NCPC boss harps on efficient service delivery by pilgrimage operators

The executive secretary of the Nigeria Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC), Rev. Tor Uja, has urged Christian pilgrimage operators (CPOs) to develop increased working capacity, improve efficiency and acquire added access to global practices and networks in order to deliver efficient services to Nigerian pilgrims.

He disclosed this at the conference of Christian Pilgrimage Operators (CPO) in Lagos recently.

According to Him “Pilgrimage must achieve the designed purpose of serving Nigeria, projecting Christ and also promote development ideas and become the pride of Nigeria.”

He explained that the main aim of the conference was to create the needed environment for CPOs to succeed, to create an avenue for more CPOs to emerge and for more organized, coherent and predictable pattern for pilgrimage operations in Nigeria.

Rev. Uja commended state governors for supporting many Christians to embark on holy pilgrimage over the years, noting however that “this can still be improved so that greater number of Christian believers are given the opportunity to visit the holy land at least once in their lifetime.”

He also commended the federal government for offering services and infrastructure for the organization and supervision of pilgrimage.

Also speaking, the Lagos State Commissioner for Home Affairs, Dr. Abdul-Hakeem Abdul-Lateef, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in charge of the State Civil Service Commission, Mrs. Toyin Awoseyi, said that Nigerians who embark on pilgrimage must see the exercise as a platform for soul searching, cleansing and not a jamboree.

In her words: “The idea of going on pilgrimage is for us to go there and come back better citizens, it is not going on jamboree; it is for us to come back and make our country a better place.”

“We want a situation whereby as Christians, everything about us professes Christianity; there should be dignity and honour to those that have the title of Jerusalem Pilgrim (JP),’’ Mrs. Awoseyi said.

The commissioner also urged the NCPC to be innovative and make the pilgrimage more enriching for pilgrims.

According to her, “I want to charge NCPC to come up with innovations, alot of people want to go on a yearly basis, but would prefer to tour different places rather than the same place, doing the same thing that they did before, while calling on the commission to bring out new ideas and change the timetable and the places visited yearly.