Posted by By MIKE JIMOH, IBRAHIM BARDE, EMMANUEL ADEYEMI & ASHAMU ADEGBOLA on
When Abdulfatah Oladeinde left Lagos for Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, weeks ago en-route Saudi Arabia for the yearly hajj, nothing suggested he won't make it to the holy land this time. Last year, he was unlucky.
When Abdulfatah Oladeinde left Lagos for Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, weeks ago en-route Saudi Arabia for the yearly hajj, nothing suggested he won't make it to the holy land this time. Last year, he was unlucky. Like many pilgrims, Oladeinde was stranded at Port Harcourt International Airport missing the hajj by hours.
For this year's hajj, however, he opted for Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, thinking there would be better luck this time. He was wrong, for no fewer than 15,000 pilgrims across the nation were stranded in the biggest pilgrim airlift failure ever in the history of the operation in Nigeria.
Frustrated, and after sleeping on bare floor at various pilgrims transit camps across the country, many of the intending pilgrims returned to their respective homes, resigning their fate to Allah and praying to live long enough to try the journey of a lifetime next year.
Hajj is the fifth pillar of Islam and it is obligatory on any adult Muslim who has the means and is of good health to make the pilgrimage to the Ka'abah, the grand mosque in Mecca. They are to fulfil rites, which Muslims have in the last fourteen centuries re-enacted after the first by Prophet Muhammed himself. For every Muslim, therefore, hajj is highly emotional.
"This is the second time I am attempting to go for hajj without making it," an obviously disappointed Oladeinde, deputy news editor of Daily Sun, told Sunday Sun midweek.
"When something like this happens," Oladeinde said, "we Muslims conclude it is an act of God. Sometimes, I think it is sheer stupidity to blame one's failings on God. Allah says in the Qur'an that He is not ready to change the condition of a people, unless they have changed themselves. God is not stupid."
He lays the blame of the failed Hajj squarely at the feet of the agencies of government that seem never prepared until the last minute. "They wouldn't make preparations at the appropriate time and when they do it is the wrong decisions they end up with."
He recalls that part of the reason for their delay was attributed to inadequacy of special hajj travel passports. "At one time, they told us there weren't sufficient passports. On another occasion, they said the Saudi government introduced new measures for granting hajj visas, which they couldn't meet quickly and later they said there were no big planes to carry pilgrims and so on." There were problems of one kind or the other.
And then, Oladeinde suggested that personalities such as Senate deputy president, Ibrahim Mantu, who is two-time Amirul Hajj and leader of Nigerian delegation should no longer be entrusted with the task of leading pilgrims on hajj.
"Federal Government should hands off hajj operations. State governments and competent private agencies should be allowed to take control of the airlift and welfare of their pilgrims. And only competent Muslim scholars who know the value of Hajj should be appointed to work in the state pilgrims' boards and to lead pilgrims to hajj," Oladeinde said.
"We are tired of politicians who will tell the nation no single Nigerian pilgrim will be left behind and by the time they jet out to Jeddah, thousands of hapless intending pilgrims will be left in the cold in hajj camps due to no fault of theirs. Mantu made this promise twice and he failed."
Thousands of Muslims who were unable to make it to the Holy land this year for hajj are still bitter over the loss they have incurred as a result of failure by the Federal Government to facilitate the airlifting of the intending pilgrims.
Speaking to Sunday Sun in Kano, one of Bauchi's 600 intending pilgrims who could not make it, Malam Sani Yusuf said: "I attribute what happened to us to the inefficiency of the Federal Government of Nigeria. They make the laws, appoint the airlines and issue travelling documents but have always failed to live up to the expectation of the common man. Everything is in shambles, there is no organization and no honesty of purpose. I know that my air fare will be refunded to me but what happens with the nearly N200, 000.00 I expended on preparation for the trip?
It is a big loss and a big blow to me and my family! Our governor, Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Mu'azu, has done everything he could to see to it that we make it but there were simply no aircraft, what can the governor do? He spent days and nights with us at the airport, waiting for the planes to land and pick us but that was never to be. We thank him for the concern and show of care for us and cannot blame him nor the Bauchi State government for that matter for what happened.
" Similarly, a prominent Islamic Scholar in Takum, Taraba State, Malam Yusuf, while preaching to mammoth crowds of Muslims at the Eid praying ground in Takum on Sallah day said: "The Federal Government of Nigeria is a huge failure. Nearly 15, 000 Muslims from all over Nigeria were deceived by the Federal Government of Nigeria that they would form part of the about 15, 000 Nigerian pilgrims to the Holy Land, only to have their hopes dashed and in the process, impoverish them.
The intending pilgrims have spent huge sums of their hard earned money through hardship and toiling on preparing to go on hajj, only to be denied this lifetime visit to the Ka'aba and the tombs of the Prophet and his companions! We have not forgiven the Federal Government for this and we hand over this grand deception to God to judge appropriately."
In Kano, however, all the pilgrims who had hajj visas are said to have all travelled, except those who were billed to travel through the international route with visit visas.
"There are about 160 us who could not make it because of what happened. We are all government-sponsored and have not spent much on the failed trip. We were to travel through the international route but God decided otherwise. Our Governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, came to the airport and pacified all of us that Insha Allah we will be the first batch to leave for hajj next year. One good thing to note is that all the pilgrims with hajj visas from Kano State were successfully airlifted to the Holy Land," said Malam Rabilu.
Other stranded pilgrims spoke to Sunday Sun in Lagos
Alfa Yekinni Deoye
"How do you expect me to talk to you? Are you intending to celebrate my predicament? It is a loss to me, and it's a big disappointment, loss - because we have spent a lot in the process of preparation and processing of documents. Now we could not make the trip, even if they are going to refund or give us a chance next year, will they refund this all that we have spent or the materials we had bought to perform the Hajj? May Allah forgive them, because only Allah knows why."
Mr. Yinusa Bintinlaye Oyo
"Woo, kose maa fenuso, itiju nlani, meaning It is a disgrace to us. It is inexplicable. What do you want me to tell you? Now look at it, we have been here since three weeks, even feeding alone is something we missed the Hajj, we lose our money to "419" or arrangee."
Baba Ibeji, a taxi driver (Private)
"Yesterday, I was the one who assisted one of the pilgrims to his town because he had nothing in his pocket again. The little he had, he begged people to get some money, that will take him back to his home town. It is so bad. Mr Pressman, why is it that we are always doing things this way in Nigeria? Don't you think that some people outside our country will be laughing at us?
"Well, we made some money from them, maybe what is their loss is our own gain, but I sympathise with them, because some of them may not make the hajj again in their life time.
"I carried a man who told me about their landlord's plight, but that is not pathetic because he had taken some advance rent from his tenant only for him not to make the trip."
In Kogi, many of the affected pilgrims spoken to would not want their names in print, basically because most of them were state government nominees, they however expressed bitterness on their inability to make the holy trip due to what they called "lackadaisical and corrupt attitude of officials of the board"
Musa Omale, a journalist with the State Radio, who was one of the intending pilgrims, lamented how the officials of the board abandoned the pilgrims at their Abuja camp for days without attending to them. He frowned at the non-committal attitude of this officials and like many spoken to called for the dissolution of the board.
Another pilgrim who simply identified himself as Tijani from Okene heaped the blame of the aborted hajj on officials of Kogi Pilgrims Board who he alleged of complicity with some airliners in enriching themselves.
Asked to elaborate on the allegeation, he said it was the corruptive tendencies of these officials which made them to enter into shady deals with some aviation contractors who they actually knew would provide a poorly rated plane, if any, for the hajj operation.
As if to buttress Tijani's point, a female pilgrim who pleaded anonyminity alleged that some of them were aware that the officials of the pilgrims board had already struck a deal with an airliner who had accepted to concede 20 seats to be reserved for the officials as their own ‘share' but said the same airliner left the same official when it saw a better offer.
Kogi State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Mr. Salami, who is also affected, attributed the aborted journey to act of God, and pleaded he could not comment further.
However, one Baba Eleojo, called on the governor to immediately disband the pilgrims board and set up a panel of enquiry comprising the Imams of all mosques, Islamic scholars and reputable individuals, as done by Governor Peter Odili of Rivers State, to look into the issue and stressed that the board actually handle the hajj operation dishonestly.
However, at a press briefing Wednesday, the chairman of Muslim Pilgrims Board, Alhaji Danjuma Bello, and the secretary, Suleiman Baba Doko ,heaped the blame of the truncated journey on the Federal Government Directorate of Pilgrims who they accused of complicity.
According to them, 6 airliners were originally contracted for the pilgrimage in Nigeria but only two later agreed to take part in the hajj.
They confirmed that the airliners charged $1, 200 per person but that they had to settle to $900 dollars per person.