By Celestine Toruka
Rev. Tor Uja assumed office as Executive Secretary, Nigeria Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC) at a very critical time of a challenging economic environment in the country. He was appointed on May 23, 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari. Since then, NCPC has witnessed a new impetus and drive that has never been experienced in the agency. His wealth of experience, professionalism and intellectualism has impacted positively on the corporate image and international acceptability of the commission. Th ere is no doubt that he has been innovative and pragmatic in executing the mandate of NCPC. A trained journalist and prolifi c writer, Uja is also a missionary and an astute administrator.
He has been involved in missionary work for over three decades and has been the Director of ission House International, Makurdi. He held sway for 10 years as chairman, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) Benue chapter. Uja also served as Benue state commissioner for trade and commerce and information.
Th e quintessential Nigerian executive secretary of the only faith-based Christian organization linked to the Federal Government, the impact of his stewardship is being felt by staff and stakeholders after one year in offi ce. Indeed, it has been a celebration of eventful leadership because a lot of water has passed under the bridge with avalanche of activities, purposeful leadership and determination to make Christian pilgrimage a rewarding experience and refocus it for greater acceptability by Christians. One fact one cannot take away from Uja is his passion for nationalism. In all his national and international engagements, Uja has not failed to preach this sermon.
He believes that those doing business with the commission must accord respect and dignity to Nigeria while Nigerians must be patriotic enough to love their country in all circumstances. No sooner he assumed the leadership of NCPC than this man of God realized the need to hand over the aff airs of the commission to our Lord Jesus Christ, thus a well organized and solemn service was held. NCPC from that day was dedicated to our Lord Jesus Christ. Th e event, which attracted high profi le clerics within an outside Abuja, was well attended and unprecedented. Th is was his fi rst major settling down for brass task- what a wisdom to start with God.
Uja did not waste time to meet with his constituency on how to promote and move Christian pilgrimage forward. He has always affi rmed that the church should own pilgrimage. He visited and received quite a number of church leaders who have never been to the commission before. Th ey include founder and leader of Deeper life International Ministry, Pastor F.W. Kumuyi, who led a high powered delegation to NCPC corporate headquarters. In order to achieve result and for eff ective and greater effi ciency, the executive secretary decided to rejig the operational and administrative structures of the commission by deploying top management staff to hold sensitive positions. He changed the nomenclature of the hitherto sensitization department to mobilization department and created a new department of special duties headed by a director. He also eff ected changes at the administration department where a director was brought in from the Offi ce of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation to lead the department. Th e commission under the able leadership of Rev. Tor Uja for the fi rst time successfully held the fl ag off of the main pilgrimage outside Abuja. Th e fl ag off which took place in Yola International Airport was quite successful. Uja in his wisdom and in conjunction with the board considered it operationally benefi cial to create eight brand new special zones called Metropolitan zones across the country in order to make the impact of Christian pilgrimage felt at the Metropolitan areas. Th e Metropolitan zones are located in Awka, Sokoto, Lagos, Asaba, Port Harcourt, Kano, Gombe and Abuja. Th e executive secretary also relocated the South-south zonal offi ce from Yenagoa to Uyo and South-west zonal offi ce from Lagos to Ibadan. Th e executive secretary with his management team considered the need to rebrand the corporate image of the commission and has fashioned out a corporate ideal for the commission which includes; the Commission’s creed, Ethic, Grundnorm, Core Values, Expected outcome, pilgrimage goals and pilgrimage focus. For the first time in the history of the commission, Uja’s administration was able to allow the participation of an indigenous airline, Airfi rst Nigeria Ltd, to fl y pilgrims during the 2016 main pilgrimage exercise to Israel. Kudos to this administration as we expect more indigenous participation by Nigeria airlines. Uja actually commended his predecessor, Mr. John Kennedy Opara, for coming up with the idea of Win a Trip to Israel. He, however, opined that for the programme to gain wide acceptability there was need to restructure it. Th us, he changed the nomenclature from Win a Trip to Israel to Support a Pilgrim to Israel (SAPTI). He also envisaged a situation whereby church would be given the opportunity to select those they want to benefi t from the raffl e draw using their own internal mechanism. Th e NCPC boss has always stressed on the spiritual content of Christian pilgrimage. Th is, no doubt, was what informed the introduction of a special day of prayer on Mount Zion for all pilgrims in Israel during pilgrimage. The commission has held quite a number of the prayer convocations from last year to this year which have been rewarding and spiritually enriching. Uja considers abscondment of pilgrims during pilgrimage as a national embarrassment and bad image for the country.
Th us, he reconstituted a new Security Committee headed by a retired Maj. Gen. in the Army to fi nd a lasting solution to abscondment and other security threats pilgrims are exposed to. Uja led his management team to the headquarters of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) few months ago. During the visit he canvassed for stronger partnership with the sister faith agency and to begin a process to hold a national dialogue for peace between Christians and Moslems in Nigeria. Th e visit has snowballed into a deeper relationship between the two agencies. Th is is novel and unprecedented.
Th e executive secretary recently introduced the 2017 pilgrimage bouquet to enable intending pilgrims choose and plan for their pilgrimage programmes early enough. Th e bouquet are Easter pilgrimage – May, youth pilgrimage- July/August, women pilgrimage July, farmers pilgrimage August, leaders pilgrimage September/October, general pilgrimage- October-December and family pilgrimage at Christmas in December. Indeed, the over one year of Tor Uja’s leadership at NCPC has actually been eventful, but the best is yet to come as the glory of this latter house, shall be greater than the former – Haggai 2:9. Toruka wrote from Abuja
