Nigeria, Saudi Arabia in diplomatic face-off?

Saudi Arabia adjudged by the authority to be without male companion (Muharram) have been detained in Jeddah and Madinah. Saudi Arabian authorities on Wednesday deported 159 Nigerian pilgrims for the 2012 hajj to Mecca, over irregular papers.
Spokesperson for the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) Uba Manna confirmed the return of the Nigerians, but insisted that they were not deported. The deportees were returned to the Wet African country through Med-View and Max Air airlines, which had earlier transported them to Saudi Arabia for the exercise.
Manna told reporters that it was the Nahcon authorities that decided to return the pilgrims because of unfavourable conditions in one of the landing points for Nigeria.
In an apparent reaction to Saudi Arabia’s maltreatment and deportation, Nigerian Vice President Namadi Sambo on Wednesday summoned Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Nigeria Khaled Abdrabuh to his office and requested the Saudi Arabian authorities to apply caution and flexibility to allow the pilgrims to undertake their sacred religious duties.
Sambo expressed the country’s displeasure over the treatment being meted out to Nigerians going to this year’s pilgrimage in the holy land. He said reports available to him suggested that only Nigerian pilgrims were being subjected to such dehumanising treatment.
Sambo complained that no reasonable and responsible government would sit and fold its arms while its citizens are man-handled. On his part, Abdrabuh said Nigeria was not being treated in isolation and that all the countries participating in the Hajj were affected. He said the issue of Muharram for female pilgrims was not a new policy, but that the Saudi government decided to be flexible in the past.
He revealed that the Ministries of Hajj, Foreign Affairs and Interior and the governor of Mecca were meeting in Riyadh, the country’s capital, with a view to resolving the impasse speedily.Similarly, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the constitution of a presidential delegation to interface with the Saudi authorities over the detention of Nigerian female pilgrims at King Abdul-Azziz International Airport, Jeddah.
The delegation will depart for Saudi Arabia as soon as appointment is finalised with the appropriate authority, a statement signed by Anyim Pius Anyim, secretary to the government of the federation, said.
The delegation would be headed by Aminu Tambuwal, speaker of the House of Representatives.Meanwhile, the Nahcon has temporarily suspended all Hajj flights for the next 48 hours following the detention of close to 1,000 female Muslim pilgrims from Nigeria.
Abdullahi Muhammad, the national commissioner in charge of operations, told a news conference in the Nigerian capital Abuja that the decision was reached after due consultation with all stakeholders. To accelerate the process of resolving the matter, he said, the suspension became necessary in view of the untold hardship Nigerian female pilgrims were going through under the allegation that they arrived Saudi Arabia without their mahrams (male guardians). The commission urges all intending pilgrims to remain calm as all hands are on deck to resolve the issue and hajj flights will resume once resolved, the commissioner told reporters. Muhammad assured all pilgrims that Nigeria had sufficient capacity to transport the remaining 60,000 pilgrims well ahead of the closure of Jeddah Airport on October 20. So far, 24,886 Muslim pilgrims have been transported to Saudi Arabia for the 2012 Hajj, Nahcon’s Chairman Malam Muhammad Bello said. — Xinhua.