About 1000 female Nigerian pilgrims now in detention in Saudi Arabia

About 1000 female Nigerian pilgrims are still detained by Saudi authorities even as the two countries are still involved in "high level diplomatic talks" to resolve the impasse, Daily Trust learnt last night.

However, high level sources hinted last night that the federal government is trying to sort out the issue through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, even as the House of Representatives resolved yesterday to probe the issue.

"A letter signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs has already been delivered to the Saudi authorities over the issue. We don't know whether they will accept it," the source who is involved with the issue told Daily Trust last night.

Investigations revealed that apart from the initial 400 pilgrims who arrived at the holy land on board flight 17 last Sunday, 600 additional female pilgrims on flights 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22, from Katsina, Kano and Zamfara states were also detained at the airport on arrival.

The female pilgrims were detained on arrival when they couldn't produce individual maharram, that is, the approved male companion accompanying them on the trip, usually a husband, father or brother, demanded by the Saudis.

But the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON)'s Commissioner of Operations, Alhaji Muhammad Abdullahi Mukhtar told our reporter yesterday that the it is not true that the pilgrims couldn't produce muharram. He said the State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Boards (SMPWB) "qualify and identify as muharram of female pilgrims. And that has been the case for so many decades."

He said that the situation is so confusing that "the Saudis randomly select flights to screen and detain."

"All the 10 flights that landed in Medina were allowed into the country without any incidence. Also, flights 23, 24 and 25 were not touched at all," he said.

Mukhtar wondered why only Nigerian pilgrims were selected for this treatment by the Saudi authorities. "In fact, there is no such issue in the memorandum of understanding signed between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia," he said.

He said that it was not true that the first two Max air flights conveying Sokoto and Jigawa pilgrims on Sunday "were intercepted because only women were aboard."

"Look at the manifest, all our flights carry both men and women," he said.

Another top official said that the Saudis' action is uncalled for because the fear of pilgrims refusing to come back home is no longer tenable.

"Since the introduction of e-passport by NAHCON adequately addressed the cases of pilgrims staying back in the holy land. In 2011, only 20 pilgrims absconded.

When did you see Saudi plane landing in Nigeria with deportees? The situation has been drastically addressed," he said.

Reports indicate also that the pilgrims are being detained in deplorable condition. One of the detained pilgrims, Bilkisu Nasidi, who spoke to the BBC Focus on Africa programme on Monday, said that the women were being held in "terrible condition."

She said there were about 400 of them (as at Monday) and they were being held in very unsuitable circumstance. She said they had been sleeping on the floor for three days, and an average of 200 women share four toilets.

She denied that all of them were without Maharram or guardian and that some of such guardians have opted not to leave the airport in order to give them some comfort.

"If they don't want us to go into Saudi Arabia let them take us home, we are tired," Bilkisu Nasidi said.

The Nigerian Consul in Jeddah, Ambassador Abdullahi Umar had told BBC Hausa Service on Monday that the Nigerian officials had been providing food and toiletries for the detained pilgrims, adding that a formal letter had been delivered to the Saudis and the issue was being taken up with the Governor of Makkah region, who would decide on the matter.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives yesterday commenced an investigation into the circumstance leading to the detention of the women whose number has now risen to about 1000 by the Saudi Arabian authorities in Jeddah.

Adopting a motion on matter of urgent national importance sponsored by Deputy Minority Leader Rep. Suleiman Kawu Sumaila (ANPP, Kano), the House mandated its Committee on Foreign Affairs to interface with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and report back today.

In his motion, Sumaila expressed shock that the affected pilgrims were people who applied for Saudi Arabian visas, and were approved by its embassy without such rules made known to them.

He said that the action of the Saudi authorities negated the long standing understanding between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia on Hajj performance.

Also, Rep. Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje (PDP,Abia) who chairs the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said her committee was interfacing with officials of the foreign ministry to secure pilgrims release.

However, Rep. Alhassan Ado Doguwa (PDP, Kano) blamed the Nigerian ambassador to Saudi Arabia for treating the issue with laxity by claiming that "he is on top of the situation" whereas "it is the situation that is on top of him."

Meanwhile a Saudi embassy official in Abuja told Daily Trust in confidence last night that officials of the two countries were making diplomatic efforts to sort out the matter and they will address the press when the matter is settled.

Daily Trust

Related story: 400 Nigerian women detained in Saudi Arabia during Hajj

Mikel Obi recalled to Super Eagles squad

Nigeria coach, Stephen Keshi, on Wednesday included Chelsea midfielder, Mikel Obi, in his provisional 38-man list for the South Africa 2013 Africa Cup of Nations final qualifier against Liberia in Calabar on October 13.

The list comprised 23 home-based players and 15 foreign-based professionals.

However, Keshi once again left out West Brom forward, Osaze Odemwingie, from the team but handed Lazio young midfielder, Ogenyi Onazi, a surprise first call-up to the senior national team.

Israel-based goalkeepers Vincent Enyeama and Austin Ejide, while captain Joseph Yobo, Elderson Echiejile and new Celtic signing, Efe Ambrose, are the foreign-based defenders invited for the clash.

Inter Milan’s Joel Obi, who just recovered from an injury lay-off, also got a recall alongside Nosa Igiebor, and Obiora Nwankwo, who reportedly had a bad game in Monrovia in the first leg. They will battle Mikel and Onazi for midfield places.

Chelsea’s Victor Moses also got a call-up. Other foreign-based forwards also invited are CSKA Moscow’s speedster, Ahmed Musa, Ike Uche, Emmanuel Emenike and Brown Ideye.

The home-based players, who are expected in camp on Sunday in Abuja, are led by Warri Wolves keeper, Chigozie Agbim, his team mate Azubuike Egwueku, Godfrey Oboabona and Juwon Oshaniwa.

The foreign-based players will join the team on October 8 in Calabar.

“We hope to have at least five training sessions together and that should be enough for the team to do well against Liberia,” Keshi was quoted as saying by Eagles media officer, Ben Alaiya.

PUNCH

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 Mikel John Obi amongst Nigerian top football earners

Wole Soyinka calls for armed intervention against Boko Haram at the United Nations

On the International Day of Peace, Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka visited the United Nations - and called for armed intervention against the terrorist group Boko Haram in his home country of Nigeria.

"This is a violent organisation," Soyika told IPS. "What do you do with them? I am sorry, but you must fight them."

On Sep. 21, 2012 the International Day of Peace was celebrated with a debate about how to build a global culture of tolerance. Invited to participate were such superstars as actor Forest Whitaker, economist Jeffrey Sachs, and Wole Soyinka, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986.

After his speech, Soyinka spoke to IPS about the situation in his native Nigeria, where the Islamist militant group Boko Haram is responsible for thousands of deaths and the bombings of several churches in Nigeria in recent years. The group seeks to establish sharia law in the country. Their presence is particularly strong in the north of the country.

"We have an organisation which closes down schools, shoots faculty teachers, knocks out children and turns most of the north into an educational wasteland. How can we reach the children there? We must first get rid of Boko Haram," Soyinka lashed out.

"We have a contradiction," he acknowledged. "How do we get rid of Boko Haram? Violence must become involved. That is a dilemma."

Calling for armed intervention on Peace Day may certainly seem like a paradox. But Soyinka's call for attacking Boko Haram in order to stop the group's attacks on schools made more sense after Friday's debate, where speaker after speaker highlighted the importance of education to enable a global culture of peace to grow.

As stipulated in the 1999 Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace, the United Nations' primary goal is to "create and maintain world peace" through economic, social and political agreements, and in the worst cases through military intervention.

In order for such a framework to succeed, a foundation of peace and a culture of tolerance must to be built. A cornerstone in building this culture is inculcating respect for others in children.

"The real weapon of mass destruction is ignorance," said British-Iranian philanthropist Nasser David Khalili, one of the speakers during the event to emphasise the importance of schooling building a culture of peace. "The solution must be education."

Another important point came from Jeffrey Sachs, professor of sustainable development at Columbia University. "As an economist it strikes me... how hunger and poverty are incendiary parts of war," Sachs said. In the Sahel region of Mali this summer, for example, a famine sparked conflict between nomads and farmers over access to water.

Sachs drew attention to the fact that critical issues such as these receive too little attention, describing the great frustration he felt as he failed to raise money from the World Bank on behalf of Mali. "Shout Al-Qaeda, and you get millions for missiles. But try to do something preventive, and you do not get anything."

He urged global leaders to invest in "development rather than military". Globally, "we are spending more than 10 times more on the military than we do on development," Sachs said. "In the U.S. the rate is 30 to one."

U.N. Women's Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri continued with the theme of social justice in order to achieve peace, highlighting the importance of including women in poverty eradication programmes. "Women bear the brunt of poverty," Lakshmi said.

After her speech, Lakshmi told IPS that it is important to remember that even religious freedom has its limits, in reference to the use of religion as an excuse for acts of violence. "We believe that no religion sanctions, or in any way justifies, violations of human rights and women's rights," she stressed.

Film star and UNESCO goodwill ambassador Forest Whitaker concluded the event. "We must never believe that it is right to inflict pain against others, even if we do not agree with them," he said.

IPS

Wande Adalemo - From University drop out to Nigerian tech giant

Wande Adalemo dropped out of the Olabisi Onabanjo University to actualise his dream of building an Internet service company, which is now worth N1bn. He tells DAYO OKETOLA how it all started and what other young Nigerian entrepreneurs can learn from his journey.

The Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Oxygen Broadband Networks, Nigeria’s first metro WiFi network, Mr. Wande Adalemo, is a young man who aspired to be a university graduate and get a job. But an event in 1998 changed the course of his life and he decided to pursue his dream of building an Internet company.

Today, he sits atop a N1bn broadband network company, which has just rolled out a WiFi network at the popular Computer Village in Lagos.

He said his greatest challenge was funding, but the driving force had been the passion to ensure that all Nigerians have access to affordable Internet access through WiFi technology.

From the ground zero in 2005, dropping out of school along the line, Adalemo said he overcome the challenge and was able to attract investors, who believed in his dream and invested in the business.

Adalemo said the company started with a $2m investment and as at today, had invested N1bn with a network infrastructure already in place and duly licensed by the Nigerian Communications Commission.

“As we speak, we are currently at the Computer Village in Lagos, where we have our pilot network. In the last two months since we started, we have had over 20,000 connections sitting on our network,” he said

In view of this, he said the company had laid out an expansion plan, which would see it invest another N200m in rolling out services in six locations across Lagos State before the end of 2012.

“We are doing another N200m investment and we are going to six new locations by December 2012. We are partnering with malls on the Island, Surulere, and high traffic restaurants. We already have agreements with all of these people,” he said.

The expansion, Adalemo said, would see Oxygen Networks expand to 20 locations in March 2013, and 100 locations in Lagos by 2015; and then Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano, thereafter.

“Of the N200m needed to roll out services by December 2012, we have attained N75m equity investment to date, which means that we are really set to move to these new locations,” he said.

According to him, the company currently operates with 100 per cent private equity fund from the board of directors and “they are putting in more funds to see us expand.”

He said the company had already attracted institutional investors such as Google and Main One Cable Company, which were interested in investing in it and help boost broadband access in the country.

While the start-up appears to be on the right track, the Oxygen Broadband Network boss said the beginning was very rough.

In an interview with our correspondent on how it all started, he said, “I never saw a computer until 1998. I was with my cousin Femi Adalemo, who was the Chairman of the Nigerian Internet Exchange Committee at some points. So, I went to his office and he said he wanted to send a mail to someone in the United States. Five minutes after, the person in the US had responded to the mail and that surprised me.

“I couldn’t sleep that night, and in the morning, I went back to him and asked him to teach me how to develop something that will make Nigerians send and receive e-mails easily. I told him I wanted to do something that would make it easier for every Nigerian to send email.

“He told me it was networking and that was how it started. So, as I grew in my knowledge of what the Internet access and broadband were, it became more of a passion. Getting the technology was one thing, putting it together was another, and getting funding took a while. Between 2005 and now, you can see it has been seven years, it has not been easy.”

On how he got the first investor, who later became a co-founder of the company, Adalemo, said, “We had spoken with a thousand of individuals to put their money in the business and the answer we kept getting was no. Eventually, we found someone and it was an interesting story. We met the first investor, who later became a co-founder of the company, in 2005. I didn’t have a penny that day and then a friend of mine called and said there was someone that ‘is interested in this crazy idea of yours, let’s go and see him.’

“I had to trek from Iponrin to Ajose Adeogun to meet him. He was the managing director of a bank then. Meanwhile, I had met several potential investors who had discouraged me but I did not give up. So, when I got there, he told me; ‘If you cannot convince me in two minutes, I cannot invest in this because an idea that cannot hit someone in two minutes is no good idea.’ Well, I think I was able to hit him in two minutes and the next question he asked was how do we move?

“The first thing we did was to go around the world to see where WiMax was failing because my own idea was that WiMax will not work but WiFi will. So how do we get WiFi to work? And from there, he got some of his friends involved in the business.”

Adalemo reiterated that the company would continue to expand because he believed WiFi technology would play a major role in boosting Internet access in Nigeria.

He said, “Because we believe that everybody should be on the Internet and we are restricted by regulations as to how to expand (we cannot cover wide area), we decided to take the Internet to where everybody is going?

“Oxygen believes that your Internet should be wherever you are going and instead of carrying your modem or dongle around, if you know that Oxygen is present at the place you are going to such as the cinema, restaurant, clubs and malls, among others; then, it becomes a better option for you.”

According to him, the second phase of the company’s expansion will be the ASPANDA Market at the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex, Alaba and Oke Arin markets.

“For or us at Oxygen, we are taking our WiFi network to a point where we have a hots pot in virtually every major street in Lagos. It begins to tell us where we need to start focusing our attention in Nigeria. It also begins to tell us where we need to start building broadband ecosystems. We need to start looking at solutions that will enable people to just plug and deliver broadband services to everybody,” Adalemo explained.

He disclosed that the company had sealed a partnership with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc to provide its WiFi network for PoS connectivity at the Computer Village, adding that this was the driving force behind its planned extension into the Oke Arin Market.

“Due to our partnership with NIBSS, we are providing WiFi for the purpose of PoS terminals alone at Oke Arin Market. These are some of the plans that Google is excited about,” he said

Adalemo encouraged young Nigerian entrepreneurs not to be deterred by challenges surrounding them, while assuring them of success if they remained focused.

He said this was what made him drop out of school when he found out that academic works were disturbing his entrepreneurial drive.

“I will say that I am also a proud school dropout because at some point, I realised that pursuing academic excellence was interfering with my passion for this dream. May be Oxygen would have become a dream earlier but for exams in school,” he said

When our correspondent took him up on this, he said, “I am not saying it is good to drop out of school, but I am saying it is good to think outside the box. The emphasis on paper qualification in our society has not helped us. If school will limit you as an entrepreneur, get out; and if it will enhance you, stay with it.”

“I encourage people to go to school, but once you find that dream, that passion that you can pursue and it is a good idea, you will succeed. Once you are dedicated, you will get there. It is not about everyone leaving school, it is about understanding what will work for you.”

PUNCH

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400 Nigerian women detained in Saudi Arabia during Hajj

About four hundred female pilgrims from Nigeria who arrived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, yesterday to participate in this year's hajj were promptly separated from their male counterparts and detained by the Saudi authorities, Daily Trust has reported.

It was gathered that the Saudis demanded to see each female pilgrim's muharram, that is, the approved male companion accompanying her on the trip, usually a husband, father or brother.

When they could not produce any, the Saudis promptly detained them and as at last night, they were threatening to deport them back to Nigeria on the next available hajj plane.

Daily Trust learnt that the pilgrims had arrived Jeddah in two separate Max Air flights Monday afternoon.

One of the planes conveyed pilgrims from Jigawa State while the second plane had pilgrims from Sokoto State.

The nearly 400 women were only allowed to be supplied water and food by the Saudis after strenuous efforts by the Nigerian Consul in Jeddah and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Alhaji Nurudeen, the paper also learnt.

Contacted on telephone from Sokoto Monday night, Sultan Muhammadu Sa'ad who is the Amirul Hajj condemned the Saudi action in the strongest terms and described it as "an insult to Nigeria and to this country's millions of muslims."

He said the action of the Saudi authorities came as a total surprise to Nigeria's hajj authorities because during the numerous meetings held between Nigerian and Saudi officials to prepare for this year's hajj, the issue of muharram for female pilgrims was never raised.

The Sultan said, "They never raised this issue and never demanded that the female pilgrims must have a muharram.

They did not make this a requirement for issuing visas. They issued visas to all these pilgrims, only to embarrass, detain and threaten to deport them when they arrived in the holy land. How can they do this to us? The chairman of the National Hajj Commission assured me that the Saudis never asked for this during all the meetings they held. This is very unfortunate. We have done a lot over the years to improve on our hajj operation and we do not deserve this humiliation."

The Sultan also told Daily Trust that he had ordered the Nigerian pilgrims not to walk voluntarily into planes to be deported. "Let the Saudis physically carry them into the planes and deport them," he said. "They issued them with valid visas, only to shift the goal posts at the very last minute, when they had already arrived in Jeddah."

Spokesman for Max Air, Malam Ibrahim Dahiru, when contacted Monday night, said he was not aware of the development, though he confirmed that the two Max Air planes did indeed land in Jeddah with Jigawa and Sokoto pilgrims.

He expressed surprise that the Saudis would demand for muharram, saying "that is usually asked during the Umrah, but since the hajj is collectively organised by the Federal Government, that is enough guarantee and this demand is not made."

Dahiru also said as at yesterday, Max Air alone had already delivered 9,700 pilgrims to Jeddah in 19 flights from Abuja, Kano, Katsina and Sokoto.

This Day