By Musa Adamu
Abuja
Governor of Osun state, Governor Rauf Aregbesola, has said that the skills acquisition programme of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC) “will advance Nigerians if well utilised.”
A statement issued yesterday by the Commission’s media unit indicated that the governor stated this when he received the Executive Secretary of NCPC, Mr. John Kennedy Opara, who was on a sensitisation visit to Oshogbo, the Osun state capital.
He commended the Commission for identifying areas of strength in Israel which Nigerians would benefit from.
He equally commended Opara for the innovative programmes that had been introduced to Christian pilgrimage, especially, the youth pilgrimage skills acquisition programme, adding that the Scheme would be of immense benefit to the country.
According to him, “if a nation cannot feed itself, they are doomed.”
He encouraged the Commission to pursue its programmes to the latter as it would build up the economy and morality of Nigerian citizens.
Earlier, Opara commended the governor for his giant strides in the state, especially in the education system.
He explained that the Commission is presently partnering with the Ministry of Agriculture, Israel, to empower Nigerian youths to become self reliant through skills acquisition.
He affirmed that over 1, 000 youths who participated in this year’s youth pilgrimage exercise were exposed to skills acquisition, especially in the area of agriculture, adding that “this is one way we can help to give jobs to the people.”
He noted that Israel “runs one of the best and strongest economies in the world as a result of their agricultural system,” stressing that “this is what we want to tap from and bring back to Nigeria.”
Opara affirmed that the Commission “uses pilgrimage as a tool for moral transformation and spiritual rebirth, which presupposes that the spiritual content of pilgrimage is maintained at all times.”
“We believe the pilgrims who embark on Holy pilgrimage would encounter God and come back as change agents,” he said.
He urged the governor to encourage well-meaning indigenes to sponsor others “who are spiritually rich, but materially poor to encounter God in the Holy Land.”
