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FACT CHECK: Is this the first time all Nigerian pilgrims are visiting Madinah before Arafat?
BY BELLO MUSA June 13, 2023
FACT CHECK: Is this the first time all Nigerian pilgrims are visiting Madinah before Arafat?
Pilgrims in Madinah, Saudi Arabia
On Wednesday, June 7, 2023, the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), in a statement by its Deputy Director (Information and Publications), Mousa Ubandawaki, claimed that 2023 hajj is the first time that all Nigerian pilgrims are visiting Madinah before Arafat.
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The hajj commission’s statement is coming to justify its decision of slashing the number of days pilgrims spend in the Holy Prophet’s city from eight to five.
The commission said its unprecedented decision to fly all Nigerian pilgrims from Nigeria to Madinah directly has created overcrowding in accommodation and other essential facilities. Hence its resolve to yank off three days from the eight days the pilgrims paid for as contained in their hajj fares.
CLAIM ONE
The hajj commission claimed that, “It is important to note that for the first time in a long time, the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has given 100 percent Nigerian pilgrims the opportunity to visit Madinah in the first phase or before Arafat.”
VERIFICATION
In order to verify the veracity of the hajj commission’s claim, this newspaper obtained and went through previous official hajj reports submitted to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) by NAHCON.
However, contrary to the hajj commission’s claim, Nigerian pilgrims in the past visited Madinah before Arafat.
For instance, the official reports indicated that during 2015 hajj, 92 percent of Nigerian pilgrims had visited Madinah before Arafat. In 2016, all the Nigerian pilgrims (100 percent) had visited Madinah before Arafat.
Also, 99 percent of Nigerian pilgrims visited Madinah in 2017 before moving to Makkah for hajj, while in 2018, only 83 percent of the pilgrims visited Madinah before hajj. In 2019, 98 percent of Nigerian contingents to hajj visited Madinah before Arafat.
Another interesting finding from these reports is the percentage of Nigerian pilgrims that arrived at Madinah by air during the period under review. In 2015 for instance, 64 percent of Nigerian pilgrims arrived at Madinah by air, 67 percent in 2016, 61 percent in 2017, 74 percent in 2018, and 72 percent in 2019.
In addition, in all these five years – 2015 to 2019 – all the pilgrims spent their full eight days in Madinah, unlike in 2023 where the commission had to slash it to five, according to NAHCON official reports.
CLAIM TWO
The hajj commission claimed that the decision to slash the number of days spent in Madinah to five “becomes imperative following the complaint of overcrowding of Nigerian pilgrims in the City of Madinah.”
VERIFICATION
In order to verify this claim, this newspaper reached out to some NAHCON and Saudi Ministry of Hajj officials in Madinah. Our findings revealed that “overcrowding” in Madinah was never the factor for the slashing of the Madinah days to five as the commission claimed. The actual reasons for the slashing of the Madinah days include: NAHCON’s delay in processing Nigerian pilgrims at the airport due to non-availability of bed spaces in pilgrims accommodations; mismanagement of bed spaces leading to pilgrims staying up to four houses inside buses in front of hotels, thereby disrupting the buses cycle of transporting pilgrims of countries on schedule; and sending Nigerian pilgrims to wrong hotels causing confusion and traffic gridlock around the hotel areas.
It was also revealed that because of these aforementioned reasons, the Saudi Ministry of Hajj had queried NAHCON three times, and summoned its officials in Madinah to explain this unprecedented anomaly. Also, pilgrims from at least three flights were accommodated in low-budget accommodations outside the highbrow Markaziyya where they paid for, thereby triggering protests and complaints from them. It was also established that Saudi authorities never dictate to visiting pilgrims the number of days they spend in Madinah. The idea of reducing the number of days in Madinah was conceived in one of the meetings when it became apparent that NAHCON’s handling of Nigerian pilgrims in Madinah was capable of disrupting the entire hajj ecosystem in the Islam’s second holiest city.
VERDICT
Based on the official hajj reports of 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2018 submitted to OSGF by NAHCON, the hajj commission claims that 2023 is the first time in a long time that Nigerian pilgrims are flown to Madinah before Arafat is inaccurate and misleading. The second claim of reducing the number of days in Madinah over overcrowding is also found to be false.
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