By:
David Simon Dzalla

In September, 2021, I was privileged to be nominated among 165 Adamawa State indigenes, who would travel to Rome on pilgrimage. I was excited that as a Catholic, I was having the opportunity to once again go on pilgrimage to Rome knowing the serene ambience of the place and the value of the spiritual activities that take place there.

Unfortunately this dream was not really achieved as many hurdles rared their ugly heads. The first was the problem of Visa. The journey that was meant for 2021 had to me shifted to 2022. In 2022, after a disgusting power tussle between the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission and the Adamawa State Pilgrims Welfare Board, the mandate to lead pilgrims on the trip was handed to the Nigerian Christians Pilgrims Commission (NCPC).

We were forced first to travel all the way to Abuja for visas, we didn't even have to visit the Italian Embassy for the visas but to visit a TLS agent to submit papers for visas, which was not an easy task. I remember vividly as National President of Catholic Youth Organisation of Nigeria, the late former Secretary General of Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN), Very Rev Fr Raph Madu walking up to me one morning and telling me that as National President, I would be representing the Nigerian Catholic Youth at a function in Rome. He instantly directed that I take my international passport to the Italian Embassy for a visa. Two days later, I was called at the embassy to pick up my visa and be prepared to travel without any hastle.

I was thinking I would be having the same experience with the Adamawa State sponsored pilgrimage to Rome. This time around, the reverse was the case. It was so bad that even first class traditional rulers in the state, who are over 60 years old went through the same process yet we're denied visas because of the lack of coordination of the process by the NCPC under the watch of Rev Yakubu Pam.

Having passed through all the visa hastles, few of us were lucky to get visas to travel. Of the 165 persons, who applied for visas, only 132 eventually got visas to travel.

Then came the trip proper, we were made to travel to Abuja, where the group was splited into two batches. The first batch traveled with Qatar Airlines, while second batch traveled with the Ethiopian Airways. I was lucky that I traveled with the Ethiopian Airways. We arrived Rome as early as 6.00am and were moved from the airport to a hotel. On getting to the airport, our first sorrowful mystery was that the reserved accomodation could not go round, so our minds were prepared that we had to share rooms and the number of persons per room, we didn't know.

After two hours of struggling to secure accommodation without success, we requested for breakfast and were shocked when we were told that there was no reservation for breakfast for the day, we had to fend for ourselves. Luckily, we had some top clergies and government officials in our midst, who volunteered to pay as high as ten Euro (€10) for just a piece of sausage roll and a cup of tea, bearing in mind that Euro exchanged for N870 at the time, we only succeeded in having a piece of sausage roll and a cup of tea for N8700.

While trying to settle down after the unfortunate incidences of the morning and thinking of the next line of action, the almighty Rev Yakubu Pam walked into the hotel with over twenty-five members of his staff and aids, who were coming to be part of the pilgrimage at the instance of the Adamawa State government. On arrival, he ordered that we all come down from our rooms for a briefing.

After the briefing, he announced that he was staying somewhere in another hotel with few of his staff but that some others would have to stay with us in our hotel with us as the ones supervising us in the hotel. He also informed us that he had hired some special ground handlers from Israel to handle the pilgrimage for us. On hearing that, my mind reflected on the glorious days of the NCPC under Dr John Kennedy Opara, where we had good ground handlers from Israel whenever one went on pilgrimage. Unfortunately, the case was not the same.

Following the briefing, I could recall Rev Pam asking the Director of Finance of the NCPC to call the Director of Finance of the Adamawa State Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board to hand over some money to him. I witnessed the Director of Finance of the Adamawa State Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board hand over the sum of thirty-four thousand, five hundred Euro (€34,500) to the Director of Finance, Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission, which they said was for logistics and other expenses. I was glad when the Director of Finance, Adamawa State Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board insisted on getting an evidence that such amount of money had been paid to the NCPC since the Commission hadn't a receipt to issue.

Few hours later, the second batch of pilgrims on board Qatar Airways arrived and were brought to the same hotel. The woes became more complicated as we were already being paired in the rooms. With the arrival of this batch, rooms had to take between four and five persons. A serving commissioner and a head of a tertiary institution in the state had to sleep for six days on the floor because they were five in their room but the bed was meant for only two but they could manage to squeeze three on the bed while two slept on the floor. I personally had spent all my six days on the floor. I did that alongside the Director of Operations of the Adamawa State Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board.

Besides not having good accommodation, good food is another challenge for us. e hadn't good food to eat. But to the glory of God, before NCPC took the arrangement, there was an arrangement for local food through one Rev Fr Matthew Dusami, a priest of Yola Diocese studying in Rome, who arranged for an Igbo lady to be supplying us some Nigerian meals. Because the meals were nice and rich, one of the female pilgrims decided to to preserve some for two days and eating eating without even warming it. Imagine preserving pounded yam and soup for two days and be eating it cold.

My expectations of going to Rome to pray with a lot of prayer intentions for my family, friends, state and country was a bit shattered. The only consolation we had was the intervention of a Catholic bishop, who made a perfect arrangements for a Papal audience for us. We had one of the best Papal audiences. That alone consoled us.

Little wonder I felt for the Abuja Pilgrims, who went after us. I knew it was going to be another disaster. Truly pilgrims of Abuja were unanimous that it was a disaster. Even the Chairman of the Board of the Nigerian Christians Pilgrims Commission, said the board has to suspend pilgrimage activities till further notice due to the shabby way the Rev Yakubu Pam led Commission organises pilgrimages. I really wonder why such a man would still be allowed to stay in office by the government of the day. Maybe it is because he is being used to divide the Christians over the All Progressives Congress Muslim-Muslim ticket. He is currently going round to admonish Christians not to vote according to their consciences but to vote the APC ticket. Outside that, the man isn't fit to be in that office.

This is my bitter experience in Rome with the Rev Yakubu Pam led NCPC.