By Abba Hikima
ANYONE that listened to last week’s BBC Hausa’s radio program- Ra’ayi Riga, would have no problem unraveling where Jaafar Jaafar was heading to with his Friday’s piece titled “Hajj 2017: How fair is Nigerian fare?”. It is a bad essay with a great caption because if you are the kind that judge a book by its cover, you must have been lured into mistaking a monkey for monk. Try tallying up the title of Jaafar’s piece with his perceived penchant for investigative journalism and advancing pro-masses causes, you would definitely give in to thinking that; Jaafar is at it again- triggering another investigation through the pen.
Unfortunately this time, Jaafar is not with the weak. He is either deep into some if-you-can’t-win-them-join-them job or tangled in what his critics claimed was his motivation during the Emir Sanusi’s hullabaloo – pecuniary enticement. I am not saying that Jaafar must side with the weak all the time especially when he thinks there is no cause to defend. But the amazing cogency of the argument of the courageous veterans who in spite of their rapport with the chairman of National Hajj Commission (NAHCON), thought it religious duty to expose to the world the numerous foul plays responsible for the skyrocketing of the Nigerian Hajj fare for several years is something to promote by every Muslim journalist. Unlike Jaafar Jaafar and his Med-View inspiration, these experienced stakeholders did not make empty or false claims to misguide the public. They attached original documentations and factual substance to their stand. Their simple position is that this year’s Hajj fare is overrated and inflated and it is not about exchange rate factor.
By God, about a week before now, rumors had it that Abdullahi Muktar- NAHCON Chairman, with the help of his Med-View friend -whose skewed opinion Jaafar finds “succinct”, shared fortunes to some senators and journalists to defend his mischievous extortion of pilgrims by inflating the fare. There may not be facts at hand to substantiate the claim but reading through Jaafar’s essay and seeing him replicate exactly the NAHCON chairman’s argument without balancing it with the other side’s claims naturally raises the alarm that something is shady somewhere. Hence, the popular Hausa cliché “biri yayi kama da mutum”.
In the four-man radio conversation hosted by BBC on the 9th this month, Amb. Usman Darma, a Kano-based veteran international tour operator and Managing Director Darma Air Services professed that this year’s Hajj fare is overly inflated and that it is time he takes the bull by the horn to bring to the fore how the Hajj commission has for years been raping the common man of his years of savings in the name of regulation or coordinating Hajj operation.
Mr. Darma explained that if the Hajj Commission would equitably charge the right fees for the 23 items that all intending pilgrims are required to pay to make up the 1.5 Million Naira fare comprising of air fare, accommodation, feeding, suitcase, Uniform etc, Nigerian pilgrims would not be made to pay more than 1 million Naira. As a senior stakeholder in Hajj operation, he maintained that he has for years been lifting to the Saudi Kingdom pilgrims with better packages than the ones NAHCON offers Nigeria pilgrims and at cheaper rate. He maintained also that he has picked a copy of the document in which the rate breakdown of each of the 23 items quoted by the commission is addressed and verified further that the rates have been outrageously inflated. He cited examples of the low quality suitcase which is sold to every Nigeria pilgrim at the N 17,000 and compared its standard with what international pilgrims buy at 7,000 and justified his claims. According to him, each of the 23 items making up the Nigeria’s fare is overrated. I for one, found his reasons cogent reasons:
AIR FARE
On the flight fare, Mr. Darma maintained that Nigeria pilgrims should not be made to pay more than USD1000 (as against the USD 1650 they are presently charged). He offered a comparative with Pakistan and Bangladesh one of which is farther from Saudi Arabia than Nigeria but with air fare to Saudi Arabia fluctuating between USD900 to USD1000.
The NAHCON boss in his plausible but faulty defense disputed the above comparative and resorted to cunning misrepresentation. while he said nothing about why Bangladeshis who are over 4500Km away from Saudi Arabia are paying USD 1000 to the Kingdom and Nigerians up to USD1700, he daringly on a world-wide radio claimed that Pakistanis pay lesser fare because they are a Golf Cooperation Country (GCC). He went on in his misguided justification to say that flights from Pakistan being a GCC member to Saudi Arabia do not have to pay any overflight fees. They are by GCC treaty assumed to be flying their country’s air space. He then compared his screwed claim with the story that flights from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia pass through Chad and Sudan air spaces and that they have to pay up to USD 6000 to and fro.
Both NAHCON Chairman and Jaafar kept quiet on why Bangladesh pays less. They only attributed Nigeria’s inflated fare to some imaginary overflight waivers in the case of Pakistan. This is why I deem at this juncture, it will be generous to school both NAHCON boss and his journalist mouthpiece that GCC countries are six monarchies comprising of UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. Pakistan is not and has never been part of them. They may feed us another tale but this one cannot stand.
Surprisingly again, Jaafar in his write-up claimed exactly the same. No more, no less. And whatever this implies is not for me to judge. But it apparently shows a very close connection between the NAHCON boss who is struggling to cover his drifts, his Med-View friend- Bankole, a journalist speaking in their language and the alleged conspiracy.
The distressing thing about Jaafar’s justification is that in spite of the obvious sensitivity of his job which demands high level of correctness in representation, he chose to be even more economical with the truth than even his new-found proxy principal. The NAHCON boss himself agreed in his BBC interview with Senator Danbaba and Amb. Darma that such overflight charges no longer apply between Nigeria Chad and Sudan. This is why I sense another foul play with Jaafar’s petty ventilation. This is why I tag his analysis frivolous and pseudo.
Finally on this, after adequately debunking the GCC rhetoric, Mr. Darma generously offered to facilitate the introduction of a dependable airliner that will ferry Nigeria pilgrims to Saudi Arabia and back at just about USD 1000. He gathered official MOUs and other sensitive documents to attend a senate plenary to defend his position but the plan got botched midway. On this, an insider revelation tipped that the NAHCON forces were vent on squeezing the juice out of the common man and they got the job done.
ACCOMMODATION
With regards to accommodation, many experienced stakeholders and travel agency operators who are in the business of securing lodgings for Umra pilgrims observed also the accommodation fee slated for both Mecca and Medina are outrageously inflated. They claim NAHCON is making huge lump-sums through Pilgrims. For example, this year’s Makkah Accommodation fee per pilgrim is slated by the commission at SR 3500 per room which is the equivalent of USD 933.89.
The stakeholders uncovered two issues with regards to the accommodation secured by the NAHCON; one, the location of the accommodation which is beyond the bridge (Kudai) between Masfalah and Masha’ir, and two, the number of pilgrim NAHCON usually pack in a single room. The Mekkah accommodation is more of Masha’ir than Masfalah and that the average accommodation fee per room in that location is not more than SAR 2500 which is equivalent to USD668.44. This is where they claim pilgrims from Ghana and Niger are also lodged and that their fare is not more than SR 2500.
They argued further that even at SAR 2500, the amount should not be taxed per individual pilgrim because no pilgrim is allocated a whole room for himself. The average number of Nigeria pilgrim per room is 5 or 4. The above amount should therefore be divided by 5 or 4 to get the exact fee which every pilgrim should be taxed. So a pilgrim should not pay more than SAR 500 which is the equivalent of USD 133.68 as against the whopping 933.89 (N 284,565) charged by the commission for a bed space in a room of five.
This shows that even if the initial amount manufactured by the commission (i.e. 933) is to be taken as it is, then it should be divided by the number of pilgrims per room and that will go down to USD186 to 233. You can see how mercilessly the amount has been inflated by NAHCON. The amount payable by each pilgrim for accommodation at madinah is also equally fraught with similar inadequacies.
THREE-YEAR COMPARISON JUSTIFICATION
In the document released by NAHCON where the 2017 Hajj fare is pegged at $4,839 (about N1.5M), the 2016 and 2015 fares were presented to be $5,077 and 4,721 respectively indicating that this year’s fare is comparatively reduced.
The pro-masses stakeholders on this argued that even the previous years’ fares were equally overly inflated and that no reference should be made to them in order to justify this year’s fare.
This will automatically debunk the contention that this year’s fare sores to N1.5M due to hike in Dollar Exchange rate. This was also the opinion of Sen. Danbaba who moved the motion to summon Abdullahi Muktar before the senate to defend his position. The position is simple; one inflated fare cannot be used to justify another.
This is how these dark forces over-blew the rate of every single item in the 23 list making up the N1.5M. And this is why we feel an investigation needs to be triggered.
Personally I found Darma and Danbaba’s positions naturally edifying because apparently it is the one seeking to assuage the miseries of the common man by calling for reduction and investigation. It is the one blowing a whistle that may end up exposing to the world the senseless misappropriations going on in the Hajj commission. But unfortunately, our celebrated journalist is here blowing anti-masses trumpet and dancing to anti-masses tune.
Jaafar Jaafar in his petty desperation to appeal to common sentiment, went to the extent of quoting verses and extracting exegesis just to show that Hajj as a religious rite is for the capable. But it was lame, it was lame because he did not quote any of the many verses admonishing on misappropriation, misrepresentation and dupery.
Instead of triggering some investigation that may end up calming the vociferations of about 95,000 pilgrims who have already started filling refund forms because they could no longer afford the overrated fare, our Muslim brothers are at the top if a fitly game advocating the reverse.
Conclusively, I pray that Allah hit with a fiery thunderbolt any official, principal, agent or puppet directly or remotely responsible for inflicting any kind of harshness on the helpless Ummah of Prophet PBUH. May He accept them if He declared upon them repentance.
