The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC), Rev Tor Uja has called on the nation to move her eyes away from oil and focus more on the youths, because Nigeria youths are greater than all the oil in the country. He made this call during a courtesy visit by the Allies Youth Transformation Initiative at the NCPC Corporate Headquarters in Abuja.
Mr. Uja stressed that the greatest asset any nation has is its youths and any nation without a vibrant youth is a lost nation. In his words, “God has blessed this country with a cream of youths that are both energetic and intelligent, Nigeria is the most endowed nation on the earth”.
He charged Nigerian youths to rise up to show who they are and what they possess; to demonstrate character and condour, to manifest ability and vision in them.
NCPC boss further charged youths to develop a healthy mental capacity that can only be sustained in a healthy spiritual mentality, adding that “they should see what Christ can do for them and to lay hold of it and grab it”.
He urged them to be involved in development programmes through Education, Agriculture, Investment and Advocacies, saying that Nigeria has sufficient institution of learning and training that every desirous person could engage itself and uplifts itself from one level to another.
He called on government and leaders of the church to engage more youths in its development programmes in order to make them more responsive. According to him, “I believe that an idol man can also bring forth good ideals if given the chance”.
He informed that the commission is running a special programme for the youth, which is called youth pilgrimage”. He further hinted that NCPC will introduce a specialized programme which would take off this year, which is also called “farmers pilgrimage”. In his words, “NCPC having considered the important of youths is running a special pilgrimage for the youths and I will like every young person to work hard to participate in the youth pilgrimage”.
Rev. Uja intimated that the Commission is doing everything possible to ensure that more people are given the opportunity of going on pilgrimage, especially youths, considering the economic situation of the country, the Commission is working towards bringing down the cost of pilgrimage so that every Christian can go on pilgrimage at least once in a life time. He assured all that the commission would continue to strive to ensure that pilgrimage is not mere social event but spiritually filled and very impactful.
Earlier, the Coordinator of the Association, Dr. Peter Tsue congratulated the Executive Secretary on his well deserved and timely appointment. In his words, “your appointment came at a time that Nigeria is in dire need of quality, honest trustworthy, dependable and incorruptible men and women that will drive the change agenda”.
Dr. Tsue explained that the Executive Secretary is a role model for the youth in Nigeria and trust that the Association will have a common ground to network with the commission to massively sensitize, train, developed and raise a responsible Nigeria youth.
He charged the Executive Secretary to ensure that pilgrimage to holy land is beyond tourism, but to find concrete ways of measuring and assessing the impact of pilgrimage on pilgrims after the exercise through follow-up programmes and initiatives.
