Presidency explains Dollar concession for Pilgrims’
Mallam Garba Shehu
NAHCON Says It Was Based On Previous Forex Rates
The Presidency, yesterday, clarified the concessions foreign exchange rate of N191 to $1 (US) for the 2016 intending pilgrims for Hajj and Jerusalem.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President, Media and Publicity Garba Shehu’ in his Twitter handle, said the policy was non-discriminatory, noting that it had been approved before the current foreign exchange regime came into effect.
The presidential aide confirmed in his tweet that the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) had confirmed the approval, but wondered why the apex bank had not deemed it proper to notify the public before now.
Confirming the development, the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) said the Federal Government has not given foreign exchange waiver to Nigerian pilgrims performing this year’s Hajj.
NAHCON in a statement by its Head of Media, Uba Mana said, “If there is one thing that the Government did for the Nigerian pilgrims, it was to allow the exchange rate prevalent at the time of payment of Hajj fare in February when the current flexible exchange rate was not in action to subsist.
“It is therefore, wrong and mischievous for some persons or media organizations to peddle unfounded claims that the Federal Government gave the Nigerian pilgrims a waiver, this to us smack of an attempt to blackmail the Government.
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6 Comments
I think the response of the SSA media to the president gives the impression that the president is not a man of integrity. The president certainly is perpetrating and encouraging corruption.
In a phone in radio programme in BENIN City recently, a caller vehemently said that Nigeria is not poor . His argument is not ‘because Nigeria has the highest number of private jets as we were told some years ago; but his argument is that our leaders are still behaving as usual. Why subsidize fx for religious trip?
This gov lost an ardent supporter I knew very well. He did not die, but he cannot just understand some of its actions in the midst of economic crisis.
For me, the govt should come up with a comprehensive Auserity measures to deal with the current situation . The measures should touch on:
I. Increasing productivity through modification of holidays, eg any holiday that falls on weekend day should be moved to a working day
2. Type of cars to be used by public officers , eg in 1977, Obasanjo decreed that only Peugeot cars be used. It was inspiring seeing his coming out of the modest car as a Head of State then
3. Limit travels
4. High import tariffs for luxurious goods including cars, clothes etc
5. Cut in numbers of aides to leaders
This is the highest order of Nepotism and hypocrisy in Nigeria ! A government that cannot give reduced foreign exchange rates to international students in studying foreign universities to pay school fees; yet can give interesting rates to sponsor piulgrimage. What benefit does religious pilgrilmage bring to Nigeria ? Yet once these students become well incubated in knowledge and savoire-faire, the same government of Nigeria will be the first to benefit from thier skills.
Every action undertake by man has reason(s) behind it. However, that could either be reasonable or nonsensical. Buhari’s reasons for wasting over N70BilIion on such a satanic project is fantastically nonsensical. Economic vandalism to say the least.
You can sell that hare-brained explanation to idiots that are not ready to see through the load of rubbish being pushed by this bigoted government! Any government that thinks she can give priority to clownish religious trips that haven’t stopped majority of the participants from being as hateful, roguish and ethno-centric as ever at the expense of the economy is crassly irresponsible and incompotent!
Talking bullshit. If you paid already in February, nobody would be having this conversation.
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