Saudi authorities have told Nigerian Hajj officials that people who performed the pilgrimage within the past five years will not be given visas to go to Hajj this year. In a note verbale to the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), the Saudi embassy in Abuja said only first-timers and people who have not performed the Hajj in the past five years would be allowed into Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage this year, an official familiar with the matter told Daily Trust in Abuja yesterday.
The new hajj regime, according to another official, is aimed at ensuring that first-time pilgrims get the chance to perform one of the five pillars of Islam, given that about half of the pilgrims annually had been to hajj previously and they usually block the chances of first-timers.
Spokesman for NAHCON Uba Mana, when contacted yesterday, did not confirm nor deny knowledge of the new policy. He said the commission also heard “about the information, but the commission is still trying to find out.”
When contacted for comments, an official at the Saudi embassy in Abuja said he could not speak on the issue because yesterday was a public holiday.
But a source at NAHCON told Daily Trust that the commission had receive the note from the Saudi authorities but was keeping it close to its chest while talks go on to see if the Saudis could be persuaded to drop the idea. The commission was also worried that early release of the information may lead desperate people to falsify documents so as to circumvent the process.
Saudi Arabia has allocated 95,000 slots to Nigerian pilgrims this year.
The new policy is likely to affect up to about half of the intending pilgrims who paid for this year’s hajj, the source said.
NAHCON itself had earlier told pilgrims authorities in the states to dedicate 70 per cent seats allocated to them to first-time pilgrims.
The Saudi authorities last year made it mandatory for intending pilgrims to use the e-passport, and this generated suspicion that the Saudis may be planning to restrict the number of Nigerians going for pilgrimage every year. The e-passport, unlike the machine readable passport which is being phased out, does not allow people to have multiple passports.
Hajiya Amina Ibarahim Yusuf of the Nigerian Association of Hajj and Umrah Tour Operators said the Saudi government had no reason to introduce the policy because Islam has not restricted number of times people can go to Hajj. She added, however, that she did not receive any notice on the policy from either the Saudi government or the Hajj commission.