The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission (NCPC), Rev. Uja Tor Uja has charged the Israeli government to deepen its investments, partnerships and economic collaborations with Nigeria. He made this charge while playing host to the Israeli Charge De’ affairs, Mr. Nadav Goren, at the Commissions’ corporate headquarters in Abuja recently.
The NCPC Boss urged Israel to deepen its relationships with Nigeria by way of making some conscious and strategic investments in area like technology, security, agriculture and education that will build and further reciprocate the long standing cordial relationship between Israel and Nigeria. According to him, “We ask that Israel invest and share with Nigeria on some great projects that borders on agriculture, technology, security and others that will show our long time partnership as a nation with them and also perfect our relationship.”
NCPC Boss further stated that Nigeria and the Commission regard Israel as a permanent friend and so would want Israel to enlarge and increase its technical visits, social visits and make more investments in Nigeria.
He further urged the Israeli government to look into issues around visa procurement for Nigerians. His words, “We as a Commission, our primary pilgrimage destination is Israel. We still want Israeli government to make visa procurement process easier for Nigerians to access so that going on pilgrimage will be easier, cheaper and faster.”
He commended Israel for organizing this year’s National Old Testament Bible Competition in Nigeria. According to him, “This is a very commendable spiritual bible project. This competition according to Mr. Nadav Goren is aimed at charging Nigerians to internalize the message of peace and peaceful co-existence. ”
Earlier in his remark, the Israeli Charge De’ affairs in the Isreali embassy in Nigeria, Mr. Nadav Goren, stated that this year’s National Bible Competition organized by Israel will be taking place on the 17th of October, 2018 in Nigeria. He explained that this bible competition has been taking place in other countries but unfortunately, it has not taken place in Nigeria and Africa before. So this year, according to him, the competition is actually going to take place in October in two countries – Nigeria and Angola in Africa. According to him, “The need to promote peaceful co-existence between Nigeria and Israel with other nations of the world led to the choosing of this this year’s National Old Testament Bible Competition with the theme, ‘Living Peacefully in the Holy Land.”
He added, “The old testament has an impact on Israel identity. The first bible context took place in Israel in 1958. The bible has a big connection to the spirit and people of Israel and can be seen historically. I think with this initiative we can learn and relate these messages especially at this time that we have different conflicts around the country and as a gentle reminder of the importance of peaceful co-existence before the 2019 general elections. The competition will be in three levels with the application stage as the first level, then 2 winners from each state level to compete at the national level where the overall two winners will go on an all-expense paid trip to Israel.”
