The 2023 Muslim pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia has wound down with over two million participants concluding rituals at holy sites.

Consequently, 95,000 Nigerians who took part in the spiritual exercise have begun transiting from the tent city of Muna to Makkah, after five days of devotion.

The pilgrims from Nigeria had joined their counterparts from across the world in Muna, on Monday, where rituals began before departure to Mount Arafat for the Hajj climax.

Thereafter, they moved to Musdalifah, an open field, where they rested and then continued their journey to Jamrat for the symbolic pelting of the devil.

They returned to Muna on Wednesday to continue the stone-throwing ritual for a third day. This signaled the final stage of rituals and departure of pilgrims to the grand mosque in Makkah, where they performed Tawaf (circumambulation of the Ka’aba) and Sa’ai.

Earlier in Arafat, Nigerian pilgrims offered special prayers for the country, its leaders and citizens. The supplications, organised by National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), drew notable Islamic clerics who sought divine intervention for the nation.

Clerics, under the umbrella of Ulama Committee of NAHCON, took turns to offer prayers for the President Bola Tinubu-led administration for wisdom and strength to confront challenges facing Nigeria and its citizens.

In his sermon for the day, Sheikh Ahmad Suleiman, a Kano-based Quranic reciter, outlined the significance of the moment, stressing that Arafat Day is a time when prayers are answered.

On his part, NAHCON Chairman, Zikrullah Kunle Hassan, urged Nigerian pilgrims to consider any inconvenience encountered in the course of the rituals as an act of worship.

Nevertheless, he promised that the commission would do its best for the comfort of pilgrims. The chairman added that Saudi authorities were promptly attending to issues of inadequate tents and food shortage.