A visit to The Holy Land
One of the key reason why
government of Nigeria through Nigeria Christian Pilgrimage Commission encourages
visitation to the holy land of Israel and Bethlehem in Palestine is for
pilgrims experience a new life, come back and
be of good influence the changes we really need in the country. About 15 000 pilgrims including high
profile personalities and politicians visit holy land almost every year but to
what extent have they been able
influence or change the society?
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| Relics of Cappernaum |
The last retreat organized in Lagos by the
NCPC with the topic “Pilgrimage a tool
for Moral and Spiritual Rebirth” was so rich in content that virtually
everybody at the place gained
from lessons from different speakers including the executive secretary of
the NCPC Mr John Kenedy Okpara
Through to the words, a visit to the holy land of Israel and
Palestine is an eye opener and an
experience that gives one a deep thought about life in its entirety and what
has been the problem of Nigeria why has
our own country refuses to crawl when others smaller countries are about to fly?
What could be responsible for the snail
speeding forward and plane moving backward, everybody knows that our major
problem is corruption and lack of good
leadership this is precipitated upon by the lack of projection into the future by the past government, even though
they should be lauded for
taking certain steps yet their
best is not enough for the country
As one of the privilege souls to visit the
holy land ,i discovered that our nations still have a long way to go in term of infrastructural development and generation of huge internal
revenue through ,preservation and
promotion of our heritage sites and
tourism and at the same time see the need to
sanitize the people on the need to encourage living in harmony.
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| Cave shop in Jericho Hill |
Israel is no doubt
one of the blessed state in the world but they generate most of their
income through promotion of tourism and
mechanized farming. Religious tourism, is
an important industry in Israel, with the country's temperate climate, beaches,
archaeological and
historical sites, and unique geography also drawing tourists. Israel has the highest number of museums per
capita in the world..
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| Inside the dead sea |
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One of the things that remain fascinating is the fact that
one there is 24 hours electricity and water supply, the roads are good and the
cities are beautiful, Our tour guide Mr Nathan Hinial, in an interaction with
Alarinka Agbaye on uniqueness of Israeli architectural said, they are good in construction and
remember we don’t normally use wood for construction we uses limestone. and you
can see that most of the buildings in most of the villages are standard that
can compete with anywhere in the world.
The hills and the valley were adequately utilized and
adequately maintained; roads were constructed under the hills through tunnels
while most of the site was located on top of the hills with accessible roads.
Shops were located in the cave b and on top of these hills and valley while those that are yet to be discovered
were maintained and well manicured. In fact the valley of Jesrel and valley of Hell in Jerusalem are being used
for mechanized farming. In fact the
valley of Jesreel is regarded as the food basket of Jerusalem
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| Scroll at Quemran |
During the first
three days we visited
some sites including, The mount of Transfiguration, Mount Camel where Prophet Elijah trashed the prophets of Baal, the two churches in the Basilica of
Annunciation which was dedicated to both Mary and Joseph, at the Joseph church. Relics of his carpentry workshops
were shown to us. Also we were at the
church of Canaan where Jesus turned
water into wine, Mount of beatitude where Jesus feed people with 5 loaf
of bread and 2 fish and the sea of Galilee where Jesus calm the storm
and walk on the sea. During the cruise on the sea of Galilee, we dance to
Nigerian music and prayed hold a prayer session lead by Venerable Peter
Ogunmuyiwa, the South West Coordinator of Christian Association of Nigeria on
National Issue .
Apart from
visiting Haifa, one of the largest city in Northern Israel, we were also taking
to River Jordan where Jesus was baptised
. at this site we saw plague donated
by about 10 governors including former governor of Oyo state,
Otunba Adebayo Alao Akala, former Ogun
state governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, Lagos
State governor , Babatunde Raji Fashola,
and many others were sited at the
location.
Another historical site that we visited was Capernaum the city of Jesus where we were welcome by huge iron statue of
Peter holding the key and the rod
at the entrance after which we moved to see the relics of the old Capernaum and Synagogue .
we also visited Qumran
another excavated sites
where we saw relics of cistern, walls Ritual birth place, dining hall and
others materials that were used by the early
inhabitant.
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| Medical team at work |
A Palestinian tour guide Mr Amro Motasem who took us on
a tour of Bethlehem explained to us that Bethlehem is a
place noted for religious harmony,
Bethlehem is a known to be a birthplace of Christ but Bethlehem has a Muslim majority, but is also home to one of
the largest Palestinian
Christian communities. Bethlehem's chief economic sector is
tourism which peaks during the Christmas
season when Christian pilgrims throng to the Church
of the Nativity .
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| Garden Tomb instrumentalists |
The church of
nativity which is believed to be the birth place of Jesus Christ has directly opposite
it the Bethlehem Central mosque, the biggest mosque where Muslim also worships.
Entering the manger was a difficult task as
thousands of people were
struggling to enter the exact
place where Jesus was born, the outside of both the church and the mosque
were full of economic activities where people with consumable goods, souvenirs, photographers made their money.
In an interaction with one of the photographer
who simply identified himself as
Mohammed said , he has been coming here since he was young and the Christmas period is always a good period for the business, about 40 people in my group took pictures and
we paid 5 United State Dollars
each.
We also visited
the An Kerim a village near
Jerusalem which was known to be village
of John the Baptists where we
saw the church of visitation ,
where Mary visited Elizabeth, Shepherd’s
field where the Angel of the Lord
announces the birth of Jesus Christ and
mount olives where Solomon temple was located and Jesus ascended to the heaven. We also saw the
relics of old Jerusalem wall.
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| Jesus Tomb |
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An experience at
Jericho was an awesome and a memorable one as people were frightening and some
screaming when going to the to the mountain of temptation where Jesus was
tempted through the cable car. Inside the mountain was a cave restaurant where
we had our launch and patronize the business people.
The last few days were spent in Jerusalem where we also celebrated Christmas with thousands of people at Garden Tomb, where the body of Christ was buried, and
resurrected. We also visited the church of the Holy Sepulchre where thousands
of people move around to see the where Jesus body was laid near Jerusalem
biggest market.
Apart from the spiritual benefit of visiting the holy land, it is also more of Historical
and tourism as many archaeological
excavations and historical fact were learnt during the visit and tourism
wise, millions of people who are not spiritually inclined visited the wonder
sites but it is more of great economic benefit to the Israelite because it boost their IGR. In an interaction with shop owners in some of
the site visited, they express satisfaction with the influx of millions of
people who thronged to the holy land every year.
Sarah a shop
owners at the valley of Basilica of
annunciation said,” I’ve been doing business here for over 20 years and i enjoyed it, people from all over the
world patronize us when they came here and
we make good sales “ there is economic activities going one everywhere including the church
where they have shops for Christians
materials and souvenirs.
Nigerians are one of their favourites and good customer
as it seems they have more gains selling to Nigerians than other tribe, Mohammed who spoke with me
at Jericho said Nigerians are good people
we love Nigerians. Asked why they love Nigerians? Mohammed said. Nigerians are good people we
make more money whenever they are around. We sell at good price for them.
Some of the JP’s who spoke with TTM
commended the NCPC for the arrangements
and coordination of the two weeks
exercise Otunba Gbenga Onanuga A director
at the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria commended the Nigeria Christian Pilgrimage Commission for the organization of the pilgrimage to
Holy Land “ i think that the John Kennedy Okpara led commissions should be commended for the organization of the
pilgrimage , the arrangement though can
be improved upon but it is a good development i”. Also Mrs Funke Oga of
the Nigeria Television Authority said the
whole thing is good, NCPC tried in
all aspect of this pilgrim we are spiritually blessed, historically developed and we get more about tourism.
The Medical
team and staff of the NCPC alse deserve commendation for being up to task, right from home they gave a reasonable
counsel especially on dietary abuse and
state of health and they were up to the task in the holy land as the team monitored people’s
health help in checking Blood Pressure
and gave
adequate medical attention to patient who fell sick, while NCPC staff
and the consulars also aide private
pilgrims and others in need.
11 days in the holy land
is an interesting and fascinating experience and it
is obvious that there is need for us as a country to learn
from the Israeli and Palestine way of life
and governance . especially in the way
they preserve, package and market
their tourism site to the world, we
have them in abundance in Nigeria but what are we doing with them? Nigerian government through
the NTDC have taken a right step by re awakening the dying tourism sector in the country, but there is little they can do if the state
governors, local government chairmen and other stakeholders do not support their effort at taking the sector to a greater
height. In Isreal, everybody is involved.
Another important lesion
Nigerian especially people who are privilege to visit the lands of Isreal and
Palestine is the need to live in peace and harmony without religious or
ethnicity sentiment. Amro a Palestinian Indigene said “ in Palestine we don’t
discriminate the only thing that
separate us is cemetery, that is Christian and Muslim were not buried the at
the same place, we are brothers and sisters
we relate because we believe the first thing that matters is humanity
and humility, nobody is above each other no matter how highly placed, you have
to respect others” He said.
He explained further that “ we married each other
so far there is love and our children
choose which way to go without any
problem, whenever they celebrate
Christmas we do it together, for example on the Christmas day, about 60
percent of the people you will find at the church of nativity were Muslims, we
use to celebrate with them and vice versa. From the tour it noticed that the war between Palestine and Israel is not about religious but
resistance of domination and
fight over greener pasture
An important thing
to note is that the tourism
potentials deposited in the two
land is a money spinning ventures for
both the government and the people of the state, each site have one or two
shops name after it, for instance “ i
saw an inscription which reads “ First Wedding Wine, John the Baptists Shops, Prophet Elisha’s Shop
among other. It be better to
conclude by commending the NCPC and urge all the stakeholders in the sector to corporate with the government at all levels to develop tourism
in Nigeria.
Nigeria can be better if all of us can coperate with government in preserving and developing our tourism,potentials and cultural values.
Leaders of the Action Congress of
Nigeria (ACN) in Ekiti State has adopted Governor Kayode Fayemi as its
candidate for the 2014 Governorship Election in the state.
