President Bola Tinubu has been asked to weigh in on the charge of this year’s hajj operations as instability in the foreign exchange rate has continued to make it difficult to stick with an unchanged charge to intending pilgrims to the holy lands of Mecca and Medina.
In a passionate letter to the President by the Former Commissioner for Home Affairs in Lagos State, Mohammed Danmole, copy of which was made available to journalists on Thursday, 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 exercise while state pilgrims took a deposit of N4.5 million got a letter from NAHCON on Monday that a total amount of 5,013,473.33 is to be paid for services to rendered by Saudi authorities and 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.”
He alleged that: “There is no transparency in the rate used for state pilgrims which rumour had it that it is at the rate of 850 to a $1,” nothing: “That unexpected high rate of exchange the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria base their calculations on will affect the private operators negatively and is capable of disrupting the Holy pilgrimage and sending them out of business.”
He pleaded with the President to interve on the issue of four days deadline given to operators and extend it to one more week to be able to sensitize their pilgrims.
He said: “Your excellency sir, I am sure that you will intervene and put succour and smile on the faces of the private operators.
“I am appealing to the President to look into the high level of disparity in the exchange rate regime between the state sponsored pilgrims and those of the private tour operators.”