Mal Jalal Ahmad Arabi And Hajj 2024 (1)

This may be the right time to speak after a long cessation of any comments on the Hajj activities. I will only refrain from talking about what I don’t know, administrative lapses, if there were any, within the National Hajj Commission or what is still under investigation. As the Qur’an has cautioned, it will be presumptuous to give a verdict on any issue before verification. I shall, therefore, restrict my intervention to what I am familiar with, the Hajj, as it affected the 2024 operations and the role of Mal Jalal Ahmad Arabi, the former NAHCON Chairman.

On Hajj matters, I have repeatedly said that I am not a professor, but I am a professional. Hajj is a pillar of my religion as well as my nourishment. My brief interaction with Mal Jalal during his sojourn at NAHCON was centred around professional matters, even though we have been family friends for over three decades. I hope this relationship will not debar me from or cloud my judgment on what led to where we are today.

My purpose is not to exculpate Mal Jalal but to state what transpired before and during the Hajj operations to serve as an example and a lesson to those who will come after him. It is what I heard, subject to verification, that I abhor, not the persona of Mal Jalal. My respect for him has not diminished a stint. I will forever hold him in reverence and esteem until I meet my Maker, praying Him to forgive us what is apparent and what is hidden of our iniquities.

We are all liable to committing mistakes in whatever we do as fallible beings. You are certain to see the malign side of whoever is placed under the microscope. We all have dark spots; none of us is clean. When Allah said He makes whom He wants clean in Suratun Nur, verse 21, concerning the case of calumny against Aisha, radiyallaahu anhaa, the scholars said the meaning is that Allah makes whom He wants clean by concealing their faults! Please put all of us, the armchair experts/critics on Hajj matters, Mal Jalal’s predecessors, the drafters of petitions against public officers to anti-graft agencies and even yours sincerely; put all under scrutiny and see who will be spared. We are all sinners except where Allah covers us with His Grace!

‘A’isha reported Allah’s Apostle (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) as saying: He who is examined thoroughly In reckoning is undone.

Sahih Muslim 2876

The Interfaith proponent in me urged me to cite the case of the woman taken in adultery and brought to Jesus Christ for judgment. He said unto them (the scribes and Pharisees), “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (John 8:) None of them did.

The signing of the Hajj 2024 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Nigeria and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was done during the “third Hajj and Umrah Services Conference and Exhibition”, Jeddah in January of the same year. All the Private Tour Operators present in the Kingdom for the Conference were invited to a meeting at the NAHCON Makkah office, Ummul Jud, on Sunday, January 7, 2024. During that meeting, the Chairman, Mal Jalal, briefed us on the stern stance presented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, regarding the welfare of Nigerian pilgrims. He said the Minister ‘did not mince words in stating the problems our Hujjaaj face yearly in the Mashaa’ir (Minaa and Arafah) and that a lasting solution must be found to forestall their recurrence.’

Based on the sentiments expressed by His Excellency the Ambassador, the Private Tour Operators informed the Chairman of the ill-treatment we have been receiving from the Saudi service provider, the Mua’ssasah (turned Company) for African non-Arab pilgrims. I related proceedings of that meeting on these pages on Friday, January 12, 2024, under the caption: The Hajj Conference and Exhibition 2024, and in which I wrote: “When it was time to discuss the Challenges of 2024 Hajj Operations, the Private Hajj Organisers informed the Chairman of the demeaning ways the Company for African Pilgrims treats them, the former Mu’assasah. They pleaded with Mal Jalal to intervene in our desire to sunder any engagement with a company that views us as a despicable lot with whom ratified covenants are not respected. Every year, Private Tour Operators pay the company for African pilgrims for services that are not rendered – no efficient water supply, adequate food, and no accommodation….”

In his response, Mal Jalal said, ‘Remember, we are the supervising agency concerning pilgrims and service providers. Thus, if you think you have better, cheaper services elsewhere by today, you can engage them. Go ahead, but be certain of what you are doing.’ The Chairman further stated that exploring possibilities is what the Commission encourages, but; “no one can gag an entrepreneur from using an opportunity” for better service delivery.”

With the above nod for Mr Chairman, the leadership of the Private Tour Operators under the aegis of the Association for Hajj and Umrah Operators of Nigeria (AHUON) spared no effort or expense in searching, inspecting, and negotiating with myriad service providers at the Exhibition stands and in their offices in Makkah until they got the best quality of service and cheaper rates.

I had a private audience with Mal Jalal in Jeddah. I wanted to meet him in his Makkah office, but since I was in Jeddah then, the Chairman was gracious enough to visit me at the hotel where I lodged. I used the opportunity to thank him for allowing the private tour operators to have a different service provider for the Mashaa’ir. I said the Mu’assasah can change its name many times, but no transmutation will alter the quality of its services. I invited him to visit the Private Tour Operators during the stay in Minaa and compare what we will be getting to that of the Ithraa Al Khair, the Mu’assasah.

We started getting cold feet by January 20, 2024, when NAHCON released a document called “To All 2024 Hajj licensed Tour Operators Companies” to clarify that the Chairman did not approve any change of Mu’assasah for Private Tour Operators. He only ‘allowed’ them ‘to source’ for one ‘PROVIDED it falls within acceptable pricing ( below what used to be paid) and in tandem with what the Commission successfully negotiated  with its chosen and approved Muassasa.’

By January 26, 2024, our worst fears were confirmed at ‘a crucial meeting’ in the Hajj House with the NAHCON Chairman. Mal Jalal made it plain to us that there has to be a unanimous acceptance by all Private Tour Operators without a dissenting voice. Even before the meeting, he knew that some of our members did not appreciate the import of regime change in Saudi service providers for our operations. That decision was stiff. How could the minority decide the fate of the majority in what could make or mar the entire Hajj operations?

Something must have happened between our Makkan meeting with the Chairman on January 7, 2024, and the one on January 26, which occasioned this backslide after his initial support and encouragement for the change in Mu’assasah. We had met all conditions stipulated by NAHCON in its January 20, 2024 release. Wallaahu A’lam.

That was how the Private Tour Operators were subtly coerced into accepting the Ithraa Al Khair, the service provider that has failed us repeatedly. The Chairman left us to confer together and develop a position. When he left, I said to my colleagues, ‘All of us, including those who caused this dissension, shall return to this Hall in the Hajj House and cry. Wallaahi, we should expect nothing but lamentable failure!’ Alas, the raging waves of the flood devoured all that took part in that meeting. We are still weeping profusely.

No leader of NAHCON will succeed with Ithraa Al Khair as the service provider for Nigerian pilgrims. This vile outfit keeps changing its appellation after every woeful Hajj outing and still manages to get away with a manifest breach of ratified contracts and guaranteed future engagement. With the change of guards at the Hajj House, their agents will soon land to clear the way for the Hajj 2025 contract signing. They know everywhere and anyone who matters in Hajj. There is a premium for everything and everybody except if you don’t dangle the right bait. These are masters of the game!

In the second part of this article, I will address what happened at the Tent A camps, especially Minaa. I must confess that there were improvements in Arafah. Mal Jalal Ahmad Arabi facilitated securing tents for some A Tent pilgrims with Hajj visas issued under the D Tent arrangement. I was involved in the entire process until a solution was found. Or was it?