The Makkah Mission And The Night Encounter (2)

Last week, I took readers to my room at the Address Hotel, Makkah, where Ithraa Al-Jood came to meet me at 9 p.m. and we sat until midnight — and where I learned that no company owns anything in the Masha’ir, that Kidana holds sole control over the allocation of accommodation in Muna and Arafah, and that Ithraa would not only accept the shortfall of its Zone 5 facility but compete for the Kidana building in order to serve our pilgrims. I promised that this week I would take readers into the second of the two night encounters. That is where I resume.

The meeting with Manasek Mashaer began after midnight on Monday, 5 October, and ran into the early morning of Tuesday, 6 October 2026, with a team of three officers representing the company. For completeness, I should record the strain of that period: these engagements had to be conducted in the interstices of arranging luggage, checking out of the hotel, and catching my flight home to Nigeria. It was exacting, but it was necessary, for no part of the mandate could be left unattended.

The Manasek team opened on the same note as the Ithraa representative, but went further. They said that, as we spoke, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah had jettisoned all engagements with companies over the facilities in the Masha’ir and had taken over the buildings. No company can claim ownership of any building in Muna and Arafah; the Ministry owns them. The Ministry will release new regulations soon, and any interested company must apply according to guidelines yet to be announced. Only after the Ministry releases the regulations, companies apply, and the Ministry approves, may any company claim control over a facility.

During the meeting, Manasek sent me, by WhatsApp, more than a hundred documents concerning the company — certificates of distinction from several entities, among them the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, rating the company third-best in pilgrim services for the last Hajj; and photographs and videos of their service to pilgrims from various countries. What arrested my attention, however, was footage from the Abraj Tower building in Mina, the closest of such buildings to the Jamarat, situated in the First Zone.

I could not conceal my concern that so vital a piece of information should surface only then, when at our earlier meeting at their office the matter of VIP services had been waved aside with the same assurance Ithraa gave — that whatever we needed could be provided. They explained that part of the Abraj Tower was with them even in the last Hajj, and that they had reached out to some Nigerian tour operators who had by then concluded arrangements with Rawaf.

Honestly, the Abraj Tower, being the first of such buildings in Zone 1, would be a long-awaited answer to the bane of our VIP services. The Kidana buildings in which Rawaf has served our pilgrims lie in Zone 2, and pilgrims are made to endure the long walk to the Jamarat, and the forced circumambulation of the entire Masha’ir to find their way back to their tents, because of the one-way traffic arrangement maintained to prevent a stampede. The Abraj Tower has its own dedicated route to and from the Jamarat. From the videos I received, the rooms are more spacious than those of the Kidana building, as are the beds. And here is a detail I must not omit: the tents in the Abraj Tower are en-suite. Each has its own private convenience — unlike the Kidana building, where pilgrims must use public conveniences. However well those public facilities are kept, they cannot be compared with a convenience reserved exclusively for the few occupants of a single tent. Manasek said that, subject to ratification by the Ministry, the rate will not be more than what we paid for the Kidana building. On quality, proximity and ease of access to the Jamarat, there is no comparison.

Manasek further disclosed that they could work with the Saudi Arabian Airlines Hajj Division, FlyNas and others to serve Nigerian VIPs outside the Nigerian quota of pilgrim allocations. The implication is that any operator needing additional slots for VIP pilgrims beyond what NAHCON allocates could obtain additional visas under the Saudi Airlines arrangement, as a complete package covering the Masha’ir services as well. I noted the caution, however, that this would create two classes of pilgrims — those drawn from the NAHCON allocation on the one hand, and those served under the Saudi Airlines arrangement on the other — with two distinct service qualities, the two groups perhaps not even meeting at the Masha’ir. Manasek said that, whatever we desire, they would act according to the Ministry’s guidelines.

Beyond those disclosures, Manasek laid before me a complete operational blueprint. Reduced to its essentials, their proposal is this: to serve Nigerian pilgrims across every category and package, not VIPs alone, each category served to the standard it merits under one unified professional management; to work directly and in advance with Nigerian officials and operators to determine requirements; to design the camps and their facilities in three dimensions so that our side may review, approve and request modifications before anything is built, and then execute and equip the camps in accordance with the approved design; to assign field teams to accompany and monitor our pilgrims’ movements between hotels and the Grand Mosque and to the holy sites and the Jamarat, with special attention to the elderly and the infirm; to provide reception and farewell services; to give each pilgrim a dedicated digital application to organise movements, receive instructions, lodge requests and maintain contact with the operational teams; and to send a team to Nigeria before the season to train our staff and supervisors on the management of pilgrim movements, the handling of the elderly and VIP pilgrims, the use of the application, and the harmonisation of working procedures between our teams and theirs in the Kingdom.

And so the Makkah Mission closed. Let me now draw together the whole of what the Committee did, from the beginning to that late-night encounter at the Address Hotel. It began with a resolution of the National Executive Council to send a formidable team of the BoT, the NEC and the lead companies to the Kingdom. It proceeded through the visits to four shortlisted companies — Jabal Omar, Manasek, Ithraa and Rawaf Mina. At its house-cleaning meeting, the Committee dropped Jabal Omar for want of the commitment the other three had shown, and adopted the remaining three. And because the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah has yet to release its final unified rates, the Committee agreed to defer the final selection until those rates are known, when it can negotiate further and choose. Then came the epilogue: the two night meetings I have described, called by the SPOCs after most of the delegation had dispersed, to give effect to the NEC mandate that both Ithraa and Manasek state precisely what they would offer.

What, then, should readers expect in the days to come?

First, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah is shortly to release its guidelines and unified costing for Hajj 2027. Until then, every engagement with every provider remains tentative. Once those rates are out, the Committee will reconvene, negotiate afresh, and make the final selection.

Second, the claim of any company to ownership of anything in the Masha’ir has been exposed as idle. What will matter, in the end, is not ownership but standing with Kidana, the ability to win the allocation, and the quality of service on offer.

Third, the Abraj Tower must be physically inspected before any commitment, and Ithraa given the same opportunity to present a comparable facility, so that the choice is made on evidence and not on assurance.

Fourth, the eight-man Sub-Committee must be activated, the better to coordinate on a platform of transparency.

Fifth, the matter of NAHCON’s service-charge deductions, and the exchange rate applied to our deposits, remains live, and leadership has been asked to mandate engagement with the Commission on the basis, the breakdown and the rate applied.

It is necessary to state why I bring all this to the pages of a newspaper, for there are those who will ask. Yes, the matters I have recounted concern Nigerian tour operators and the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria — a dispute, in part, between an association and a regulator. But Hajj is not the private affair of any association or any commission; it is the affair of the Nigerian pilgrim, and of the Nigerian public. When the machinery of the Hajj is arranged, misarranged or misconstrued, it is the pilgrim who pays. It is right, therefore, that the public should know and follow these events. Nothing is hidden today. We mean no harm to the interest of any person or any entity; we seek only that the Nigerian pilgrim be given the best that is available, and that Hajj should not suffer for the caprice of any single body. The best should be given to the Nigerian pilgrim — nothing less, and nothing short of it.

I have done, in rendering this account, no more than the SPOCs were asked to do: to report faithfully what was said and seen, without preference and without prejudice, and to leave the decision where it belongs — with the leadership and with the members. As for the final choice of a service provider for Hajj 2027, it awaits the Ministry’s rates, and with them the return of the entire team, insha Allah, to the negotiating table.

May Allah grant us a Hajj better than the last, and may He make us worthy of the trust we carry. Ameen.