Death Toll of Nigerians in Hajj May Reach 300, Stressing the Urgent Need for Reforms

“As at yesterday,” an elder performing Hajj from Jos wrote me, “the death toll of Nigerians has crossed 200.” That was an unofficial figure.

By evening, the BBC aired the Secretary of National Hajj Commission saying, so far, 64 Nigerians are confirmed dead, over 70 are injured and 264 are missing – corroborating, in a way, the figure mentioned by the elder from Jos.

There are also reports of existing piles of dead bodies in trucks that are still not processed. The authorities and the facilities are overstretched. Clearly, the Saudis did not foresee nor were they prepared for such a bad situation. However, in a digital age where everybody carries one form of identity or another in form of handsets, e-passports, wrist bands, currenciess, etc., failure to identify the missing hundreds in a single location for six days indicates that the human aspect of the Hajj is still at a primitive level, though the Saudis, mashaallah, have done a lot in erecting monumental physical structures.

In spite of the high number of casualties, nobody is showing remorse by admitting responsibility for the colossal failure and promising to do better. People are just playing politics with the disaster. It is unfortunate.

Of course, we cannot spare the Saudis because they solely own the arrangements of the pilgrimage. But this calamity has clearly shown that management of pilgrims by authorities of different countries is also inadequate, to say the least. Nigeria, for example, may record the highest score from the stampede when the final statistics is arrived at because of the country's dismal record in organization and the lack of cooperation from its individual pilgrims. Nigerians are used to being, or prefer to be, on their own, free and impervious to any official control. That is why it was easy - and almost by instinct - for the Saudi monarch to wrongly push the blame to "African pilgrims" immediately after the incident.

That is not to mention the attitude of pilgrims from some countries who deliberately disobey Saudi regulations during Hajj. The attitude of Iranian pilgrims over the years, for example, proves this point. Even on the day of the stampede, a reporter of one of the foreign Hausa service radios mentioned that Iranian pilgrims did not care one bit to abide by the timetable prescribed by the Saudis for the stoning event.

To conclude, I must stress that the pilgrimage will continue to be visited by these kinds of calamities unless the following two things are done:
1. Pilgrims from different countries must cooperate fully with their hajj authorities, yielding themselves to control by their country officials and strictly abide by Hajj regulations.

2. Saudi authorities must pay more attention to human management of the Hajj. This must include at least three things:

a) Complete digitalization of information regarding pilgrims whereby each of them can be reached easily;

b) Involving other countries in the management of the pilgrimage as a whole such that officials of all countries have firsthand information about all arrangements before even the Hajj commences. The joint ownership of the process will also encourage the joint pursuit of success and douse unnecessary politicization; and

c) Insulating Hajj and its sites from being infested with reckless Saudi monarchical privileges. The story of blocking a route due to the arrival of a Saudi prince is true. It has been backed by many eyewitnesses who saw him. I heard the innocent voice of a Nigerian lady witness over a foreign radio saying that the stampede followed his arrival. Others mentioned how the route was suddenly blocked right before them by the soldiers who diverted them to another one. These Nigerians, that included a royal father, were not Iranians. They were simply telling the truth. It was really unfortunate. Oga Salman Bin Saud, let all pilgrims be subjected to the same rules and regulations, please.

Amma, whoever says that Hajj organization in different countries and in Saudi Arabia in particular doesn’t need urgent reforms, kai, is heartless and dishonest. Gaskiya! That is my take. It may sound harsh.

Allah ya kyauta. Allah ya jikan wadanda suka mutu.

Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde

September 30, 2015 ·