FEW days after the reports, that authorities of Saudi Arabia  detained Nigerian female pilgrims, its embassy in Nigeria held a reception in Abuja to mark the founding of the reclusive and arch-conservative kingdom.

Governor Babangida Aliyu and Rauf Aregbesola of Niger and Osun states respectively were photographed in a hearty bear-hug with the ambassador of Saudi Arabia, the host of the event.

The cream of Nigerian elite were handy at the reception hosted by the embassy at the same time that Nigerian female pilgrims were been detained without prior warning or notice.

If there is any early sign to the Saudis that their rash and inconsiderate action will not attract consequences from the Nigerian side, the reception hosted in Abuja by their envoy is it.

That highly placed public  officials of governors Aregbesola and Babangida Aliyu standing could go into public warm and hearty embrace of the Saudi envoy while his government was deliberately maltreating and humiliating Nigerian female pilgrims, show the extent of insensitivity of the Nigerian elite to the plights of ordinary Nigerians.

Had the Saudi envoy found his reception hall empty, he would have reported back to his government that their unprovoked humiliation of Nigerian women is likely to attract severe consequences. Few days later, after the well-attended reception held by the Saudi envoy in Abuja, the Saudis made good their earlier threat and began to deport the Nigerian pilgrims.

The Saudi envoy who would have noticed the aloofness of the Nigerian authorities may have advised his government, that the worst they could expect from the Nigerian authorities is feeble and empty rhetoric.

After meeting with Vice president, Namadi Sambo and supposedly getting ultimatum for his government to stop the hostile action of deporting the Nigerian female pilgrims within 24 hours, the Saudis actually began deporting them within the period of the ultimatum, coolly and calculatingly calling the bluff of a seemingly angry Nigerian government.

The Saudi envoy promised a solution to the problem within 48 hours and the solution evidently manifested in the hasty and speedy deportation of Nigerian female pilgrims.

In a bid to foster another diplomatic hoax, the Federal government set up a committee with the Speaker of the House of Representatives Mr. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as its leader and was to travel to Saudi Arabia to confer with its leadership.

The committee was inaugurated as the Nigerian female pilgrims were been returned. The deported pilgrims were told harrowing stories of been held in overcrowded detention camp without water and food.

Even the Nigerian ambassador in Saudi Arabia and other officials of the mission were denied access to the  detained female pilgrims. In spite of evident hopelessness in any visit to the kingdom, the Speaker and his team were reported to have made frantic efforts to visit the kingdom.

Mr. CHARLES ONUNAIJU, a journalist, wrote from Abuja.