There is so much to see about Egypt, interestingly there is so much to say as well. The Egyptian civilization is the oldest dated civilization. They have islands and temples that date back to 5000BC. Some of the sites are breath taking and some of the history, mind boggling. Egypt has managed to preserve a lot of it’s history, maximize the use of the Nile and sufficiently diversify it’s sources of income.
One thing you cannot but notice about Egypt however is how grossly similar with Nigeria Egypt is. I have traveled to a few countries, but I’m yet to see so much similarity. Egypt also is a land so blessed, but it’s people so poor. When I listened to our tour guide describe Egypt, and the resources he knows that Egypt has, my mind wanders freely back to my country. I’m not every normal vacationer in Egypt, my eyes are covered with the lens of my nations transformation. Wherever I go, one this is on my mind – what as a Nation can we learn from these other countries to better the lot of our nation Nigeria? So, today, from the Land of the Pharaohs, from the land where life after death means more than life on earth, from the land of many temples and rich history, I bring you Lessons from Egypt!
In no particular order other than my own personal bias, here are a few lessons I believe that every sojourner that travels through Egypt should learn. These lessons are important to us, not only as individuals, but even as organizations, even as a nation!
1. Life is Temporary, Eternity is Not.
Very well woven into Egyptian cultural history is this amazing reality – True Life begins when we die. I went to visit the 3 magnificent pyramids of the pharaohs, while somewhere in the dusty recess of my own mind, I had imagined a different use for these pyramids, I was shocked to discover, that these monstrous structures were nothing but tombs for just one man each. Can you imagine that? These were monstrous structures of heights reaching about 150m, each boulder in these structure weighs about 2 tons, while the base of one pyramid is in square kilometers. All that for a tomb? Well if that amazes you, then you need to see the museum of Tutankhamen – this became one of Egypt’s most popular pharaohs simply because he was the king with the most intact tomb after 3000yrs. In this tomb, they were able to recover over 5000 items, 4 shrines inside each other, 4 coffins inside each other, a facial mask, items of top quality gold, his accessories e.t.c. Why so much investment into death? It’s the philosophy of Egyptians – Once a Pharaoh is enthroned, his priority is not the house he’ll live in for his temporary existence, the first project he begins to embark on, is the building of his tomb. The afterlife is seen as most important, and so while there are not so many palaces for people to see after 2000yrs, there are tombs. Even though this philosophy is expressed in a different way from my fundamental beliefs, I like the undertones of it. You and I will live better and more fulfilled lives, if we live with the consciousness of eternity. Our leaders will lead us better, if they lead like they want to be remembered. Our nation will be better if our leaders spend the nations resources on things that will outlive and outlast them. Life becomes meaningful the day we define what we want to be remembered for in death.
2. Diversification of Resources
Egypt, like Nigeria is blessed with a number of resources, but unlike Nigeria, they are not putting all their eggs in one basket. The number one income generator for Egypt is Agriculture, this is followed by Tourism, then the Suez Canal, then oil and gas. These areas all generate significant income for Egypt. To gain a little perspective, the annual earnings from the Suez Canal placed at number 3, is about $USD 5billion! In tourism, Egypt has 8-11million visitors per annum and over 350 4-5Star Ships cruising the Nile! As we descended into Cairo Airport, the entire landscape was brown! I’ve not seen so much sand in one place, it made sense that in Nigeria, we sing “the land is green”. You really don’t know that Nigeria is green until you come to Egypt, Egypt is a desert. Interestingly however, Egypt derives it’s highest revenue from Agriculture. They have one river, the river Nile, and that river is the lifeblood of Egypt. All the settlements are around this river, this river was the basis of their early civilization, but more importantly this river is their only source for irrigation, electricity and tourism. The Egyptians have oil like their Arab neighbors, and like Nigeria, but unlike us, they are well diversified. Focus is a good tool in developing particular segments, diversification must however be the overall strategy. Egypt’s wealth is well diversified and makes it a really rich nation. The problem that Egypt has though is similar to the Nigerian problem – it’s a problem of political leadership, enlightened followership and social equity. The question to you however is, how many basket’s are you putting your eggs into? Are you putting all your eggs in one basket? Or are you diversifying? What will happen to you if one of your baskets gets rocked? Which basket are you relying to heavily on?
3. Learn and Capture History
In the last few days in which I have been in Egypt, I have seen a lot of historic places and heard lot’s of myths. People actually go to University to study Egyptology! Interestingly too, there is nowhere I have gone that I haven’t witnessed other buses bringing loads of foreigners to come and watch and learn. Is it in the temple of Isis? Was it at the Lynx? The Pyramids or the Temple of Combo? Is it the the Papyrus factory or Nubia Perfume factory? Or is it the museum in Cairo that has the capacity to keep you in for 9yrs at one minute per item? In all these places people trooped in and out. Why? Egypt has very rich documented history. Unlike many countries who had just one set of colonial leaders, Egypt has been ruled by the Pharaohs, the Greeks – Alexander the Great, by the Romans, by the Ottoman Empire, by Christians and by Muslims. One would assume that passing from hand to hand like this will make the Egyptians lose their history, but no. They have it carefully documented through the ages. Their history and their stories were built to last. The Egyptians started using Hieroglyphics to write on the walls and on the papyrus. They immortalized their Pharaohs and their great men, they immortalized their gods and their temples. They transferred their cultures and traditions from age to age. Perhaps the most interesting development in Egypt in the past was the ability to write with Hieroglyphics, they had learnt early to develop a way of ensuring that their thoughts and words were immortalized. It reminds me of one of the reasons I started this blog. I wanted to create something that will continue to live and breath after I was gone. In this same way, you as an individual need to think about immortality. You need to capture your present moments – write, take pictures, own a website. Do something to make sure that you are more than your body – stretch and express your full potentials. As an organization, you must think the same way. What is there to show about your company? What are it’s founding legacies? What are the principles you hold dear? When in the future it is asked, “what did your company look like 100yrs ago”, what should the answers be? As a nation, we must seek for our history. We must institute a course called Nigeriaology – the study of Nigeria and it’s surrounding myths. We must organize tours together to dig out our past, take the pictures and create learning opportunities from them. Someone needs to start a blog on each culture, on each language, on each community. We must be able to have virtual as well as real tours. There is so much in our history that needs to be available on the global space, so much in our culture that we need to transfer. Those who will be celebrated, those who will be sought after and visited, are those who have knowledge and wisdom emanating from ancient times. Those who do not know the mistake of the past are bound to repeat it, and to the past we have no knowledge of, we remain children. Start documenting your own personal history today!
4. Celebrate the Small things
The more see, the more I know- In the parting words of Michelangelo, “Still I am learning”. I have found out, that this life does not belong to the exceptional genius. It doesn’t belong to the man that is so high and so different from the rest. What sits a man or woman on high, is seldom talent like no other, but little things done with exceptional detail. That more often than not, people will learn not from the best, but the one that is positioned as informed. There have been times in Egypt I have been tempted to ask the questions that suggests the chorus of a song “kini big deal” – What exactly is the big deal about all these? But alas, it’s not in how big, but it’s in how much value is placed on the thing, no matter how big or small. Egypt has a dam constructed at the south of the Nile in Aswan, this dam supplies electricity to Egypt, they had to enter a treaty with other nations to be able to execute this, but thankfully the relationships are working and Egypt has power 24/7. Considering that we have River Niger and River Benue, and a number of dams that are not currently functioning, is that a big deal? Egypt has many temples that are quite old and serve as great tourist attractions. If we think about the temples of Sango, Ogun, Oya and so many scattered around different parts of Nigeria is this a big deal? We went to a local perfume shop where we were shown how they make perfumes by extracting them from flowers, and how and which perfume formed the base oil for particular popular French perfumes. If we place that side by side, with many medicinal herbs that our local herbalists have discovered in time, is that a big deal? Yes they are have become big deals, because we have refused to celebrate our small things. Let’s take that away from nations and put the search light on you. What do you have that you have taken lightly? What are you not celebrating? What great potential do you have that you are taking like it’s no big deal? What? Nothing is big or small beyond the value we place on them. I have seen Kanji Dam before, but I still took a picture of the high dam, why? Because it was made to look special 
I have been to Osogbo before to see the wizards of the forest, I have been to the temple and shrines in Ile-Ife, but I still took pictures at the Lynx and at various temples. Why? Because it was celebrated. There are so many things that are good about you, about your company and about our nation that are looking small and insignificant. We need to begin to celebrate our small stuff.
As soon as I’m able to catch a little bit of the internet again you’ll read from me. These days I don’t even know which day of the week we are on anymore, here on the sea all looks the same. I’m missing you all and it shows, but guess we can always keep in touch from here, this year is one in which I intend to tour a lot more of Africa. H&C is heading for Paris in July, and you also can be there. Salam all…Shukra!
Uhm…Guess we’ll take action soon and make things happen.
.
We have all it takes.
Do enjoy your trip – and bring home one of the pyramids
Enjoy ur trip, Oga. our leaders will soon learn to do things right but if they do not, we will change dem!
Indeed, Egypt is a great lesson for Nigeria. Thank God you went to Egypt, i have not been there before but have had reasons to research about the great Nile country. One of the greatest lessons for us to learn from Egypt is that they use there most challenging condition as a reason for there greatest achievement. Just as u found out, do you know that Egypt has one of the best irrigation system in the world that can sustain agriculture production despite it is located in the desert, but in Nigeria we are close to rain, even cassava can grow on our roads but yet the common garri is scarce. In Egypt, they run a system and the system runs the Economy even if there is bad leadership, but in Nigeria we lack a system so our Economy is stagnant. Think of their irrigation system in Egypt, it hardly rain over there but when it does, a system ( the suez canal) has been put in place such that Nile will get flooded and overflow its bank and supply enough water for agriculture and power generation for the rest of the year. Anyway, as you said, kini big deal? Uncle Aremu Sege should tell us that, we have abundant of gas reserve in bayelsa, yet the NIPP project failed after spending billions of dollars since we cant run kainji. The big deal is that every aspiring Nigerians should have confidence in their inner strength, study and discover a solution to a major problem of millions so that we can all push our country out of stagnancy. This isn when we are able to value peoples’ lives, our heritage & culture and have a clear focus of our future. Thank you & keep doing us well.
Thank you Deolu for the insights.I see a strong correlation between the rebirth of our country and our involvement through the future movement and the research, identification, documentation, and celebration of our history and culture, This as I have said before have a very strong impact on our sense of nationhood. I think we should begin to organise a subcommittee to explore these seemingly ignored part of our nationbeing.
Godspeed.
Nice information Deolu, you’ve just provoked some thoughts in me and i need to think them very well and build the thoughts into structures, hopefully it will worth the future… thanks and enjoy your vacation.
Enjoyment Minister! Sure you are catching fun! Have you visited the valley of kings? If you can, you should also see Alexandria and Sham EL Sheik. Kulu tamam!
O ga o. CM. Na you biko………Who won’t get inspiration on a trip to Egypt? LOL…..except they are following the person from the “fillage”.
Miss you lots too…
It’s amazing how our answers in Nigeria are so near and so far at the same time. If only our leaders could think of eternity or even posterity, we’ll be so far removed from where we are right now.
Anyway, It’s the reason I’ve decided to take responsibility for Ekiti State. Perhaps, one day, people from other countries of the world would come to Ekiti after it has become what it should be and learn lessons about development and history as a result of how much of a tourist attraction it has become by then.
Have fun and make no babies
mr. dee,
i can imagine you are having a really good time in egypt.
my word for everyone is to look deep within and maximize what you’ve got. and no matter how small or insignificant, CELEBRATE YOURSELF!
Reading ur post I try to take just one or two things from it per time, like I also do other things of value, I think what really jumped at me the most on this is “Nothing is big or small beyond the value we place on them.” I got work to do on that. Thanks again.
Enjoy the rest of ur stay on the Nile.
What a great piece. On a national level, our major problem in Nigeria remains poor leadership and greediness. We have leaders who constantly tour the streets of these well developed nations yet they dont get home to do same to our nation. It’s very unfortunate. I thought success can be duplicated but not with Naija. A land where her people and its gods will just not make things work. It wont be a bad idea if we can be shooting videos from these places all around our towns and tell people this is what we want to see Naija become. For me, personal archive sounds a good idea. Thanks, enjoy your stay out there.
Deolu,
Another thing I think you should help encourage – the need for Nigerians to take a break and take short holidays out of their normal schedules to destinations within Nigeria even if its to Ikogosi Warm Springs!!! We need to explore our own country for its tourism values. I know a lot of people who never visit other parts of Nigeria once they’re through with NYSC!
Mo
Good report, we actually need to buckle up, and celebrate our own. Abeg enjoy the trip ojare, i look forward to paris!
Great Lessons!
Thanks for sharing all these with us.
Shukrah to you too!
mmnn!
The sites and sounds of Egypt. Together with its inherent lessons!
Do bring a souvenir on your way back!
Thanks for sahring your experience.even though it is laced with your own biases as you said, there is still lot to learn
Just one river,can u just imagine. Can u count the number of rivers between Lagos and Benin. But sha Nigeria will work. We may not start early but we have started.
Chairman enjoy the cruise.
Interesting hope to visit Egypt sometime soon, sounds like fun.
There is a climate change in Nigeria. The cloud is gathering and becoming thick by the day. Shukra to you too Egyptian Deolu.
Chairman, i cannot but fail to notice that their is 24/7 electricity in Egypt in Africa. Please bring home the person in charge of their electricity make he come headp phcn.
Enjoy your much deserved vacation….
Interestingly my scriptural meditation in the last few days has been from the book of Exodus. This may be off point: Could you imagine how Pharaoh endured the 10 plagues? !!!
I have written a comment earlier but wondering why it is not here…
CM, I must confess..It baffles me..Don’t the so called leaders of today see or learn. I’m sure, they must have visited countries where they can learn a great deal from..but why?
It’s time for us to get the exposure and the experience needed to birth a change in Nigeria. Of a truth, Egypt and Nigeria are similar but they are older…We can learn from them a great deal…We seriously need a new Nigeria..A new order of things must begin in Nigeria..
One more thing i need to add is that, Egypt is the largest user of the internet in Africa followed by Nigeria. You can check here http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats1.htm to confirm
God Bless Naija my country
Great and Lofty heights we shall attain
I think the best thing to do in life is to write our obituary even while we are still alive, because whether we like or not we are all going to die one day.When I die, what will I be remembered for? Get a piece of paper and script what you will exactly like to be written on your obituary.
Mr XYZ, born on so and so date, did this and that and …later died. When we begin to know our end from where we are now it help us to achieve purpose and also help in taking steps to achieving it.
Deolu, once again thanks for this insightful one. I wish you more and more revelations on this trip.
Eagerly waiting for you…
Great one. we need to focus on the life after.
cairo is a nice place, the finest n most civilized in africa with most modern facilities avaliable in the EU present. The advent of technology in the world, the pyramids were used for perserving humans for decades without decaying coupled with Nile the source of their economic boom, They also believe every letter of your name has a great deal to influence your day to day activity while on earth. The truth is that Nigeria is far richer than Egypt, we start lots of project we never concluded. We are leaders in coruption, incontinuity and improper management. TINAPA is a real sad story, NDDC, Argiculture is a even a disaster now in Nigeria, we could have being one of the biggest nations now with the emergence of global famine crisis if the nation was grown by right hands time after time.
We no be mate with EGYPT for now, they have developed all sectors including sports thats why they have being able to attain a sustainable economic stability.
Deolu, Big Props to your continous efforts, oneday u gonna hit da lamelight
its always so lovely to hear from you baba D! I am really inspired by the part of your post titled ‘celebrate the small things’ and IM GONNA DO JUST THAT FROM HENCE. missing you much. not in H&C. just IFA. I’ll do my best on NNC@HighSchool in ILORIN. keep the spirit of positive change and lasting impact strong. you are a big role model for me and im glad to be part of the Future Movement.
Hmm…Thats all i can actually say. Tears flowed from my eyes as i read this article and i cant help but to say you are a genius. The observations and articulation plus including the organization of this write up makes me cry.
I salute you Deolu and i appreciate the fact that you went to Egypt, i can imagine my eyes seeing Egypt through your own eyes.
Yes oooo!!!! Abeg make u no fail to carry the director of their electric service to Naija o according to Yemi, Tell am say we go pay am dollars..LOL I believe there is somebody in Nigeria who is very capable of handling our electric service. Deolu, please let your fingers receive strength and write about some of these areas Nigeria lacks and probably seek for some viable solutions or even profer them. I truelly miss home.
Egypt! one of the few countries that truly has a lot of history attached to it. to think that this is the same place the bible talked about…. wow!!!! baba dee enjoy!!!!
Deolu, i have to come in again to make another comment. Interestingly, everybody here has spoken well but thats just the problem with us in Nigeria…we have great ideas cos we are good thinkers, we know the right words for a change but we lack the drive to initiate a change. In other words we know the solution to our problems, rather we would paint a signage of it so good than creating a lasting solution to it.
Come to think of this, if God did not give Joseph a dream that landed him in Egypt, wld all the wonders & history of Egypt be preserved till date. I think we all need to look inward to dream dreams that can go beyond our present time to preserve our future. And for you Mr Deolu (ajala), are you sure God is not locating you strategically to be the ‘Joseph’ of Nigeria.Cheers!
In the words of Michael Jackson, “if you want achange in the world, first change the man in the mirror”.
If indeed we all are touched by the revelations of Deolu, may I ask “In what way are you making Nigeria better?”. Do not be too quick to answer this question and please answer it honestly.
be the change you want to see in the world. Some people complained sometime ago and paid less attention to building themselves and preparing for their own time. Now they are there doing worse than their predecessors, go get back to work on your own self and see it manifest in our beloved nation… – Nigeria
My brother, what an experience! A lot to learn from Eqypt, so why are we called the giant of Africa..?
hi,quite an age!it is interesting and glorious meeting on a platform like this after a long time.am glad of your resolution to be a positive addition in our country.This is food for thought,i am glad to inform you that i am no longer the same again.i know you have a whole lot more to discover,so have fun but let it produce things that would out live you.Cheers,is your wife with you?greetings to the family
@ Tunbi..all this download is with Madam.o!..DREAMING TOGETHER as man and wife produces the fastest reality of the dream!..so i know everything here will be a blue print of things to come..indeed the vision that has been written down shall speak and not lie! I celebrate you and yours for going ahead to see and download..we are coming!..thanks for sharing!
I wish Nigeria had more selfless leaders who would take Nigeria to its full potential.
Now i wish like going to Egypt.
Great lessons I have personally learnt from your tour to Egypt.God bless YOU!
What an impressive analysis? It has really educated me. Well done. Is there a way you could get the narration done by a Nigerian for authenticity?
Together, we can move Nigeria to a greater height,
Deolu Akinyemi, thanks for that great info. hope you enjoy your trip all the way from Egypt?.