A faith‐based Civil Society Organization, CSO in the Hajj and Umrah industry, the Independent Hajj Reporters, IHR, has commended the leadership of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, airlines involved in flight operations for pilgrims and service providers in both Saudi Arabia, including the pilgrims themselves for a successful handling of operations concerning intending pilgrims to Hajj 2025 from Nigeria.
The CSO, in a statement signed by its national coordinator, Ibrahim Muhammad, and released on Saturday, said the commission has facilitated the airlift of over 21,075 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.
“Information at our disposal shows that almost everyone involved in the airlift and reception operations are up and doing, hence the successes recorded so far.
“We are particularly happy that almost all the pilgrims so far, apart from 547 from Kano, landed in Madinah. This is commendable.
“Special commendation also goes to all officials across the states who promptly mobilise their pilgrims to transit camps and the airlines for always arriving on time for departure. We lauded the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah for the seamless process of processing Visa – one of the critical challenges to pilgrim’s airlift in the past.
“We are also unaware of any pilgrims’ complaints regarding issuance of BTA, room allocation in Madina or feeding. The NAHCON advance team are doing what they were sent to do, and we can only commend them and urge them to do more,” the statement said.
IHR, however, urged all involved to sustain the same degree of commitment as pilgrims transit Madina to Makkah.
“Average Nigerian Pilgrims will spend 29 to 30 days in Makkah as compared to 4-5 days in Madina. That is where the major services will be put on the scale of measurement,” it added.
The group also calls on private tour operators whose pilgrims will start travelling to Saudi Arabia in the coming days to take a que from the operations so far and also have a near seamless exercise.
“Finally, we urge that the real work will start on 8 of Dhul Hijja when pilgrims will move to Mashair for the Hajj days. Recurring problems revolve around feeding and bed spaces in Mina,” it concluded.
