2025 Hajj: Tour operators accuse NAHCON of bullying, character assassination, vowing to achieve clean Hajj

.…Urge Commission to approach Ithra’a Al Jood to avoid another shameful outing

By Chris Ochayi

Again, the three major licensed tour operators, who announced their withdrawal to participate in the 2025 Hajj exercise, have vowed that no amount of bullying or character assassination orchestrated by the management of National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON will deter them from achieving a clean and focused Hajj.

The licensees, Usman A. Ambursa, CEO of Travel Express Ltd, Abuja , Haruna Isma’il, CEO of An-Noor Air Services and Tours Ltd, Kano and Ikrimah Muhammad, CEO of Positive Trends Travel and Tours Ltd, Kaduna, made the vow in third series of press statement entitled “Why we withdrew from participating in 2025 Hajj exercise – III” issued to newsmen on Monday in Abuja.

They said nothing will stop them from asking the right questions or providing the proper answers to achieve the ultimate objective of a clean Hajj: a Hajj that focuses solely on serving the pilgrim

Meanwhile, they have called on the NAHCON management led by its Chairman, ,Prof. Abdullahi Saleh Usman to come down from high horse and accept the reality that the Commission has turned into a complete monster and deviated from its original statutory function.

They particularly advised the Commission to bury their face and approach Ithra’a Al Jood to avoid another shameful and scandalous outing as regard the Tent-A this year.

“We are yet to understand why NAHCON fought vehemently to deny us the privilege to register with the service provider that issued a clear and transparent programme for the Tent A service,” they said.

According to the statement, “All praises be to Allah for the opportunity to tell the world our story, not because we cherish sensationalising the facts, but because this is the only channel left open to us to let those concerned know what NAHCON has turned into – a complete monster and a deviation from its original statutory function!

“What we narrated in our last two releases were facts that nobody has denied till date! Are those facts not enough to lead to the withdrawal of right-minded people from the exercise or to protest against it? Are those deceptive tendencies not strong enough to attract dissent?

“We chose to dump the current license to show the Commission that there is a limit to how long it can continue to try to hoodwink everyone and to show to the whole industry that at least there are some people who are willing to make sacrifices for the future to be brighter.

“In our last release, we clearly stated our objective and vouched that we will not relent while pursuing this cause, and no amount of bullying or character assassination will deter us from asking the right questions or providing the proper answers to achieve the ultimate objective of a clean Hajj: a Hajj that focuses solely on serving the pilgrims!

“We are focused on Hajj that promotes the dignity of the pilgrim, devoid of exploitation; unfair treatment and swindling. We envision a Hajj that dignifies the common pilgrim and accords him or her deserved respect as a human being, as a customer and as a Nigerian with the full protection of the government while in a foreign land.

“We crave Hajj that is fairly priced and which provides the best service, commensurate with the amount charged the customer.

“We seek an ideal Hajj, free from any veiled motive of taking advantage of the pilgrim with intent to defraud them.

WHAT MAKES UP THE COST OF HAJJ IN NIGERIA?
“This is a question we do not intend to answer directly, because NAHCON has continued to insist that it is its statutory responsibility to do everything: from organising , marketing, coordinating, supervising and selling of Hajj services to the Nigerian pilgrims.

“Can someone ask the Commission to break down the components of the cost of Hajj and how it arrived at these figures on yearly basis? This information should not be a privilege because as a government institution it has the mandate; and the responsibility to be accountable to Nigerian pilgrims.

“Let us delve into what matters to us most – how much we pay to NAHCON every year to be able to qualify as licensed tour operators to provide private Hajj services to our clients and why?

“Last year alone, tour companies contributed about two billion Naira to the coffers of the Commission in paying the following charges:

“A. Every tour operator paid Three Hundred Thousand Naira (N300,000) as application fee. Over two hundred and fifty applicants that indicated their interest to participate in the Hajj exercise paid this amount. Well over Seventy Five Million Naira (N75m) went to NAHCON from this.

“B. We paid One Million Naira (N1m) as license fee. Over 180 companies that were qualified by the Commission to operate paid over One Hundred and Eighty Million Naira (N180m).

“Nigeria’s Hajj license is the most expensive license in the country. One Million Naira for a license that last for only three months is by all standards of reckoning, highly exorbitant! And it does not matter whether you utilise the license or not. Which industry charges so outrageously for a short-term license?

“C. We paid what NAHCON called service charge on each Pilgrim at a Dollar rate of One Hundred and Fifty Dollars ($150) . One question that the Commission has not been able to answer over the years is, what service did they render to us or the pilgrims in return? For example, we provide enlightenment and education services at our cost.

” International Pilgrims do not patronise the government managed Hajj camps anywhere in the country. International Pilgrims do not attend the NAHCON clinics at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We provide medical services and guidance for our pilgrims. NAHCON does not even know when most of our pilgrims arrive at Jeddah or Madinah during Hajj, because we patronise international carriers, talk more of them providing Meet -and – Assist or ground services which we pay them for. Importantly, the pilgrims like any other citizen outside the country is entitled to free Consular services, that he does not have to pay for.

“But we still paid One Hundred and Fifty Dollars ($150) for each pilgrim last year. Yes, commendably, this year the Commission reduced the rate to One Hundred Dollars ($100) per pilgrim but this was after intense pressure and unnecessary bickering. Note also the currency denomination. How legal is it for the Commission to have been collecting charges in dollars all these years?

“Any sane person will ask repeatedly to know which services NAHCON provides to the international pilgrims that warrants such exploitation?

“D. Last year the over 180 qualified companies provided a cash collateral of N20m which NAHCON referred to as Bank Guarantee of 20 million Naira. But this year NAHCON has increased it to Forty Million Naira (N40m). This is despite that the license issued to us is for only three months.

“Another deliberate infraction to subdue tour operators is that these bank guarantees are held down by NAHCON, for years, without being refunded. Since we are in business, most of us resort to bank loans , with all the associated risks and armies terms that do not conform to Islamic standards, to finance these bogus fees and charges. ”

The trios stressed further that, “Now, let us pause and ask. Who bears the burden of all these fees and charges in the end? Your guess is as good as ours!

“Add all the aforementioned to the corrupt negotiations and fixing of the Hajj services discussed in our past two releases, how much do you expect the Hajj to cost an innocent pilgrim in Nigeria? But, the most important question is why is NAHCON charging the common Pilgrim arbitrarily?

“Why make the pilgrim pay through his nose? For many years we have been challenging the Commission on these obnoxious policies, but the simple answer we have been receiving from it is that this their major source of revenue, because they do not have a budget and the government does not finance their operations. IS THIS TRUE?

“If it is true, then those in authority need to understand that, they are responsible for the bad fates our teeming pilgrims have found themselves over the years.

“Nigerians are entitled to know if NAHCON is a revenue collection or self-financing entity. Is it by design, that it was established to impoverish the Muslim faithful while trying to perform this important journey of the faith? Or, maybe it is one of the many lies and deceptions we mentioned in the past about NAHCON, this it is another gimmick, another myth, another fallacy aimed at squeezing enough from the poor pilgrim to finance its jamboree travels and sponsorship programmes.

“Either way there is no nobility in this project. Either the Commission is lying or the government is not being fair to the Muslim community. Nigerians deserve to know the truth!”

THE GIIL TMS UMRAH PROJECT
“A very important proof that either NAHCON was set up as a revenue generating entity or it has metamorphosed into one, is the misguided effort by the Commission to take over the business of Umrah from the purview of the tour operators, in order to get more revenue or perhaps enrich themselves more, is the proposed GiiL TMS project.

“The project is being led by a Saudi renegade posing himself as a tech savvy person, with the full support of the Commission to create a single window and one-stop shop for all Umrah services, making all the tour and Umrah travel agents in Nigeria to become their sub-agents.

“Last week NAHCON sent a powerful delegation led by the Commissioner in-charge of operation to Madinah to perfect the deal. Under the arrangement GiiL will provide the gateway via which all tour operators in Nigeria will have to pass in order to receive or arrange Umrah services for their clients.

“We do not intend to discuss the colossal implication of this arrangement to the thriving Umrah industry in Nigeria here, because many of our colleagues may not see the looming danger yet and may not see the callous activities of NAHCON, in total disregard of their mandate of promoting and guiding a robust privately managed Hajj and Umrah industry in Nigeria. In fact, some mistakenly misconceived what we are fighting for and perceive us as being disobedient. But we once quoted Henry

“D. Thoreau saying: “Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.” We vouch not to be slaves of any civil servant or political appointee who is being paid by government to serve the citizens.

“For the record however, it is important to state here that the GiiL TMS project is not new to the Commission. It was first introduced by the Barr. Zikrullah regime; and to be fair to him he invited all stakeholders and representatives of the different institutions on the board of NAHCON and invited the tour operators’ representatives to deliberate on the proposal.

“That meeting ended up with a unanimous position that the project is not only self-centered, it is legally wrong and injurious to the entire Umrah value-chain. When the current Chairman came in the promoters used their henchmen at the Commission to reintroduce the project through the back door.

“In fairness to the current chairman, he privately invited the three of us and asked for enlightenment about the scheme and its implication to the industry, which we did with sincere purpose. That meeting took place on the 5th of October, 2023, in a farmhouse, along Daura Road, in Kano.

“In fact, he confessed to us that, the promoters have promised NAHCON a huge revenue base far bigger and better than what they do generate in Hajj operation, if they accept and integrate the project.

“The chairman promised us that he would not assent to the project proposal. According to the project website, the scheme is slated for launch next week and the major and most important stakeholders – the tour operators were not in any way contacted or carried along. What has changed between the time of our meeting and now? What new information or misinformation emerged that prompted the chairman’s change of mind?

“One thing is certain, the Commission is either in dire need to jerk up its revenue base for the reasons stated above or some members within it are eager to raise their “income” at the detriment of the country and the industry.

“The Commissioner that led the Madinah trip always tells us he is a politician. Perhaps he and his team are desperate to reap the benefit of their political appointment?

“Let us, again, pause and ask. How can NAHCON, which has been struggling for 16 years now, trying to get the Hajj exercise as its primary mandate right, venture into the Umrah service that is a hundred percent a private endeavor if not out of sheer greed?

THE TENT A DEBACLE
“Talking about the struggle over the years to perfect its operation in Hajj, we cannot forget the shameless failure of the Commission to provide decent services to even the crème de la crème in the country’s polity.

“The maltreatment , last year, of our leaders – the state governors; distinguished senators; honorable members of the House of Representatives and state assemblies; traditional rulers and other senior political and business leaders, and so many years before the last, are ignominious scores the Commission should not be proud of and should have worked harder this year to avoid.

“We have respectfully told the NAHCON chairman in one of our meetings with him, that the path the Commission took to snatch Tent A business from its owners – the tour operators, is a wrong and ill-advised phenomenon. However, probably because of the commission’s urge to make more money it refuses to heed to our foresight.

“As we speak, less than ten days to the start of the Pilgrims arrival for Hajj and probably the closure of visa issuance, nobody can say with certainty if the VIP accommodation is available or not for the Nigerian dignitaries.

“Many of our colleagues that specialise in this category of services are left in the doldrum, with no concrete information to the exact cost of the service, the location of the service provision and importantly the content of the service to be provided to their clients.

Unfortunately, without compassion or sympathy the Commission went ahead to deduct the total amount of 1,550 SAR per pilgrims meant for the camp booking at the Zone One of the Masha’ir. The implication is that they have already settled their crony service provider company in full for a service no information is clear about. We noticed recently, if you ask NAHCON about Tent-A preparedness they will term you a “rebel”.

“The Commission continues to bury its head in the sand on this very important segment of the operation

“We are yet to understand why NAHCON fought vehemently to deny us the privilege to register with the service provider that issued a clear and transparent programme for the Tent A service. We wish to advise the Commission to bury their face and approach Ithra’a Al Jood to avoid another shameful and scandalous outing as regard the Tent-A this year.

“Our colleagues are at a crossroads and have put their integrity and finances on the line. But the question that begs answers is who put NAHCON into this inglorious decision or position? This is a very important question because there are many faces behind the mask at the commission: those that lead and mislead any NAHCON chairman in the three dispensations. ”

NEXT LINE OF ACTION
“In our next release we promise to reveal to Nigerians the people, within and outside the Commission who hold the strings and hatch the successes and downfall of the boards that precede the current.

We have mentioned the ring leader of the group above and how he uses his political ploy to prepare the commission to take over the business of Umrah from the tour operators. We will expose their scheme and how any reform in Hajj and Umrah operations in the country cannot succeed without a good look of the activities of these faceless people.

Nigeria’s Hajj system needs a total overhaul, which has to start from sticking to the Acts setting up NAHCON and the commission itself. The government cannot wait until the worst happens before it takes the right decision.”