By Our Correspondent
A civil society organization, the Independent Hajj Reporters (IHR), has called on the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) and States Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Boards to immediately organize an appraisal of the 2025 Hajj exercise.
In a statement signed by its National Coordinator Ibrahim Muhammed, IHR urged NAHCON’s management under Professor Abdullahi Usman and other relevant agencies to establish an open platform to review the 2025 operations.
Following the conclusion of the airlift of Nigerian pilgrims for this year’s Hajj, the objective of the review should be to prevent a recurrence of critical service failures observed during this year’s Hajj, the statement said.
IHR emphasised that the review should be a candid self-evaluation based on factual references, avoiding self-congratulations or political grandstanding.
While acknowledging improvements in some areas, such as the first phase of the airlift and services in Mina, IHR highlighted the need for an investigation into sensitive failures in security and medical screening.
Specifically, the CSO calls for a probe into how some suspected criminals infiltrate the pilgrims’ registration database without detection, which led to the arrest of wanted kidnappers during the outbound and return flights.
It therefore urged authorities to revisit the widespread complaints regarding inadequate medical attention both in Makkah and Madinah, and why the screening process was unable to spot a nine-month-old pregnant lady from Zamfara who gave birth during this year’s Hajj.
Looking ahead to the 2026 Hajj, IHR noted that preparations have already begun and therefore urged the management of NAHCON to promptly implement the newly released 2026 Hajj calendar of events from the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah.