Nigeria: Nation's Hajj Shame

 This year, about 90,000 Nigerians participated in the annual act of spiritual cleansing and rejuvenation for muslims in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Again this year, as with our participations in the past decades, Nigerian pilgrims have been left with the short end of the pole: they have been abandoned in their thousands in cities in the Arabian Kingdom. For other countries, their pilgrims are usually and promptly airlifted or evacuated back home within 72 hours of the conclusion of the religious rites.

It should be noted that going on hajj to Mecca is enshrined as one of the key duties of Islam. It is, however, not mandatory. In other words, it is only those adherents of the faith who can afford it that are expected to undertake it. In Nigeria, this appears not to be the case as some faithful struggle in the face of obvious odds to observe hajj.

But the forgoing not withstanding, it is extremely sad that about two weeks after the completion of the hajj rites, many Nigerian pilgrims are still stranded in the holy city of Mecca. Recent reports are that some of our pilgrims will remain in the foreign land for yet another two weeks before the airlifting back home will be completed.

The implication of this development is that the majority, if not all of the pilgrims affected will continue to live like destitutes on account of running short or out of money; they will inevitably become beggars to the eternal shame of Nigeria; some of them could become soft spots for the international ring of traffickers of human beings; they could be easy recruits for criminal gangs; and, indeed they could in the face of the struggle for survival veer into petty crimes which punishment in Saudi Arabia could be dire.

But more important, the essence of undertaking the religious rites which is spiritual cleansing could be defeated and polluted by the resort of the abandoned pilgrims, due to circumstances beyond their control, to ungodly acts including stealing, cheating, swearing, lying and generally cutting corners. It is a mark of callousness and insensitivity on the part of our leaders and governments to abandon stranded pilgrims, nay Nigerians in foreign countries.

Nigerians have been going on pilgrimages to Mecca, Jerusalem and other holy cities at least since independence almost 50 years ago. In the last decades, the Federal Government has had teams with designated leaders for each annual pilgrimage of the two major religions - Christianity and Islam. And for so long has the problem of stranded pilgrims lingered. As other things Nigerian, nobody is ever to be blamed; nobody accepts responsibility and nobody is ever held to account.

It must be acknowledged that the shame of stranded pilgrims is more pronounced with the hajj perhaps because of the sheer size of the population of muslims who observe the rites annually. But 90,000 pilgrims as was the case this year could not be said to be unwieldy and so unmanageable. Some countries which are less endowed accounted for far more pilgrims to Mecca this year than Nigeria and yet their countries and citizens were not exposed to the curse of abandoned pilgrims.

Senator Kanti Bello is said to be the Amirul Hajj this year. He is responsible for whatever faith befell our pilgrims in Mecca. He should account. Publicly. Promptly. The issue of public accountability takes on added urgency this time because we are in the dispensation of rebranding Nigeria. There is no doubt that our rebranding will take a beating by the ugly sights of Nigeria's destitute - pilgrims aimlessly roaming the cities of Saudi Arabia.

Whatever were the travel arrangements made for or by the stranded pilgrims, it is now imperative and urgent that the Federal Government will take over the duty of ensuring immediate evacuation and safe return of the remaining pilgrims in Saudi Arabia. In the interim, the Nigerian missions in Jeddah and Mecca should be directed to take full charge for accommodation, feeding and healthcare needs of the humiliated and abandoned pilgrims.

Ultimately, we must bear in mind that religion is not a state affair. It is strictly private. And so pilgrimages to holy places by Christians and Muslims must be domiciled in the private sector. An airline or a tour operator who abandons its clients in a foreign land knows the consequences. The Nigerian state should limit itself to providing consular services and necessary oversight during pilgrimages.

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