Hajj: FG should go beyond stopping sponsored pilgrimages (II)

The procedure, too, for applying and securing hajj seats is another matter that needs re-examination and re-structuring. The order by Governor Nasir Ahmed el-Rufai of Kaduna State banning the allocation of hajj seats to politicians and traditional rulers is a laudable departure from a deeply bastardized system. The practice of allocating hajj seats to politicians, political office holders, top government functionaries, traditional title holders and leaders of ethnic groups is not only discriminatory but also unjust.
Usually, a substantial part of Hajj seats allocated to states by NAHCON is hijacked by governors to cater for members of the Amirul hajj team. Similarly, pressures from people who are influential in government as well as other corrupt practices of state pilgrims boards’ officials altogether take a big chunk of the seats allocated to states; denying a number of genuine applicants who perhaps toiled over years to gather resources to fulfill this life-time ambition.
In 2014 for example, the then Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross Rivers State bought the entire 50 seats allocated to the state. Last year too, 80 percent of the 7,550 seats allocated to Kaduna State were claimed to have been sold within 48 hours by officials of the state pilgrims’ board. The closure of sales of seats in Kaduna State a day after its commencement last year left many intending pilgrims who had raised bank drafts, a prerequisite for securing hajj seats, in a devastating state of confusion.
There were reports in the past of intending pilgrims losing their lives in the attempt to secure Hajj forms. It was reported last year that two people fainted in Gombe during a scuffle that ensued in the course of obtaining application forms at the state pilgrims’ board office. But if one might ask, why, for Allah’s sake, must the chances of poor intending pilgrims who are in the majority be blocked or frustrated? It is simply because those in positions of authority do not consider such as positions of responsibility. Others including those who allocate the seats abuse the process in order to please or appease politicians (in the guise of protecting their offices or appointments).
Sometimes at the local government level especially in the recent past, the political affiliation of an intending pilgrim mattered. He could be denied Hajj seat especially if his political views were not in favour of the ruling party at that level. NAHCON and state pilgrims’ boards could take advantage of modern technology to re-structure application procedure in order to tackle the irregularities that exist in obtaining Hajj application forms.
Let us now talk of hajj subsidy; an issue over which some Nigerians are not prepared to listen a contrasting view. The questions are: Who actually benefits from hajj subsidy? Is it the pilgrims or people other than pilgrims? Given the manner in which the exchange rate facility had always been used or rather exploited by those charged with the responsibility of changing pilgrims’ BTA in to dollar, the greater percentage of the facility is enjoyed by senior government officials and public officers. Only an insignificant value of the exchange transactions is enjoy by the pilgrims. State governors, ministers, special advisers and even airline operators for whom the subsidy is not meant all take advantage of the facility to benefit exchange large sums of money at a concessional or what government prefers to call subsidized rate. Hajj subsidy, like the fuel subsidy, is an issue for government and Nigerians to actually have a re-think.
The former chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) Alhaji Muhammad Musa Bello in an exclusive interview granted Weekly Trust and published in the May 3, 2008 edition of the paper explained that Hajj subsidy is only in terms of the exchange rate of the US dollar to the naira granted by government to cover the Personal Travelling Allowance (PTA) of pilgrims.
For the 2015 Hajj exercise, the federal government has approved an exchange rate of N160 to a dollar for PTA of pilgrims. According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, intending pilgrims are to be sold the US $750.00 at a concessionary exchange rate of N160.00 to the US dollar. Each pilgrim entitled to purchase a minimum of US $750.00 and maximum of US $1,000.00 as PTA. For pilgrims buying above US $1,000.00, the difference shall be bought at the prevailing Naira exchange rate to the US dollar on the day of purchase. No commission is to be charged by the banks for the sale of PTA to intending pilgrims.
Given these details, what is then the value of the subsidy enjoyed, for instance, by a pilgrim in the 2015 hajj exercise? If the concessional rate as granted by the federal government is N160 to a US dollar as against the official rate of approximately N200, it means that each pilgrim would enjoy a subsidy of N40 on every dollar purchased.  An intending pilgrim who paid a PTA of $750 would have therefore enjoyed a total subsidy of N30, 000 in the purchase of his PTA just as the pilgrim who paid for a PTA of $1,000 would have also enjoyed a total subsidy of N40, 000.
The payment of additional N30, 000 or N40, 000 to change PTA from naira in to dollar at the official rate (which is without subsidy) should not, in the opinion of this writer, be of any great challenge to an intending pilgrim who could afford to pay for hajj fare at over N700, 000. Moreover, the entire value of the subsidy enjoyed by a pilgrim, when calculated, is much less than 10 percent of the total cost of the hajj fare.
Indeed, no subsidy was enjoyed by pilgrims in the 2007 Hajj. It may be necessary to re-open the Hajj subsidy debate so that it could be resolved once and for all. The view expressed here on subsidy should not be misconstrued as loathing against hajj subsidy. The opinion, rather, sprouts from the blatant abuse of the privilege called subsidy. While we pray for a hitch-free hajj exercise which began early in the week, we also ask Allah (SWT) to continue to guide us and our leaders aright, amin.