Over one thousand Nigerians located in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Kebbi and other states may miss the 2025 Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia due to visa problems, even as the National Hajjj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) said it has concluded pilgrims airlift to the holy land on Wednesday.
NAHCON Chairman Professor Abdullahi Saleh Usman said at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja on Wednesday that the “outbound airlift of Nigerian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia was seamless and successful.”
Over 1,000 stranded pilgrims, tour operators and state pilgrims boards officials have faulted the NAHCON chief’s declaration, accusing him of insensitivity and doing very little to ameliorate their ordeal.
Findings by this newspaper revealed that the stranded pilgrims are both from the private tour operators and state government quota pilgrims, largely located in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Kebbi states.
The National President of the Association of Hajj and Umrah Operators of Nigeria (AHUON), Mr Abdul Lateef Ekundayo, has confirmed on Wednesday in an interview that nearly 1,000 tour operators pilgrims are currently stranded in Nigeria over visa problems.
He said about 700 of them are from the Lagos and Abuja zones of the association, while Kano zone has about 200 intending pilgrims without visa.
Officials of state pilgrims boards also told this newspaper on the condition of anonymity that there are pockets of state government qouta pilgrims scattered across the country without visa. For instance, there are 93 intending pilgrims from Lagos state stranded without visa, and 26 from Kebbi state.
The intending pilgrims’ ordeal is worsened by the fact that Saudi Arabian authorities said they would close the kingdom’s airspace to foreign pilgrims on May 31, therefore shutting any aperture of opportunity for these Nigerians to perform this year’s holy pilgrimage.
The Saudi authorities, it was further learned, had closed the Nigerian e-visa portal since May 19, 2025 — shutting out over a thousand Nigerians intending pilgrims.
The Hajj visa issuance was suspended for Nigerians, according to NAHCON insiders, due to the Hajj commission’s reported widespread violations of Saudi Hajj rules and protocols, particularly the country’s NUSUK cards policy for all pilgrims.
However, in a BBC Hausa interview monitored in Abuja on Wednesday, the Hajj Commission’s Commissioner for Planning, Research, Statistics, Information and Library Services (PRSILS), Professor Abubakar A. Yagawal, said the visa problem is “a usual thing in Hajj operation,” further infuriating the stranded pilgrims.
One of the intending pilgrims who spoke to this newspaper said, “the NAHCON commissioner’s explanation is highly nauseating. Let’s assume that non-issuance of visa is a recurring problem in Hajj, but why must you the commission endorsing and encouraging the problem? Why didn’t they work hard to end it?”
The stranded pilgrims were also angered by the NAHCON chairman Usman’s decision to leave the country without saying a word to them, or staying back to sort out the problem.
“It is unfortunate that the NAHCON chairman behaved as if everything is alright. I was taken aback when we saw him saying the outbound airlift operation was a complete success while he has more than one thousand Nigerian pilgrims stranded. The chairman was in hurry to travel to Saudi Arabia that is why he did not even utter a word about the visa case. This is very insensitive,” a proprietor of one of the affected tour operators companies, who didn’t want his name disclosed for fear of a backlash, said.
This newspaper learned that some NAHCON staff had earlier advised Professor Usman against travelling while the visa problem is still raging.
“They pointed at the moral crisis the action would portray to Nigerians, particularly, the stranded pilgrims. But he declined their advice. They said he could suspend the trip till May 31, that would have portrayed him as someone concerned about the plight of the stranded pilgrims. But he refused,” a top official in the commission told one of our reporters.
A veteran staff of the commission who confided in this newspaper said that “diplomatic overtures won’t solved the issue easily only if the NAHCON chairman knows his onion.”
The official said, “What Professor Pakistan (Usman) should have done, if not because of his capacity issue, is simply to lobby the Saudi Hajj air carrier in Nigeria, Flynas, to speak to their brothers to open the e-visa portal. The airline belongs to the same Saudi government. They have that local advantage. They have intervened in the past and it worked. That is what should be done, not following a long bureaucratic channel.”
Stranded pilgrims from Lagos state, President Bola Tinubu’s home state, which is the most affected by the visa problem, expressed dismay over the matter, accusing the NAHCON chairman of nonchalance over their plight. “Is this a deliberate attempt by NAHCON chairman to punish pilgrims from Lagos state? Why is he always treating us shabbily? What offence have we committed to deserve this treatment?” One of the pilgrims rhetorically asked.
Affected pilgrims from Kano, where NAHCON chairman comes from, also expressed shock over the way and manner Professor Usman handled the issue. “We were shocked. He is from Kano and we are greatly surprised that he did not show any empathy towards us. The way he struggled to read a written speech from his mobile phone before journalists has really embarrassed us. Kano has better educated people to handle the Hajj affairs,” one of the stranded pilgrims said.
“The least the NAHCON chairman could have done before he left was to convene a 30-minute meeting with affected state officials and tour operators, appeal to them to be calm and explain to them the efforts he is making to solve the problem (if any). He didn’t do any of that. The most annoying part of it was that the chairman had ignored the visa issue completely in his poorly-delivered written speech,” another affected Kano pilgrim said.
Also, AHUON Chief Ekundayo said the visa problem would plunge many tour operators companies into financial difficulties. “If the visa portals are not opened, Gob forbids, most of our members would be in serious debts,” he said.
“We have written series of letters to NAHCON appealing to President Bola Tinubu to use diplomatic channels to make the Saudis open the visa for our pilgrims,” Mr Ekundayo said.
The tour operators chief said they are still optimistic a miracle would happen to save his members from bankruptcy. “We are still praying and hoping that the visa would be granted to our pilgrims.”
