President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been asked to weigh in on the modus of costing this year’s hajj operations as instability in the foreign exchange rates has continued to make it difficult to stick with an unchanged fee to intending pilgrims to the holy lands of Mecca and Medina.
In a passionate letter to the President by Chief Oyinlomo Danmole, a lawyer and former Commissioner for Home Affairs in Lagos State, a copy of which was made available to Theliberationnews, he appealed to President Tinubu to intervene in the process of costing this year’s hajj operation.
He said: “As a result of different regimes of rates of exchange given the tour operators and the state pilgrims board, it has become difficult for private tour operators to keep their clients.
“The private operators who had earlier collected a deposit of N5 million for the exercise just as the state pilgrims paid a deposit of N4.5 million suddenly got a letter from NAHCON on Monday that a total amount of 5,013,473.33 is to be paid for services to be rendered by Saudi authorities including accommodation in Makkah and Madinah. The rate of exchange used in coming to the above cost was based on the rate of N1,625.35 to $1. Suffice to say that the rate of exchange from Monday till today is between 1,400 and 1,450.”
Danmole also pointed out: “There is no transparency in the rate used for state pilgrims with rumours circulating that the rate used is N850 to a $1.”
He further noted that the “unexpected high rate of exchange the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria based their calculations on will affect the private operators negatively and is capable of disrupting the Holy pilgrimage and sending them out of business.”
However, he’s pleading with the President to intervene very quickly on the issue of four days deadline given to operators and calls for an extension of the ultimatum by at least one more week so as to be able to sensitize the intending pilgrims and to buy time for adjustments.
“Your excellency sir, I am sure that you will intervene and put succour and smile on the faces of the private operators….by looking especially into the high level of disparity in the exchange rate regime between the state sponsored pilgrims and those of the private tour operators,” he concluded.
