I am writing on behalf of my colleagues here in the Holy City of Makkah, Islam’s most important city, to express our gratitude and appreciation to the His Excellency Alhaji Said Sinare, Ghana’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Hajj Board.

The Annual Muslim Pilgrimage to Makkah is one of the five pillars of Islam, which is compulsory on every adult Muslim who can afford and have the means to do so. And as such, Muslims hold such religious exercise in very high esteem.

Muslims from every walk of lives gather in the holy cities of Makkah, and Madinah to perform the annual Hajj Pilgrimage.

Some estimates have put this years’ figure around three million people who will be gathering in one place at the same time during the Day of Arafat (the most important day in the Hajj Calendar). That is a huge figure by any standard, and it is the world’s largest gathering of humans at the same time in one place, even going by last year’s figure of two and half million people.

It is, therefore, against this backdrop that on behalf of my colleagues pilgrims, I wish to thank His Excellency Ambassador Said Sinare and the members of the Hajj Board for the wonderful job they’ve been exhibiting so far.

Before leaving Ghana, at the Hajj Village and at the airport in Accra, everything went smoothly without any hiccups. We didn’t witness or experienced any difficulties whatsoever in the processing of our documents.

The facilities at the Hajj Village was better than what was provided in the recent past.

The last time I was going to Hajj in 2009, some of us had to sleep for three days at the then Hajj Village because of poor coordination and organization of the exercise. And in fact it was even worse when we got to Jeddah and then Makkah.

Today, although I left Ghana with a preconceived notion that things may be tough in Makkah, I was shocked to see the Ambassador at the airport waiting for the Ghanaian delegation to arrive.

All Ghanaian pilgrims arrived (and will arrive) in Madinah, which is the second holiest city in Islam. We came with the third flight but we were later told that the Ambassador and his team from the Ghana Embassy and the Jeddah Consulate have been around to welcome Ghanaian Pilgrims since the first flight landed.

Further, the officials also ensured that all pilgrims are properly taken care of in terms of their transportation and accommodation issues. This is certainly very commendable in view of the negative past experiences some of us had.

We are extremely happy with the facilities here so far, and how especially the Ambassador is taking good care of the Ghanaian delegation. It is our belief that future ambassadors will learn and emulate the exemplary leadership of Ambassador Sinare.