did by giving them 10,000 bed spaces out of the vacant Turkish space. Whether it was given to Nigerians or not, the Turkish place will remain vacant,”
Findings by this newspaper revealed that all the Nigerian pilgrims have fully paid for the Muna services before they were granted hajj visa to the holy land. The hajj commission did not respond to a request for breakdown of the 2023 hajj components that will enable us determine the actual amounts expected as refund for services not rendered for the 40,000 pilgrims.
During the commission leadership before Mr Zikirullah’s, the commission used to publicize the breakdown of the hajj components every year, which stakeholders said had deepened transparency in the hajj sector. But one wonders this year’s hajj fare detailed breakdown is still yet to be made public.
Observers have expressed fears that with NAHCON’s denial of responsibility over the Masha’er services, it’s unlikely for the 40,000 pilgrims to be fully refunded for services not rendered to them. At worse, they may get peanuts like last year. Barrister Musa, instead of the commission to come out denying it, they should invoke the contract agreement.
In 2022, NAHCON invoked fire and brimstones when essential services were denied its pilgrims in same Muna by the same Mu’assash for African non-Arabs Establishment. But at the end of the day, a token was given to it as refund which the commission celebrated.
Sources who are currently in Makkah told this newspaper in confidence that with NAHCON’s body language, it won’t be any surprising if the unserved pilgrims are not adequately refunded. “Don’t forget that NAHCON signed contractual agreements with the service providers in Muna and Arafat. To now turn back and say it’s not responsible for the services is indeed peak of double standard,” one of the sources said.
They said the commission is setting the ground for eventual shortchanging of the pilgrims like it did in 2022. A catering service provider who declined being named for fear of victimization said the establishment that contracted it on behalf of Nigeria deducted one million Saudi Riyals from his company as refunds for poor services and penalty supposedly to be refunded to the pilgrims.
Another caterer told this newspaper that the establishment deducted 1.2 million Saudi Riyals from his company over poor services. He expressed worry when eventually NAHCON announced that only 540,000 Saudi Riyals was refunded to it.
Sources told this publication in Makkah that all the caterers that served Nigerian pilgrims in 2022 were penalized and money deducted from them supposedly as refunds to Nigerian pilgrims.
However, NAHCON was only paid N107 million (540,000 Saudi Riyal) as refunds for 2022 hajj services not rendered by the Mu’assasah. This is as contained in several statements by the commission after 2022 hajj.
It was, however, not surprising that at the end of the 2022 hajj, the Mu’assasah that provided poor services to Nigerian pilgrims, also hosted NAHCON top officials to a lavish dinner at the beach side in Jeddah. “How can NAHCON demands full refund from Mu’assasah after the lavish dinner?,” an official of the commission rhetorically asked.
A staff of the commission who was not authorized to speak on the matter said, “we have reliably gathered that the 10 times of what it paid NAHCON as refunds was deducted from the caterers. The big questions now are: where is the balance? Who pocketed it? Why did NAHCON attend the lavish dinner from its contractor that failed to deliver services?”
A pilgrim who attended last year’s hajj, Idris Kasimu, has urged Vice President Kashim Shettima to “order a throrough forensic investigation of the 2022 hajj refund. Nobody should be spared. Pilgrims fund must be recovered.”
Insiders at the Nigerian anti-graft agencies said the 2022 hajj refunds “is one area that Mr Zikirullah -led leadership is being investigated by both EFCC and ICPC. Heads will soon roll over it and other probes.”
Hajj stakeholders are concerned with Mr Zikirullah’s celebration of the paltry refund as the highest the hajj commission ever got for services not rendered.
However, Mr Zikirulah’s claims were invalidated by earlier public publications made by the commission in national dailies. For instance, the commission refunded N1.7 billion to 2015 pilgrims. Also, a total of N820 million was refunded to 2017 pilgrims.
The payment of the 2022 refund was also shrouded in secrecy. “Unlike in the past were NAHCON published the breakdown of the refunds to each state on the pages of newspapers, and also set up committees from its staff to monitor the refund exercise across the country. There was no such things in 2022. The paltry refund was simply pocketed by some state pilgrims officials,” a staff of the commission alleged.
A hajj stakeholder who confided to this newspaper said the hajj commission leadership’s attitude is a source of concern. “It is not clear whether the 40,000 pilgrims shortchanged at Muna, or the 10,000 others will ever get the right refund. Vice President Kashim Shettima must intervene and ensure the right refunds are made and the pilgrims paid.”
A former President of Association for Hajj and Umrah Operators of Nigeria (AHOUN), Abdulfatah Abdulmajeed lamented how tour operators were left hungry for meaty 24 hours on Monday.
The former AHOUN chief who wrote in a hajj-related WhatsApp group said, “Many (tour operators pilgrims) were not giving food on the first day in Muna. Some got the dinner at 2:00am in the morning. “
Another tour operator said his pilgrims were starved, frustrated and punished in Muna for offense they never committed. “The 2023 hajj is the worst I observed in more than two decade. In fact, the current NAHCON leadership has dragged us 20 years back. I hope the political authorities in Abuja will stop this ugly slide to obscurity,” Haroun Shazali said.
The NAHCON leadership, Mr Shazali said, “blamed short notice from Saudi for the mass failure of 2022 hajj. It took them one full year to plan 2023 hajj and see how it also failed. The issue is about capacity which apparently the current leadership lacks.”
Niger State Governor Umar Bago was enraged when he visited his pilgrims in Muna. The governor said, “First and foremost, I want to express our dismay as a state for the kind of ill-treatment our pilgrims got. The tent is over-populated and very filthy.”
The governor has promised to take up the matter with President Bola Tinubu over the commission’s ineptitude when he returns to Abuja.
When this newspaper sought the views of some hajj commission veteran staff on the way out of the Muna quagmire, an official who declined being named said NAHCON must revert to the past where states pilgrims boards engage their caterers in Masha’er.
“With the 2022 and 2023 bad experiences, it is high time NAHCON allows states to hire their caterers. The Mu’assasah should be allowed to handle only tents-related issues. It should hands-off catering services,” the staff said.
