Leadership (Abuja)
Capt Daniel Omale
10 October 2008
The most sensitive issue in any country today is religion and the reason is simple: most times, people try to politicise religion for selfish gains. Thwarting religious doctrine to suit political and economic interests has led to the downfall of many nations. At the same time, why should politics emerge in any religious preaching, if not for economic benefits?
It is a fundamental right of every human being to worship his or her creator in any acceptable fashion. Religion, to me, is a covenant between man and his God and no one has the right to deprive another man's style of worshipping his God because, no one is God, except God Himself. We may elect to call him any name desirable to us, but it is only He that can judge our intent and purpose.
One basic understanding in all religions is that, commerce and religion should not be diluted (although, that seems to be the cardinal principle of many churches today). We, as humanbeings, must separate commerce from religion and it is practically wrong in all facets to bring religion into our commercial venture. Between Qur'an and Bible, there is a simple verse that states the importance of signing an agreement, even with one's father, in business to avoid disputes. A written understanding between two enterprises must, by any rule of profit or loss, be redeemed at the end of the transaction without introducing new dimension of religious inclination. Commerce is commerce and religion is religion. The two should not, and must not, be misconstrued to justify an argument.
Prior to any Hajj operation, the Directorate of Pilgrims Affairs (DPA) advertises for air carriers interested in lifting Nigerian pilgrims to Jeddah to apply for selection based on certain rules and regulations guiding such operations. The initial selection process follows a stringent analysis of each carrier's financial and operational strength (again, nowadays, a lot of political influence has infiltrated the selection process). Prior to the final selection exercise, each carrier is given the opportunity to enumerate its acceptable airfare from various parts of the country to Jeddah. Most times, the DPA wangles through figures submitted by numerous airlines and take the average as its optimum figure for any interested carrier wishing to take part in the airlift for that year. By and large, it is the absolute responsibility of each airline to accept or reject the figure; stalemate is common in the negotiation as most carriers unite to contest the DPA prices. At the end of this rigorous exercise, which takes months to accomplish, there will always be a conscientious ticket fare for the year's Hajj. The ticket fare usually contains all the charges for the third-party service providers like the Federal Airports Authority (FAAN), the Nigerian Airspace management Agency (NAMA) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). An agreement between the candidate airlines and the DPA elaborates and seals the deal.
Every Hajj carrier knows that there is about N4200 ($35) in the acceptable ticket fare that is meant for FAAN as its Passenger Service Charge (PSC) for any international flight, including the Hajj. In the past, carriers had requested a waver to this fee, but with each administration accepting or rejecting the request. About four years ago, the federal government reinterated that it would no longer entertain any such request as the airlines were in the business to make profit, and the passengers who go for prayers pay their full fares. The current administration has categorically slated that there wouldn't be any waver of fees for the carriers and no discounting of fares for the pilgrims. Looking at the issue rationally, Saudi authorities do not wave any charges for any Hajj flight, because they also view it as purely business venture since the carriers are in the business to make profit.
While assessing the FAAN's debt profile for the past two years, Hajj carriers such as Kabo Air, Meridian, Medview and Mangal Airlines owe FAAN a combined bill of over N400m, with Kabo Air topping the list. FAAN's attempt to collect the debts from these carriers has been met by insinuations that the organisation is deliberately frustrating Hajj operations for Nigerians. The irony is that, no single airline from Nigeria can operate freely into the Saudi airspace with such a debt as the airline and its handling company would be sanctioned by the Saudi authority.
The federal government's stands that pilgrimage carriers should see themselves in business and that, the whole operation is a private affair should be seen as the most rational position for the advancement of economic activities in this country. If the airlines can pay their fuel suppliers without blackmail, then, there is no justification in owing FAAN such huge money as this can, and has almost crippled the organisation. It is highly interesting to note that one of the airlines, which is owned by an influential person in this country, is purported to have lost over $6m last year, therefore, FAAN should not bother to ask for its legal fees, because the big man would be very angry. This type of irrational statement has led to the many economic woes of Nigeria today. The big man should never venture into any business without doing his cash flow, profit and loss analyses.
The main issue here is that PSC is in care of the carriers for onward remittance to FAAN, and there is no reason, whatsoever, for any airline to seize the money and add it to its profit. A few months ago, the management of FAAN had a meeting with some of the representatives of the defaulting carriers, who offered to pay 50% of the amount being owed FAAN. When FAAN refused the offer, the representatives brought religious issues into the negotiations with outright threat to blackmail the airport authority about its negative stand on Islam and threatened to expose the issue to the muslim community around the country. To me, this is a clear indication that most of the carriers use Allah's name to cheat in a genuine case that has a standing agreement that all PSC received would be remitted to FAAN immediately. There is no way Allah would forgive those who use His name for material or wealth acquisition. If the carriers want to be respected in the industry, if they do not want their services halted in the upcoming Hajj next month, then, they must prepare to pay FAAN immediately or the new legislation, which will come into effect in a few weeks time, would ultimately prevent them from partaking in the next month's operation to Jeddah.
While we enjoy the beauty of airports around the world – very clean, efficient and orderly – we forget that if we keep cheating the organisation responsible for keeping our airports safe, clean and efficient, then we are bound to face the consequences. Many carriers have tried many times to operate Hajj airlift, and many times they had their fingers burnt. This operation requires critical understanding of the nitty-gritty of the concept, the process and the execution. For those they lease aircraft for this great challenge, chances are that they may either lose their money for the airplane, acquire less capacity aircraft that will disappoint them because of the load factor, or the process of obtaining slot in Jeddah may be too cumbersome to handle thereby rendering considerable delays that would eat into their profits.
The most profitable way to operate Hajj effectively and efficiently is either to own an airplane, just like Kabo air, or study the Hajj airlift process and procedures for a long while before committing so much money into it. Many first timers in the past never came back for a second round again because of the enormous loss they encountered.
For those who are in hot pursuit of this business, the most important way to remain credible is to pay service providers their fees. Carriers should separate commerce and religion and pay to Caesar what is due to Caesar, and to God what is due to God. Let us not use Allah's name in vain.
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