Today, approximately one million Muslim faithful will visit the Islamic sacred site of Arafat, the most important ritual of the Muslim pilgrimage taking place in Saudi Arabia. However, an estimated 3,660 Nigerians who had planned to travel were disappointed when the last flight of the Nigerian contingent left on Thursday afternoon, leaving them behind.
This is the first large-scale hajj since the early 2020 disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Only a few Saudi residents performed the exercise in both 2020 and 2021.
This year, a total of 850,000 foreigners and 150,000 domestic faithful were scheduled to perform the exercise. The figure is still a far cry from the nearly 2.5 million who performed the annual pilgrimage in 2019.
Nigeria had twice obtained extensions after it failed to conclude airlifting of its intending pilgrims. The country was allocated 43,008 slots for the hajj.
But by the time the Saudi air space was finally closed for intending pilgrims, reports has it that at least 2,550 pilgrims who paid through states’ hajj commissions and 1,110 intending pilgrims who patronised licensed tour operators could not be airlifted. This was in addition to hundreds of others who could not get visas despite paying for the journey.
An insider in the commission told the media that the commission was issued 33,936 visas for pilgrims who paid through states’ agencies out of which 31,386 were airlifted.